Efficacy and

Instructional
Practices
Taylor Sachs
 Rose M. Allinder
➢ PhD. in clinical psychology

➢ Published “The Relationship Between

Efficacy and the Instructional Practices of
Special Education Teachers and
Consultants” on April 1st, 1994

➢ University of Nebraska at Lincoln

The Relationship Between Efficacy and the Instructional Practices of Special Education Teachers and Consultants
Previous Research
General Teaching Personal Teaching
Efficacy: Teachers’ Efficacy: Teachers’
beliefs that teaching can beliefs in their own
influence student ability to affect student
learning learning

i.e. Teachers with low i.e. Teachers with low

teaching efficacy don’t personal teaching
persist for an extended efficacy believe that
period of time because students can learn, but
they believe students they don’t have the
aren’t learning/cannot skills or resources to
learn teach them
Teacher Effectiveness
➢ Enthusiasm
➢ Organization
➢ Variation in
materials/activities
➢ Businesslike
orientation in dealing
with students
➢ High levels of clarity
Similarities between General and
Special Education Instruction
➢ Direct interactions with students about behavior/discipline
issues
➢ Direct instruction on academic tasks

Special education teachers’ degree of efficacy may be similar to

the efficacy of a general education teacher’s.

Little is known about efficacy of teachers who provide indirect

services to students with disabilities in general education
classrooms through consultation, collaboration, or team
teaching.
Skepticism with Resource Rooms*
➢ What is the pedagogical appropriateness?
➢ What is the efficacy regarding to generalizability
of the skills taught in general education classes?
➢ Where is the convenience of meeting the needs
of students with special needs when that
number is ever increasing?

*For students with mild disabilities

Direct vs. Indirect Service Providers
Direct Indirect
➢ Majority of time
➢ Majority of time consulting, collaborating,
or team teaching
spent actively
➢ Task analysis
engaging with
➢ instructional adaptation
students
➢ Curriculum alternatives
➢ Classroom management
➢ Instructional experimentation
➢ Enthusiasm
➢ Planfulness/organization
➢ Confidence/fairness during instruction
➢ Innovativeness
 Allinder’s Study
2 Purposes
To examine the relationship To explore whether this
between instructionally relevant relationship was similar for
behaviors and attitudes. special education teachers who
provide indirect serves to
students with mild disabilities in
general education classrooms.
 Method
Participants
200 special education teachers in
4 midwestern states
➢ Direct service providers
○ 73 teachers (16%)
➢ Indirect service providers
○ 40 teachers (9%)
Instruments
Demographic questionnaire
➢ Total years teaching
➢ Total years teaching special education
➢ Years in current position
➢ Gender
➢ Highest education degree
➢ Number of schools they’ve worked
➢ Number of students of different
disabilities whom they’ve served
➢ Teacher Efficacy Scale
➢ Teacher Characteristics Scale
 Results
➢ Teachers who had a greater teaching efficacy were
more likely to:
○ try different ways of teaching
○ be business-like in working with students by being
organized and planful in their instruction, and fair
and firm when dealing with students
○ be confident and enthusiastic about teaching
➢ Teachers who spend 50% of their time in indirect
service appeared to be more experimental in their
instruction