Teachers may be the sole adult in the classroom, but it takes a collective group of dedicated educators in a school to empower, educate, motivate, and nurture students each day. Teachers working alongside one another, sharing best practices, and who agree on the goals of the school’s mission and vision will generate successful learning outcomes for the students.
John Hattie, one of the world’s best-known education expert’s states, “When you fundamentally believe you can make the difference, and then you feed it with evidence you are – then that is dramatically powerful.”
What is Collective Efficacy?
Psychologist Albert Bandura defines collective efficacy as, “A group’s shared belief in the conjoint capabilities to organize the execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment” (Bandura, 1977, p. 447).
Dr. Bandura explained that when teachers work to develop a strong sense of collective efficacy the school community can achieve academic success from students. Collective efficacy relies on educators sharing strengths with one another and believing that together the students will achieve academic success. When teachers feel secure and confident with peer teachers within a school there is a better student achievement opportunity.
The Importance of Collective Efficacy
Collective efficacy can transform the school’s culture and the teachers’ cultural beliefs. When most teachers in a school support a shared language and belief system that expresses attainable but challenging expectations for students, it transforms the school’s culture. It allows students to create personal expectations that drive students toward success, among other positive behaviors that may affect social situations between students and overall classroom dynamics.
Teachers of all grade levels or departments can create individualized efficacy, but each unit in a school must coexist with other units, such as a team of third-grade teachers and a team of fourth-grade teachers or the high school science and math departments. These units can determine unique benchmarks or levels of achievement that are proprietary for only that grade or subject, but the teachers should share the same techniques to educate and inspire the students to reach the goals within the same school environment.
The teacher’s involvement with collective efficacy in a school embodies a team approach and builds a foundation with familiar aspects for students to grow with each school year. Teachers must also listen to students about specific academic work or behavior challenges. The team of teachers should discuss student challenges and social interactions needing assistance to best determine any additional methods to add to the school’s collective efficacy protocol.
How to Measure Collective Efficacy
Teachers and administrators can gather student work samples, test scores, and daily assignments to measure students’ progress and conclude if collective efficacy has a positive effect on student achievement.
Another measure is through observing any link between the teachers’ actions and student outcomes. Measuring if collective efficacy increases student achievement is challenging to uncover, but when witnessing a school environment that thrives together by sharing the same end goal and fosters common language to encourage student growth, any researcher can deduct that the school’s culture based on the collaboration commonalities of the teachers’ beliefs are playing a major role in the overall achievement scores of the students.
“Perhaps the educational system needs to re-envision teaching effectiveness, with a focus on encouraging and sustaining beliefs that educators and schools can make a difference, rather than simply asking for high test scores,” Dr. Rachel Jean Eells says in her 2011 dissertation.
Tips for Fostering Collective Efficacy
Collective efficacy involves teachers feeling in the same step with other teachers, administrators, support staff, and students in the same building. The team of teachers must also agree upon the common language to use with students, the common goals of student behavior, and the method to measure possible data points to highlight student achievement.
Each year, teachers should reflect on the previous year’s implementation and effectiveness of collective efficacy and look for areas to improve. Teachers must always be reminded of changes in student makeup each school year and focus on strategies and consistency that will create a difference in the current student population.
Five simple tips for any school to begin creating collective efficacy would include:
- Start with a Quick Win: Introduce collective efficacy easily and without burdensome steps that overwhelm a teacher.
- Build Trust: Share ideas among teachers that express respect and admiration for one another.
- Set Goals: Discuss desired student outcomes and problem-solving skills together using simple methods to achieve the goals.
- Share Knowledge: Invite teachers to co-teach alongside one another, job swap a lesson or two, or observe a lesson where new ideas are presented.
- Communicate: All successful ideas come from effective and consistent communication. Teachers, administrators, or other teacher leaders should check in with one another regularly to discuss the progress of collective efficacy in the school.
These tips are excellent for starting and building on an impactful movement of collective efficacy in a school building.
Collective efficacy can be an unseen force behind students’ academic and behavioral achievements when teachers are on board with a culture that embraces the importance and value of teamwork.
Educators never stop learning; check out our available graduate degree programs to hone your skills and promote lifelong learning and academic excellence.
