Relationships between teacher collaboration and teachers' self-efficacy beliefs

Abstract

This paper reports the main results of an investigation that aimed to study the influence of teacher self-efficacy on collaboration between teachers. The study involved 82 teachers from schools in the 2nd and 3rd cycles from the Portuguese mainland. The instrument consists of three scales. The first aims to identify the collaboration practices, the second measures the receptivity to collaboration, and the third and last scale assesses teacher self-efficacy. The main results suggest that teachers who perceive themselves as more efficientare more willing to cooperate, as it was found a correlation between higherlevels of teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ receptivity to collaborate. Along with the receptivity to collaboration, an association was detected between teacher’s self-efficacy and their involvement in collaborative practices. This leads to the conclusion that the higher the self-assessment of their teaching effectiveness, the higher their involvement with collaborative practices.