From general to student-specific teacher self-efficacy

Diversity in elementary classrooms nowadays seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Since the inception of inclusive and appropriate education in the Netherlands, the number of students with behavioral, learning, and other educational disabilities in regular elementary classes has increased slowly but surely. Although some teachers handle this new reality with notable ease, many others do not seem to feel up to the task of dealing with a diverse student population and providing all students with equal learning opportunities. Thereby, these teachers not only run the risk of physical stress, but may also hamper their students’ academic adjustment.
One factor that may explain why teachers are more or less successful in dealing with classroom diversity, is teachers’ sense of self-efficacy (TSE). Over the past 40 years, these capability beliefs have been explored in multiple ways, such that currently much information is available on teachers’ general ability to give shape to their actions and motivate and regulate their execution. Yet, the absence of a clear understanding of the nature, sources, and consequences of TSE, and psychometrically sound instruments that adequately measure the construct seem to have hampered our efforts to identify useful insights about TSE that help teachers better deal with individual students who may differ in behavior, needs, and abilities. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to take stock of the current state of research on TSE, and address the challenges the field is currently facing by gradually taking teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs to the student-specific level.