The Relationship Between EFL Teachers’ Perception and Practice of Collaboration and Their Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between EFL teachers’ perception and practice of collaboration on the one hand and their self-efficacy on the other hand overall. To this end, two piloted questionnaires were distributed among 125 EFL teachers in Guilan province, Iran. The participants were asked to answer two questionnaires: One including 12 paired collaboration items developed by Leonard (2002), and another one including 24 items on teachers’ self-efficacy developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001). The findings of the study indicated a small positive relationship between EFL teachers’ perception of collaboration and their self-efficacy (rho = +.176) and a positive medium relationship between their practice of collaboration and their self-efficacy (rho = +.415). Finally, the results of the study revealed that there was a positive medium relationship between EFL teachers’ self-efficacy and their total collaboration (rho = +.388). These results suggested that teachers’ collaboration with their colleagues and their sharing of experiences, expertise, and strategies can help them become efficacious practitioners while teaching in their classrooms, engaging learners, and managing their classrooms, all of which are the positive outcomes of being efficacious teachers.

Keywords: self-efficacy, collaboration, teachers, EFL