Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (Scala sull’Auto-Efficacia del Docente – SAED): adattamento e validazione in Italia (Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale: Adaptation and Validation in Italy).

According to Albert Bandura (1977, 1992, 1994, 1995), self-efficacy is «the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations». A person’s attitudes, abilities and cognitive skills comprise what is known as the self-system. This system plays a major role in how we perceive situations and how we behave in response to different situations. Self-efficacy is essential component of this self-system. In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. In the international literature, self-efficacy is an important topic among psycholo- gists and educators. As Bandura and other researchers have demonstrated, self-efficacy can have an impact on behavior and motivation. To assess teacher self-efficacy, we applied the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001: for the Italian translation and adaptation we interviewed 200 teachers of primary and secondary schools (both genders represented). This scale is consistently found on three factors: «Efficacy for Stu- dent Engagement» (8 items), «Efficacy for Instructional Strategies» (8 items), and «Efficacy for Classroom Management» (8 items). The Italian adaptation confirms the relevance of the three factors and the statistical analysis shows the validity of the Italian version of the scale.