Measuring Teacher Self-Efficacy in the Moral Work of Teaching

The Self-Efficacy in the Moral Work of Teaching Scale (SMWTS) is designed to measure the self-efficacy of teachers in relation to the moral work of teaching. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to examine the factor structure of the SMWTS in a sample of preservice teachers (n = 152) attending a teacher education program in the Western United States. The results of this initial study demonstrate that a bifactor ESEM (B-ESEM) model better accounted for the constructrelevant multidimensionality than alternative models and that the SMWTS can be used to produce scores with good reliability and factor analytic evidence of validity within a sample of preservice teachers.