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Proximate sources of collective teacher efficacy
The prolific research on the construct of efficacy underscores its importance. In their extensive review of the teacher efficacy literature, [42] Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (1998) document the positive relationship between teacher efficacy and a number of important variables, including academic achievement (see, [31] Moore and Esselman, 1992; [34] Ross, 1992), teaching effort and behaviors (see, [3] Allinder, 1994; [14] Gibson and Dembo, 1984), and attitudes towards teaching (see, [15] Gilckman and Tamashiro, 1982; [5] Ashton, 1985; [22] Greenwood et al. , 1990). [9], [10] Bandura (1993, 1997) was the first to broaden the study of efficacy to include collective beliefs of individuals nested within organizations. Efficacy scholarship in education has pursued a similar line of inquiry by treating, not only individual teachers, but also schools, as the unit of analysis ([16] Goddard et al. , 2000; [18] Goddard, 2001; [17] Goddard and Goddard, 2001; [20] Goddard et al. , 2003; [27] Hoy et al. , 2003; [36] Ross et al. , 2003). At the organizational level, perceived collective efficacy reflects a teaching faculty's belief in its collective ability to carry out teaching tasks that promote student achievement. Evidence suggests that collective efficacy beliefs within a school organization can lead to greater levels of student and school achievement ([16] Goddard et al. , 2000; [18] Goddard, 2001; [20] Goddard et al. , 2003; [27] Hoy et al. , 2003; [36] Ross et al. , 2003). Despite the emergence of collective efficacy as an essential belief with consequences for school effectiveness, researchers have only begun to identify school variables that operate as sources of its formation.
Collective and individual perceptions of efficacy share many theoretical assumptions ([10] Bandura, 1997). As [9], [10] Bandura (1993, 1997) notes, these beliefs, whether individual or group referent perceptions, are formed through four types of information that evolve out of past experiences. The resultant information is then processed cognitively. It is within the cognitive process, or introspective reflection, that beliefs about future performance form. Such beliefs are also subject to the circumstantial effects of environmental and contextual factors. For this reason, [16] Goddard et al. (2000) used earlier work (see, [42] Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, 1998) to broaden the conceptualization of collective efficacy beliefs...