Encouraging Teacher Self-Efficacy

De Smet Jesuit High School (St. Louis, MO) has been inviting our educators to be reflective, evidence-generating researchers in the classroom through our Growth, Renewal, and Evaluation (GRE) process. Two valuable components of our GRE process are:

• Class visits that gather data about our classroom environments via a research-based Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool (eleot) rubric provided by our accrediting agency Cognia, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that focuses on continuous improvement
• Teacher-driven results of our post-visit Cognitive Coaching Reflecting Conversations that require a focused presence

One day at the start of this school year, it so happened that I had Reflecting Conversations with multiple teachers. I’ll describe three of those conversations and share my takeaways.

Discussion One – Always Promote Self-Efficacy

After a routine class visit, the teacher received rubric-based eleot feedback, and we held a Reflecting Conversation. The conversation followed a standard framework in which I invited the teacher to reflect on specific classroom experiences and identify areas for growth (as well as potential solutions).

Here are a few general prompts and steps from the framework, which specifically invite the teacher to think about areas for growth:

• How would you like student learning or class management to be better? What do you want to improve or change? What’s a problem to be solved? Identify an area for growth?
• How might you go about changing your class in relation to that area for growth?
• What steps might you take and what resources might you consult?
• Provide a pre-measure picture of what things currently look like
• Try the change over a period of time
• As you implement the change, measure the resulting growth and improvement and collect evidence
• Look for or measure any side effects
• Review your progress with me

The teacher identified finding a way to visually connect content areas throughout the semester as her area for growth. Her solution was to develop a calendar that connected past, present, and future content for her class’s reference.

About two hours after our conversation, she emailed me and shared, “I figured out a way to do what I was talking about with you today. I wanted students to have a layout of the whole chapter as what they see when they open my (web-based) page. I used a text box with a table. I am excited to find a way to make it work.”

Here, the teacher was responsible for identifying an area for growth for herself and proposing a solution. As a result, she was, “excited to find a way to make it work.”

Takeaway: Reflecting Conversations promote self-efficacy. By being present and asking specific questions, we invite teachers to be self-efficacious researchers in their own classes.

By being present and asking specific questions, we invite teachers to be self-efficacious researchers in their own classes.

Discussion Two – Continuously Practice Pausing, Rephrasing, and Feeding Back

In this Reflecting Conversation, the teacher was not as quick to identify an area for growth and solutions. Instead of immediately offering suggestions, I paused, rephrased my questions, and repeated his comments back to him.

For example, after pausing, I rephrased my original question: “If you could change or improve anything about how your class runs, or how students explore content and skills, or what they do, what changes would you make?”

After he identified an area for growth, I replied, “So, what you said was that you want students to be comfortable with content delivery and adhere to classroom ‘dos and don’ts’ expectations. Is that correct? Tell me more.” Repeating his comments, I helped the teacher clarify his thinking.

Finally, he identified class management as his problem. And the solution? Establishing a “Do’s and Don’ts” document and giving students the opportunity to provide their input.

Throughout the conversation, I assumed this teacher had it within himself to identify and solve his own problems. I simply nuanced my questions and invited him to think more deeply.

Takeaway: Reflecting Conversations challenge me to be a mirror for the teacher, continuously pausing, rephrasing, and reflecting back thoughts, so we work toward clarity.

Discussion Three – Practice Positivity, But Be Prescriptive When Needed

This Reflecting Conversation discussion involved a (relatively) new teacher whose students had shown behavioral issues during the class visit. The teacher was noticeably overwhelmed when we met, so I started by asking, “How are things going?” As I listened, I made sure to assume his positive intent, affirming that parts of what I’d witnessed about him and his classroom were good; he was indeed doing a lot of effective teaching.

As it turned out, this teacher was juggling a lot of responsibilities, including graduate school. He quickly described his area for growth: stopping side conversations and student interruptions.

I asked him to draw on his previous year’s experiences and the classes in his master’s program for solutions. He reflected and responded with a few strategies:

• Develop a seating chart
• Start more group work
• Use dry-erase activities
• Provide brief breaks

I wondered if his solutions would solve his problem. As the conversation continued, the teacher asked me for suggestions. I stepped out of my role in the Reflecting Conversation to offer these:

• Be consistent in applying classroom policies and use the school’s discipline system
• (In response to his awareness of being a people-pleaser) try using this phrase with students: “Hey, this is nothing personal, but we need this behavior to stop because it is disruptive to the learning in the classroom.”
• Employ the school’s system to monitor students on their computers

Takeaway: Assuming positive intent, being affirming, and offering concrete suggestions when asked makes difficult conversations fruitful, and teachers often acquire or retain a sense of self-efficacy. Remembering, conversations can also be prescriptive when needed.

Assuming positive intent, being affirming, and offering concrete suggestions when asked makes difficult conversations fruitful.

Reflecting Conversations Deepen Our Presence with One Another

An administrator from another school had been shadowing me that day. I invited him to reflect on his experiences. He noted:

• The conversations, while a direct result of the class visit feedback, were non-threatening and informal.
• Each teacher’s experiences during the conversations were different.
• I employed the same conversation framework and tweaked it as I used it.
• Each teacher developed their sense of self-efficacy as a direct result of the conversation: identifying specific areas for improvement and proposing potential solutions.

Reflecting Conversations, in the context of our GRE program, are excellent examples of the power of presence. As teachers talked with me, they went deeper, investigating meaningful areas for growth, developing solutions, and ultimately becoming evidence-gathering researchers in their own classrooms.

What Happens Next?

After each initial Reflecting Conversation of the academic year, I note each teacher’s self-generated goal into our GRE excel tracking document.  Subsequent class visits and conversations, along with our end of the year evaluation conversations invite the teacher to reflect on the particular goal she or he set, and talk about goal achievement.  This often results in thinking about extending the goal or creating a new area of focus or goal for the coming academic year.

Peter Musso, Ed.D, is Dean of Faculty, responsible for curriculum and instruction at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis, Missouri.