The Relationships among Senior High School Teacher Perceptions on Professional Learning Community, Self-efficacy, School Type, and Gender

Abstract

Teacher’s professional learning community (TPLC) and self-efficacy(SE) are considered to enhance student learning in various dimensions. Teacher perceived PLC and SE might be influenced by school contexts and teachers’ demographic factors. This study investigated the relationships between teacher’s professional learning community (PLC), self-efficacy (SE), school type, and gender in Taiwan context. The findings are expected to provide valuable information in this field and to enhance understanding of PLC and self-efficacy in different cultural contexts. Descriptive statistics, t-test, product-moment correlation, and multiple regression analysis were applied to analyze the data. The findings indicated that a significant difference was found between public school teachers and private school teachers in two PLC dimensions, core element and human and social resources, and in one SE dimesnion, classroom management. Another significant differences were found between male teachers and female teachers in three SE dimensions, teaching strategy, classroom management, and student involvement. However, no significant differences was found between both in PLC dimesnions. Moreover, perceived PLC and SE were positive correlated. Perceived PLC could predict perceived SE. These results suggested that PLC appears to play a role in teachers’ reported levels of SE and provided initial evidence that the variation between schools in PLC may be explained by the SE.

Keywords: Gender, school type, self-efficacy, professional learning community, senior high school teacher