Collective Efficacy: We Can Do This!
Does believing you can accomplish something help you to accomplish it?
Actually, yes. After studying how groups work together in the 1970s, Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura coined the phrase “collective efficacy” to describe the sense of mutual trust and confidence that effective groups feel as they head into a challenge. He showed how the concept can lead to good things happening in all kinds of endeavors, including schools, where educators with strong collective efficacy have students who achieve at higher levels. Our analysis of research on effective school leadership found that collective efficacy has more influence on student achievement even than socioeconomic status or academic press (a school placing emphasis on academics and high expectations).
There’s a virtuous cycle quality to collective efficacy: The more confident that educators are that they and their colleagues can make a difference for students and overcome challenges, the likelier they are to seek out and leverage professional collaboration and learning—and they’re likelier to pass along this sense of optimism to their students. As the pattern repeats itself, the faculty acquire more and more skills, leading to better and better results for students.
Having trust in the team is an important building block of collective efficacy. Genuine trust means knowing we’ve got one another’s backs—sharing common aspirations and goals, and committing ourselves to helping one another—and our students—achieve them.
In the schools we’re currently working with, there is a sense of excitement and optimism for the new school year, but also some anxiety because of the continuing effects of the pandemic. No wonder; we’re all being buffeted by forces that are largely outside our influence. Learning to trust colleagues and build collective efficacy is something we definitely can influence. For the sake of students as well as your own professional satisfaction, I hope you’re fortunate enough to work on a team, in a faculty, that strives to develop collective efficacy in order to change outcomes for kids.
If you need some ideas and strategies for helping develop or strengthen collective efficacy at your school, check out these resources:
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Bryan Goodwin, CEO, McREL International
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10 Ideas for Maintaining Pandemic-Era Flexibility in Teaching
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Teachers had to try all kinds of new methods during the school shutdowns, and the most effective among them had something in common, Meagan W. Taylor writes on the McREL blog: the ability to adapt. This skill is not going to fade in importance just because in-person learning resumes, so Meagan offers 10 tips for looking beyond the specifics of any given tool, technique, or policy, and finding new ways to deliver the learning experience that students are supposed to have.
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McREL Helps CYBER.ORG Develop K–12 Learning Standards for Cybersecurity
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CYBER.ORG has released the nation’s first-ever voluntary K–12 cybersecurity standards. Developed with McREL’s help, the standards aim to teach students about cybersecurity issues and careers, addressing what it calls “the growing cybersecurity workforce crisis.”
CYBER.ORG is supported by the Department of Homeland Security and 18,000 teachers nationwide have signed up for its teaching materials. The organization says that there are more than 464,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., even as the country faces “an onslaught of sophisticated cyberattacks.”
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Five Steps for Structuring Data Informed Conversations and Action in Education
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All educators, whatever their role, use data to inform their decisions. In this new video, REL Pacific shares five ways to bring data into the conversation in ways that help you and your colleagues see the challenges and join forces in addressing them.
Don’t be intimidated! Once you see the steps broken down, you’ll recognize that anybody can collect, organize, and deploy data to make a difference.
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Join us in person this October in Denver for these engaging and evidence-based professional learning sessions.
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Balanced Leadership for Student Learning
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Oct. 4-7, 2021 | Denver, CO
Learn evidence-based leadership actions that increase student achievement and educator efficacy. Get the knowledge and resources you can use to focus your school on what matters most for student learning, inspire positive change, and cultivate a purposeful school community.
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Classroom Instruction That Works
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Oct. 11-12, 2021 | Denver, CO
Learn how to hook your students on learning and never let go. Dive into the nine best types of instructional strategies that really make a difference for student learning, and get practical classroom activities and tools you can use with your students.
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A selection of research news that ties into our work on leadership, instruction, school improvement, and professional learning here at McREL.
A proposal to resurrect Indigenous knowledge sharing. A group of elementary school leaders from the Republic of the Marshall Islands are working to incorporate traditional Marshallese knowledge, values, and oral language traditions into their school practices, in an effort to create a more culturally relevant educational system for students and educators. They are proposing that Kanne Lobal, a storytelling structure inspired by the parts of a canoe, could form the foundation of a new, collaborative educational leadership framework. Read their article in the Waikato Journal of Education. Support for professional learning communities. The professional learning community, or PLC, is a group study format that educators are increasingly embracing for professional development. A small Dutch study found that it increased teachers’ awareness of culturally responsive teaching, and its potential to help close achievement gaps, in secondary schools with large migrant populations. Read the article in the International Journal of Educational Research.An introduction to teacher leadership. What is teacher leadership? The International Study of Teacher Leadership aims to explore the concept, and this introductory paper in Research in Educational Administration & Leadership lays out the study’s aspirations, which include helping to find new ways for teachers to share school leadership duties with principals. Evidence vs. beliefs. A teaching practice can have evidence supporting it, but that doesn’t mean teachers will automatically embrace it. An Australian research team conducted a literature review to see how likely teachers are to adopt evidence-based practices in the face of preexisting beliefs, some of which may be contradictory, and the realities of managing a busy classroom. See the study in the International Journal of Educational Research.
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Common abbreviations: institutions of higher education (IHEs); local education agencies (LEAs); and state education agencies (SEAs).
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NCER seeks applications that address one of the following topics: Career and Technical Education; Civics Education and Social Studies; Cognition and Student Learning; Early Learning Programs and Policies; Effective Instruction; English Learners; Improving Education Systems; Postsecondary and Adult Education; Literacy; STEM Education; and Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning. These grants can be for up to $760K for up to five years. Applications are due Sept. 9, 2021. Learn more here.
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Research Grants Focused on Systematic Replication
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NCER seeks applications that aim to identify what works for whom and under what conditions in education through systematic replication. These grants can be for up to $900K for up to five years. Applications are due Sept. 9, 2021. Learn more here.
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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) ECR program invites proposals for fundamental research (curiosity-driven and use-inspired basic research) that has broad relevance and contributes to general, explanatory knowledge underlying STEM education in one or more of the research areas: (1) STEM Learning and Learning Environments, (2) Broadening Participation in STEM Fields, and (3) STEM Workforce Development. Research activities can occur with learners of all groups and ages in formal and informal settings. Grants under this program are available at three funding levels with a duration of 3–5 years for any level: (1) Level I up to $500k; (2) Level II up to $1.5M; and (3) Level III up to $2.5M. Applications are due Oct. 7, 2021. Learn more here.
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Advanced Technological Education (ATE)
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With a focus on two-year IHEs, the NSF’s ATE program supports improvements to the education of science and engineering technicians for high-technology fields through partnerships between academic institutions (grades 7–12, IHEs), industry, and economic development agencies. The ATE program supports curriculum development, professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers, career pathways, and other activities. The program also invites applied research proposals that advance the knowledge base related to technician education. Projects must be faculty-driven and programs/courses must be credit-bearing, although developed materials may also be used for incumbent worker education. Grants under this program are wide-ranging in value and duration based on their status, so please refer to the RFA for details. Applications are due Oct. 14, 2021. Learn more here.
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Advancing Informal Stem Learning
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NSF’s AISL program seeks to advance new approaches to an evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments. The program supports six types of projects with varying grant values and durations: (1) Pilots and Feasibility Studies (up to $300K across two years); (2) Research in Service to Practice (from $300K–$2M across 2–5 years); (3) Innovations in Development (from $500K–$3M across 2–5 years); (4) Broad Implementation (from $1M–$3M across 3–5 years); (5) Literature Reviews, Syntheses, or Meta-Analyses (up to $250K across two years); and (6) Conferences (up to $250K across two years). Applications are due Jan. 18, 2022. Learn more here.
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As a growing organization, we’re expanding our team of educators, researchers, project managers, and communicators to provide supports and services to more schools, districts, and education agencies. Interested in joining our team? Check out these current openings on the McREL careers page:
- Consultant (Denver, Honolulu, or remote)
- Managing Consultant (Denver, Honolulu, or remote)
- Research Associate (Denver or Honolulu)
- Researcher (Denver or Honolulu)
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Learn more about how our coaching, professional learning, and analysis services can help your school or system reach its goals.
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McREL International
P 800.858.6830 | F 303.337.3005
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REL Southeast
Dr. John Hughes
12 Unique Blogs Are Written By Professors
