Teaching Effectiveness and Character Strengths of Secondary School Teachers: Mediating Role of Teacher' Sense of Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This research explored the relationship of multiple ratings of teaching effectiveness (TE) i.e. self-ratings (SR) and students’ ratings (StR) with Character Strengths (CS) with the mediating role of teacher’s sense of self-efficacy (TSE) among secondary school teachers. Teaching, if done effectively, plays an integral role in shaping student outcomes and overall educational performance. Understanding the factors that contribute to teaching effectiveness (TE) is vital for improving instructional practices and fostering student success. Traditional assessments of TE often rely on students' ratings (StR) and self-ratings (SR) by teachers. However, these evaluations can be influenced by various internal and external factors, including the teacher's sense of self-efficacy (TSE) and their character strengths (CS). The participants consisted of N=303 secondary school teachers and their three students per teacher (N= 909). The instruments included Teaching Effectiveness Self and Students' Rating Scales, VIA-Inventory of Strengths and Teacher’s Sense of Self-efficacy Scale. The results revealed TSE mediated the relationship (except for humility in StR) with the strengths of vitality, kindness, leadership, humility, spirituality (SR & StR), curiosity, open-mindedness, persistence, integrity, citizenship, social intelligence, prudence, hope, gratitude (SR) and love of learning (StR) positively predicting TE. This was subjected to a positive relationship among TE (SR & StR) with all the CS (except for bravery and perspective in StR) and TSE. These findings have implications in teachers’ selection, recruitment and training. This research can be extended to CS of different levels of teachers like pre-school, primary, middle and secondary school teachers should be compared with respect to their effectiveness and subject specialization.