Change in teacher efficacy and student self- and task-related beliefs in mathematics during the transition to junior high school.

In a longitudinal study of 1,329 students and the teachers they had for mathematics before and after the transition to junior high school, the relation between students' beliefs in mathematics and their teachers' sense of efficacy is examined. Using repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, we found that the rate of change within the school year in students' expectancies, perceived performance, and perceived task difficulty in math differed at Years I and 2, depending on teacher efficacy before and after the transition. Students who moved from high- to lowefficacy math teachers during the transition ended the junior high year with the lowest expectancies and perceived performance (even lower than students who had low efficacy teachers both years) and the highest perceptions of task difficulty. The differences in pre- and posttransition teachers' views of their efficacy had a stronger relationship to low-achieving than to highachieving students' beliefs in mathematics.