STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING TEACHERS BELIEFS IN THEIR EFFECTIVENESS - RESEARCH ON A SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT HYPOTHESIS

Teachers' beliefs in their effectiveness consistently predict desired student outcomes. This article argues that the achievement impact of T eacher Efficacy (TE) arises from goal-setting and attributional proces ses. Teachers who anticipate that they will be successful set more cha llenging goals for themselves and their students accept responsibility for the outcomes of instruction, and persist through obstacles. These findings suggest that student achievement of cognitive and affective goals can be enhanced by strengthening TE. The hypothesis that school improvement will flow from enhanced TE has been tested in a variety of skill-development projects with mixed results. It is proposed that sk ill-development approaches be augmented by attending to teacher belief s (particularly about the mutability of intelligence) and to condition s of teacher work.