The effects of task settings on the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs

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6.5 The effects of task settings on the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs

The use of the term task setting or context was in a sense influenced by the same term used by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy Tschannen-Moran Hoy, 2007. The task contexts investigated in this study consisted of the schools and the districts where the teachers were teaching. The inclusion of the two contexts was driven by the expectation that they constituted differences in terms of resources or supports, and the work atmosphere. In terms of the school as contextual independent variable, the findings of the present study showed a significant contribution of school type on the differences in the level of teachers‘ efficacy beliefs. This indicated that there were significant differences between the level of efficacy beliefs of teachers teaching in public schools and that of teachers teaching in private schools. Teachers in public schools rated themselves higher than those in private school see Figure 6.5. Differences in the level of efficacy between public and private schools could be explained in terms of the available resources and supports for teachers. In most cases, teachers in public schools have more resources available for them. Public school teachers in the Indonesian context normally have better access to a wide range of professional development programs initiated by the government. The findings of the present research corroborated previous research suggesting the possible contribution of available resources found in a number of research. For 216 example Tschannen-Moran and Hoy stated that the availability of resources made a significant contribution to differences in efficacy, especially for novice teachers Tschannen-Moran Hoy, 2007. Figure 6.5 Public and private school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs The second task context variable was related to the district or municipality where the teachers were teaching. The inclusion of this context variable was based on the consideration that districts very often had differences in terms of policy toward teachers and teaching profession. Furthermore, different districts do offer different challenges and consequences for teachers. For example, teachers who taught in the district in the city centre or close to city centre had different challenges as well as opportunities from those who taught in rural areas. 217 Though there was an expectation that differences in districts were related to differences in the level of teacher efficacy of the participants, the data revealed a different finding. There was no significant contribution of district toward the variation in the level of teachers‘ self-efficacy beliefs in the present study. This indicated that differences in the policies of different districts in relation to teachers and teaching profession were not related to the differences in the efficacy of the teachers in the sample.

6.6 The interaction effects