The Relationships Among School Types, Teacher Efficacy Beliefs, and Academic Climate: Perspective from Asian Middle Schools

The authors explored how prior student achievement, through school types, predicted teacher self- and collective efficacy and perceived academic climate of 222 middle school teachers in Singapore. Teachers assigned to high-track and regular middle schools differed in their perception of self- and collective efficacy to promote organizational changes and student achievement, and of the academic climate of the school. Prior achievement was shown to be best predicted by perceived teacher collective efficacy and academic climate, but not self-efficacy. Further analyses revealed that the teacher collective efficacy partially mediated the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and academic climate. These findings were discussed with respect to the sociocognitive perspective.