teachermoralefficacy-universityofnotredame.docVIP

Measuring Teacher Self-Efficacy for Moral Education Darcia Narvaez, Vladimir Khmelkov*, Jenny L. Vaydich, Julianne C. Turner University of Notre Dame In press, Journal for Research in Character Education First Author Contact Information: Darcia Narvaez, Center for Ethical Education and Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN 46556; dnarvaez@nd.edu; Author note: Dr. Khmelkov is now at the Institute for Excellence Ethics in Fayetteville, New York. Abstract Although instructional self-efficacy has proved to be one of the most powerful teaching beliefs that influence teacher classroom behavior and student outcomes, little is known about teacher self-efficacy for moral education. Self-efficacy for moral education refers to teachers’ beliefs that their efforts can bring about improvements in student moral character and behavior. Like instructional self-efficacy, self-efficacy for moral education should also be related to teacher classroom behavior and favorable student outcomes, at least those related to moral development. We constructed a new measure, the Teacher Efficacy for Moral Education measure (TEME) following standard scale developmental procedures. Seventeen items were generated and subjected to factor analysis resulting in a 13-item scale. The items were administered to 76 middle school teachers. TEME demonstrated good validity, correlating with higher scores on attitudes typically held by more successful teachers—efficacy for helping students learn, and efficacy for promoting positive relationships—as well as a related character education efficacy measure. TEME was also correlated with teacher perceptions of school climate. TEME may be a useful measure for use in evaluating the effects of preservice and inservice programs that emphasize fostering moral character in students. Keywords: moral development, self-efficacy, instruction, teacher education The notion of self-efficacy has been applied to many domains, including tea