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2 references
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- Vol 6 RE: Chapters 4, 6, App A, App B, App D, App E
collective teacher efficacysocial cognitive theorymastery experiencesvicarious experiencessocial persuasioninstructional persistencecollaborative problem solvingstructural conditionsJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Goddard, Hoy, and Hoy use social cognitive theory to explain collective teacher efficacy: a faculty’s shared belief in its capability to organise and execute actions needed to improve student learning. It is distinct from an individual teacher’s self-efficacy, although the two can influence one another.
Key ideas
Collective efficacy develops through interpretations of mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and affective states, filtered through analysis of the teaching task and the group’s competence. These beliefs influence goals, effort, persistence, resilience, instructional choices, and how setbacks are interpreted. The review synthesises evidence linking school collective efficacy with achievement even after accounting for socioeconomic context, while emphasising that much evidence is correlational and measurement and causal processes need further study. Efficacy is not optimism detached from competence or material conditions.
Why it matters
Leaders can support it through authentic success, useful evidence, collaborative problem solving, capability-building, and attainable challenge, but claims should not be used to blame educators for structural disadvantage or substitute belief for resources and effective practice.
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- Vol 2 RE: Chapter 4
- Vol 2 TE: App B
- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 10, 14, 16, 22, App A, App B, App C
- Vol 4 TE: App C
problem-based learningself-directed learningcollaborative problem solvingflexible knowledgeintrinsic motivationinstructional scaffoldingprior knowledgeJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hmelo-Silver reviews what students learn through problem-based learning and the processes intended to produce those outcomes. In PBL, learners work collaboratively on a complex problem without one predetermined answer, identify what they need to know, pursue self-directed study, apply new knowledge, and reflect on both the solution and their strategies.
Key ideas
The teacher facilitates rather than simply transmits information. The approach aims to develop flexible knowledge, effective problem-solving, self-directed learning, collaboration, and intrinsic motivation. The review connects these goals with cognitive and motivational theory and examines evidence from medical and other professional education. Students may acquire somewhat less immediately testable factual knowledge in some comparisons, yet often show advantages in application, retention, reasoning, and learning skills, with outcomes depending on curriculum design and assessment. Tutorial interaction, prior knowledge, problem quality, group functioning, and facilitation shape the learning process.
Why it matters
PBL is therefore not a single treatment or unguided discovery. Its effectiveness depends on scaffolding inquiry, aligning problems and assessments with goals, and supporting students as responsibility gradually shifts toward them.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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