Teacher self-efficacy and its relationship with students’ affective and motivational variables in higher education

Abstract

During the past few decades, researchers have proposed that teacher self-efficacy influences student achievement and motivation. The main aim of this work is to identify possible teacher self-efficacy profiles and to determine possible differences in some affective-motivational variables of students. 95 teachers and 1924 students from five Spanish public Universities took part in this study. Using cluster analysis, three distinctive profiles of teachers were generated: high self-efficacy, medium self-efficacy, and low self-efficacy. ANOVA results suggest that teachers with intermediate self-efficacy perception have more learning-oriented students than teachers with high self-efficacy. Students of teachers who are overconfident of their teaching capacity seem to engage less in studying to learn, they are more indifferent to the subjects, and they value the contents of the subject less. These students could also be less confident about the results of their efforts, showing a low perception of self-efficacy, greater academic work avoidance, and more anxiety than students of teachers with a moderate perception of self-efficacy. The results are discussed in light of the hypothesis of overconfidence.