Collective Efficacy As The Most Powerful Renewable Resource

March 11, 2024

By Kippy Smith and Erica Crane

Individual and team beliefs can influence how an organization performs. In schools and districts, this means the mindsets held by teachers, leaders, and staff as a whole can keep teams going and growing in the face of complex challenges. Ongoing, effective professional learning is critical to supporting educators and keeping them in the profession (Darling-Hammond, 2022). Investing in the development of collective efficacy across a team means supporting a renewable resource in your school program (Bandura, 1993). When adults in schools are supported to believe in their team’s ability to reach big goals, this belief can positively impact students.

In regards to leading collective teacher efficacy, researchers explain, “When a team of individuals share the belief that through their unified efforts they can overcome challenges and produce intended results, groups are more effective” (Donohoo et al., 2018, para 1). This may seem like a simple idea, but schools need intentional approaches to develop this collective belief so that collective actions lead to equitable student opportunities and outcomes.

It cannot just be up to individual teachers to believe more or hope more: the school or organizational ecosystem must support belief.

Schools must provide teachers opportunities to recognize their successes and progress, and to see those of their peers. Key here is defining progress as learning- even when the learning stems from a mistake or failure, versus a success.

Donohoo (2017) explained how collective teacher efficacy has been associated with productive behaviors, deeper implementation of school improvement, setting high expectations, receptiveness to new ideas, greater job satisfaction, less burnout, and positive attitudes toward professional education. Moreover, it’s linked to having a positive impact on student achievement (Donohoo et al. (2018).

Given the impact of collective teacher efficacy, it’s worth schools’ effort to cultivate the enabling conditions for CTE. The enabling conditions for collective teacher efficacy “do not cause things to happen, they increase the likelihood that these things will turn out as expected” (Arzonetti Hite & Donohoo, 2021, p. 11). The enabling conditions for collective teacher efficacy are:

• empowered teachers

• embedded reflective practices

• cohesive teacher knowledge

• goal consensus

• supportive leadership (Donohoo et al., 2020)

These enabling conditions for collective efficacy were front and center when we designed the Small Wins Dashboard. When utilized across a school or district system, the Small Wins Dashboard empowers everyone to contribute to tracking common goals through shared, routine reflection.

Steps you can take to immediately support collective efficacy across your team include:

• Discuss openly the systems that exist that are helping or hindering an environment conducive to collective efficacy development. This means having conversations, running discussion protocols, conducting empathy interviews, or utilizing exit tickets with staff where you’re asking: What is or isn’t helping you believe in your team’s abilities to succeed together?

• Reflect on where you contribute to positive conditions for collective efficacy and where you don’t. This doesn’t mean ignoring the systems at play, but it does mean that you are a part of the school/district’s ecosystem itself.

• Whenever and however you gather it, recognize success that the team is experiencing. This means electronic communications or in person meetings that connect people across the school system are both opportunities to recognize small wins.

• Share the whole story and recognize that success happens through learning and courage. It can be tempting to highlight the award, but you have an opportunity to highlight the work it took to get there. It can be tempting to highlight the end result, but you can also talk about all the lessons learned along the way.

• Define collective teacher efficacy together on your team and share resources about it. Help everyone learn this idea and start to apply their learning across the program.

• Give folks the opportunity to reflect on their successes! Make time for synchronous and asynchronous reflection where each person can reflect and then those reflections on their wins or lessons learned can be shared.

• Explore more about the Small Wins Dashboard here on our website.

References:

Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011). The power of small wins. Harvard Business Review, 89(5), 70-80. https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins

Arzonetti Hite, S., & Donohoo, J. (2021). Leading collective efficacy: Powerful stories of achievement and equity. Corwin.

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep2802_3

Darling-Hammond, L. (2022). Breaking the legacy of teacher shortages. Educational Leadership, 80(2), 14–20. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/breaking-the-legacy-of-teacher-shortages

Donohoo, J. (2017). Collective efficacy: How educators’ beliefs impact student learning. Corwin.

Donohoo, J., Hattie, J., & Eells, R. (2018). The power of collective efficacy. Educational Leadership, 75(6), 40–44. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-power-of-collective-efficacy

Donohoo, J., O’Leary, T., & Hattie, J. (2020). The design and validation of the enabling conditions for collective teacher efficacy scale (EC-CTES). Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5(2), 147–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpcc-08-2019-0020