The critical role of sources of efficacy information in a mandatory teacher professional development program : Implementation in a less privileged region of Indonesia

Abstract

The influence of teacher professional development (PD) programs on teacher self-efficacy (TSE) beliefs remains a continuing concern due to a wide range of evidence that shows minimum impact on teacher practices. This concern is more evident in mandatory PD implemented in less privileged contexts, where teachers are not personally motivated, but are mandated to engage government-initiated PD programs. Negative associations between mandatory PD and TSE beliefs are documented, which implicit evidence suggest the lack of explicit incorporation of mediating factors.

This study addresses theoretical and methodological issues through contextualising existing instruments and establishing the relationship between teacher perceptions of mandatory PD and TSE beliefs with the mediating effect of sources of efficacy information. The significant difference among those variables based on teacher demographics was also investigated. The survey incorporated three instruments administered to 356 teachers in Bima, Indonesia. Four quantitative analyses were used to study the adaptation of the instruments, association among teacher perception of mandatory PD, TSE beliefs, and sources of efficacy information, and significant differences based on teachers’ demography.

Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the globally-used instruments can be adapted to the context of a less privileged region. The scales exhibited measurement invariance, which the three instruments retained their original factors but with item deletions that did not load significantly to their corresponding factor. The structural equation modelling revealed that teacher perceptions of mandatory PD did not affect TSE beliefs. However, a positive indirect effect between teacher perception of mandatory PD and TSE beliefs was found with sources of efficacy information as a mediating variable. The t-test result showed that teacher perception of mandatory PD was different between genders. The ANOVA results showed that significant differences in TSE beliefs were only found among teachers of different ages, years of teaching experience, employment and certification status.

Findings of this study provide significant evidence for the conceptualisation of teacher perception of mandatory PD, sources of efficacy information, and TSE beliefs in the context of a less privileged region. More importantly, it highlights the critical role of sources of efficacy information in the association between mandatory PD and TSE beliefs. These findings have significant implications for the application of mandatory PD in Indonesia that were considered ineffective.