Teacher efficacy and country clusters: Some findings from the TALIS 2008 survey

TALIS is an international comparative study carried out by OECD in 23 countries
on the self-evaluated professional competence of lower secondary teachers,
measures of self-efficacy, related beliefs and attitudes to teaching and learning,
professional activities and classroom practices. The aim of this paper is to explore responses to selected items from the 2008 survey in relation to international results and to interpret them in the context of theories and findings related to collective teacher efficacy. In all, 53 items from 11 sets of questions in the survey were selected for further analysis and as being relevant to the aim of this exploration of teaching practice and efficacy in an international context. Multidimensional scaling was used to identify three dimensions in the data and the results also indicated clusters of countries which were further explored with Hierarchical cluster analysis. An important finding is the fact that the clusters of countries identified reflected largely their geographical location, suggesting that the educational practices assessed in this selection of TALIS questions are a reflection of fundamental cultural characteristics and broader regional differences. The dimensions and clusters differentiated between responses to the selected items on the TALIS teacher questionnaire. Dimension 1, A culture of observation, feedback and improvement, distinguished mainly between Western, Southern and Northern Euro-pean country clusters on the one hand and Eastern European (with American and Asian countries) on the other. Such a culture of feedback seemed to be more prominent in Eastern Europe and Asia/America compared with other areas. Dimension 2 represented a focus on working together, and Dimension 3 was related to certain professional development needs.