Teachers' Self-efficacy for Writing

Introduction: While "teaching self-efficacy" has been supported as an important construct related to teacher competence (eg. Goddard, Hoy & Hoy, 2000), little is known about how inservice teachers think about themselves as writers, or writing self-efficacy, particularly as it relates to writing performance. The present study is a preliminary examination of the relationship between teachers' writing self - efficacy and writing performance. Method: The Low Self-Efficacy scale (Lavelle & Guarino, 2003), which measures adults' beliefs regarding writing competence, was administered to 64 teachers, currently enrolled in a graduate course where writing an academic research paper was part of the regular course requirement, thus scale scores as well as writing outcomes served as research variables. Two raters were trained to evaluate the writing sample according to two measures: a wholistic rubric designed to reflect general writing competence and a deep and surface rubric which measured writing structure, audience and personal involvement. Results: Data analysis involved examination of the correlation between writing quality as measured by the wholistic rubric and low self-efficacy scale scores, and consideration of differences between deep and surface writing outcomes using writing scale scores as a dependent variable. Results support the relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing performance as measured by both rubrics. Discussion and Conclusion: Conclusions support the hypothesis regarding the relationship of writing skill and self efficacy as linked to each of the two rubrics. Implications for further research are discussed.