Efficacy and Effectiveness

At the outset it is salient to have an understanding of the terms used and how they are employed in this thesis. The term ‘efficacy’ which appears as ‘teacher

efficacy’ in the field of education is different from ‘effectiveness’ or ‘teacher effectiveness’. Teacher efficacy has been described as “teachers’ beliefs in their abilities to affect student performance” (Dellinger et al., 2008, p. 753). It is defined as a teacher’s “judgment of his or her capabilities to bring about desired outcomes of students’ engagement and learning, even among those students who may be difficult or unmotivated” (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001, p. 783) or as Hoy (2000) says, teacher efficacy is teachers’ confidence in their ability to promote students’ learning. However, regarding teacher effectiveness, Seidel and Shavelson (2007 as cited in Klassen and Tze, 2014) define it as “the

aggregated effects of a complex set of in-classroom teacher behaviours on student learning” (p. 60). Hence teacher effectiveness can be understood as the result or the consequence of some observable behaviours (by another) such as planning and preparation of the teaching materials, managing the classroom environment and developing student learning through interactive instruction (Tournaki,

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Coladarci (1992) says that teacher efficacy refers to one's beliefs rather than to observable behaviours. In trying to distinguish these two terms, Melby (2001) commented that “teacher efficacy is sometimes considered to be a general indicator or predictor of teaching effectiveness” (p. 5). In addition, Ross (2007) contends “more effective teaching should increase the likelihood of teachers obtaining mastery experiences, the strongest predictor of self-efficacy” (p.52). The current study primarily explored observable teaching behaviours in English such as Jaffna teachers’ daily preparation of the English lesson or creative instruction of the lesson and so on (cf. Tournaki, Lyublinshaya, and Carolan, 2009) as the aspects of the effectiveness of the teachers. It is because, as said in the introduction above, the current research was informed by the teaching experience of the researcher in which the educational authorities blamed the teachers of English for their lack of teacher effectiveness which according to them was observed in the teaching of Sri Lankan teachers (see Chapter Six). Hence it was the original intention of the researcher to investigate how certain observable teacher behaviours of effective teaching were affected by various classroom and other problems. Consequently, the reader can find that much of the literature review (Chapter Four) has been dedicated to effective teaching of English. However, though the effective teacher behaviours are subject to the observance of others (principals, retired teachers etc.), the perceptions of the current teachers of English on their own effective behaviours can be understood as their teacher or teaching efficacy (Cf. Dellinger et al., 2008; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001) which is actually different from teacher effectiveness. The current study also covered the beliefs of the teachers as it investigated what elements of effectiveness they identified and practiced in their own teaching. Further the current study adopted the position that as far as the teachers believed that those elements of effective teaching of English would bring about or lead to a change in student learning they can be considered as the sense of efficacy of the teachers. Consequently, the literature on teacher efficacy has been reviewed in Chapter Four to render a general understanding of the concept, theoretical perspectives of teacher efficacy, its relationship with positive teacher outcomes, student

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used in this study. It was also found from the teaching experience of the researcher in Sri Lanka, particularly in Jaffna that ‘teaching efficacy’ was a concept hardly used among teachers and even among educational authorities. Considering the aforementioned factors, the current study uses both terms, ‘teaching efficacy’ and ‘teacher effectiveness’, and the general distinction in understanding these concepts is being maintained throughout the thesis by using these terms in relation to relevant participants of the research. For example, the phrases effective teaching of English or teacher effectiveness are used in relation to the principals, retired teachers and resource personnel of English. They are used in this way because, in line with the meaning of teacher effectiveness given above (i.e., referring to observable classroom behaviours of the teachers to

enhance students’ learning), the principals, retired teachers and resource personnel of English expected the current teachers of English to enhance students’ English learning through observable behaviours in the classroom. These observable behaviours (as stated in Chapter Six) include well prepared lessons, creative teaching, fulfilling students’ learning needs and so on. The principals and others believed that these classroom behaviours could be observed and used to judge the teacher effectiveness.

The current teachers of English who participated in this study had a different perspective. Unlike the principals, retired teachers and resource personnel of English, the current teachers of English considered the classroom behaviours (i.e., the prepared lessons or creative teaching which were proposed by the principals and others) as opportunities for them to express their underlying ability to affect students’ performance. According to the definition given by Dellinger et al. (2008: 753), “teachers’ beliefs in their abilities to affect student performance” is teacher efficacy. The phrases teacher efficacy or teaching efficacy are therefore used to capture the current teachers’ beliefs about their teaching.

The current teachers of English expressed their perceptions or beliefs concerning whether they were able to affect their students’ learning through those classroom behaviours proposed by the principals and others. Teachers who felt unable to affect student learning also talked about how Jaffna teachers’ beliefs in affecting

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student learning were affected by various classroom and other related problems. Where the principals and others wanted to witness some classroom behaviours from the teachers (effectiveness), the latter wanted to express their beliefs whether they could affect students’ learning through those classroom behaviours

(efficacy).