Towards Sustaining Levels of Reflective Learning: How Do Transformational Leadership, Task Interdependence, and Self-Efficacy Shape Teacher Learning in Schools?

Abstract

Abstract:Whereas cross-sectional research has shown that transformational leadership, task interdependence, and self-efficacy are positively related to teachers' engagement in reflective learning activities, the causal direction of these relations needs further inquiry. At the same time, individual teacher learning might play a mutual role in strengthening school-level capacity for sustained improvement. Building on previous research, this longitudinal study therefore examines how transformational leadership, task interdependence, self-efficacy, and teachers' engagement in self-reflection mutually affect each other over time. Questionnaire data gathered on three measurement occasions from 655 Dutch Vocational Education and Training teachers was analyzed using a multivariate Latent Difference Score model. Results indicate that self-reflection and task interdependence reciprocally influence each other's change. A considerate and stimulating transformational leader was found to contribute to this process. Change in self-efficacy was influenced by self-reflection, indicating that learning leads to competency beliefs. Together, the findings point to the important role transformational leadership practices play in facilitating teamwork, and sustaining teachers' levels of learning in schools. OPEN ACCESSSocieties 2015, 5 188

Normative Characteristics of Perceived Self-Efficacy

“…Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) meta-analysis, which focuses on professional performances, shows the existence of a direct link between SEP and performance. Bandura and Locke (2003) also report nine meta-analyses that indicate that SEP influences, directly or indirectly, the motivation and performance at work (see also Bandura 1997Bandura , 2004Ivancevich et al 2011;Luthans et al 2007;Sadri and Robertson 1993;Oude Groote Beverborg et al 2015). Bandura (1982a) also states that SEP influences the motivation and performance of an employee in three manners: by determining the level of objectives that the individual sets for himself (a high SEP leads to high objectives), by characterizing the intensity of the efforts deployed (high SEP due to the fact that the individual is confident of his success possibility) and by relying on perseverance.…”

Getting Better All the Time? An Illustrative Investigation of Multilevel Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Based on School Climate Surveys

“…Other methods for exploring change may yield additional insights, particularly if data are available for more than two years. These include latent difference score modeling (McArdle & Hamagami, 2001;Oude Groote Beverborg, Sleegers, Endedijk, & van Veen, 2015) and latent growth curve modeling (e.g., McArdle & Epstein, 1987). Such models would allow for the investigation of several aspects of a school's change in climate over time, including the average change across all schools, the variability in the amount of change across schools, and the extent to which change is associated with the initial school status.…”

Pre-service teachers’ academic judgments of overweight students

“…Expectation-consistent person information is suggested to result in stereotype-based processing and judgments that are biased through activated expectations, while expectation-inconsistent information should result in information-integrating processing and more accurate judgments. Research has already demonstrated that teachers as well as pre-service teachers rely on stereotypical expectations when it comes to the academic judgment of negatively stereotyped students such as racial or ethnic minority students McCombs and Gay 1988;Parks and Kennedy 2007). This research implies that academic achievement judgments are not biased through race or ethnicity per se, but rather that students who confirm negative stereotypical expectations were judged according to the stereotype while students who did not behave stereotypically did not experience disadvantages because of their race or ethnicity Neal et al 2003).…”

“…This implies that teacher education programs should focus on judgment formation processes: initiating self-reflective processes among pre-service teachers, for example by providing them with knowledge about biases in social judgment formation and how they could prevent them, might ensure the fair treatment of all students. Engagement in reflection has been found to have a positive influence on self-efficacy beliefs (Oude Groote Beverborg et al 2015). In this case, self-reflection might boost teachers' expectation to be efficacious in judging students fairly on merits and not on appearance.…”

“…Because teachers and pre-service teachers tend to judge male students less favourably than female students (Maniadaki et al 2003;Parks and Kennedy 2007), we suggested that stereotypical expectations were more pronounced for male students and thus, did not provide information about female students. Furthermore, recent research shows that gender differences, at least in minority groups, are more complex and depend on school level and the teacher's gender (see Glock and Klapproth 2017).…”