THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS AND INDIVIDUAL LEVELS OF SELF-EFFICACY

School funding and legislation reflect the current practice in schools to prioritize professional development for educators to improve student academic success. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the perceived impact of a variety of professional development activities upon educator instructional practice to determine change in educator levels of self-efficacy. This quantitative study used components of the short form of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) as an online pretest and posttest survey to examine changes in levels of high school educators’ (n=51) self-efficacy in connection to participation in a variety of professional development experiences over one school year. The survey gathered information on years of teaching experience, type of professional development, levels of self-efficacy, and rate of implementation of new instructional practices. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and significance of difference. Teachers who participated in optional professional development had higher rate of change in instructional practice than educators who participated in only mandatory professional development. Analysis of levels of self-efficacy resulted in overall mean scores showing growth; however, it did not show a statistically significant difference. Teacher years of experience did not show a statistical significance on teacher growth of practice or levels of self-efficacy. Small group, collaborative teacher-led and teacher-designed professional development showed a higher impact on professional growth