Teacher effectiveness: Examining the relationship between teacher grit and teacher self-efficacy

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between teacher grit and teacher self-efficacy. Teachers in grades 3-11 in a mid-sized public school district located in a rural community containing a large research university responded to survey questions from Duckworth's (2009) Grit Scale-S questionnaire, Tschannen-Moran's (2001) Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and a Teacher Demographic Questionnaire. Two statistical techniques were used to analyze the data including correlational analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The Pearson correlation between teacher self-efficacy and teacher grit (r=.306), indicating a positive relationship, is interpreted as a medium effect size (Cohen, 1988), and is statistically different from 0 (r = .306, n = 194, p < .01). Thus, the hypothesis that there is a statistically significant relationship between teacher self-efficacy and teacher grit is supported at the .01 level of significance. No statistically significant relationships where found between teacher self-efficacy or teacher grit when compared to the number of years teaching. No statistically significant relationships were found between teacher self-efficacy or teacher grit when compared to student outcomes (student growth percentiles). However, findings from this study, the relationship between self-efficacy and grit, suggests that building teacher self-efficacy may also enhance teacher grit.