Relationship between High School teachers ’ wellbeing and teachers ’ efficacy

The purpose of this study was to find out the relationships between high school teachers’ wellbeing and their efficacy. The methodology of this study was that of a quantitative research. The population of this study was all high schools’ teachers in 9 to 11 grades in Zahedan, Iran. Out of 315 samples, the valid sample of this study was 290. The two questionnaires employed here were The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire of the Hills and Argyle (2002) and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale of the TschannenMoran and Woolfolk-Hoy’s (2001). SPSS 15 was used to produce mean, standard deviations, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r), t-test, and Analysis of Variance. The results showed that the high school teachers scored over average on wellbeing and also marked relatively high scores on teachers’ efficacy and factors related to this variable. There was a positive relationship between teachers’ wellbeing and their efficacy in instructional activities. The results also showed that there was relatively high positive correlation between teachers’ wellbeing, teacher efficacy and sub variables related to teacher efficacy in female, older, married, and also teachers with 5-10 years job experiences in comparison with male, younger, single, and teachers with more than 10 years job experiences.


Introduction
According to Hicks in 1941, " […] it states that there are many aspects or domains in a person's life; thus, a person's wellbeing is expected to be related to her situation in all these aspects of life" (MEIER, 1991, p. 352).Vernon (2008, p. 44) says that, […] wellbeing is a useful word because it is relatively unfamiliar.The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has dozens of entries for pleasure, happiness, happy, and life satisfaction.There is not a single one for well-being.It is not even clear how to spell it: wellbeing or well-being?Similarly in spoken English it is not straightforwardly obvious how to use the word.You can say, 'I am happy', but what would be the equivalent construction in relation to wellbeing?.
A powerful, contemporary and authoritative definition of well-being is provided by Alexander (2009) in the proposals for the future of education developed by the Cambridge Primary Review: Well-being.To attend to person's capabilities, needs, hopes and anxieties here and now, and promote their mental, emotional and physical well-being and welfare.Happiness, a strong sense of self and a positive outlook on life are not only desirable in themselves; they are conducive to engagement and learning.But well-being goes much further than this, and 'happiness' on its own looks merely selfindulgent.
The concept of well-being consists of several aspects such as positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction.According to Yetim (2001) wellbeing is a field that comprises positive characteristics and measurements.Also, it concentrates on lengthwise affects more than temporary emotional states.Myers and Diener (1995, p. 11) proposed that well-being reflects "[…] a preponderance of positive thoughts and feelings about one's life" and defined well-being as " […] the relative presence of positive affect, absence of negative affect, and satisfaction with life".

Teachers' wellbeing
According to Engels et al. (2004, p. 128) wellbeing is, […] a positive emotional state that is the result of a harmony between the sum of specific context factors on the one hand and the personal needs and expectations towards the school on the other hand.Muijs and Reynolds (2005) stated that the teachers have to be capable of attuning their own needs and expectations to specific context factors and demands of the school.It is important that they 'fit' into the school system.The teacher's qualities that allow for the development of authentic human relationships with his students and his capacity to create a democratic and agreeable classroom are important attributes for effective teaching.Entwistle (1987, p. 21) affirms that "[…] there are emotional and moral, as well as cognitive sources of satisfaction in schooling".So the affective domain is an important factor in successful interactions between teachers and students.Life satisfaction as an indicator of subjective well-being can be described as the individual's cognitive assessment of one's life in such a way that it includes everything.Leonard (2002, p. 55) defined the quality of school life as "[…] a synthesis of positive experiences, negative experiences, and other feelings related to specific school life domains".Aeltermann et al. (2007, p. 286) stated that, […] well-being expresses a positive emotional state, which is the result of harmony between the sum of specific environmental factors on the one hand, and the personal needs and expectations of teachers on the other hand.
Evidence from several studies has been consistent with the widely held view that there are positive relationships between teacher wellbeing and student learning, as well as job performance or other aspects of teaching effectiveness (DAY et al., 2006).Barker and Martin (2009) showed that the happy teachers are more able to give to students and teach them well.Further, it is surely ethically untenable to accept a situation in which teachers become unhappy by teaching others to be happy.Thus, on both counts we argue that teacher happiness ought in principle to be a goal of the subject.Noddings (2005) explained that a teacher's happiness can affect the classroom climate and therefore affect students.Moreover, the teacher's psychological influence on students has been linked to student achievement in various effectiveness studies.
In a manner of addition, the teachers' happiness had positive effects on their creative teaching; more specifically, their happiness in "[…] work enthusiasm and self-transcendence", "Caring and optimism", and "[…] recognition and hope toward the value of life" had strong correlations with their creative teaching in "[…] varied teaching and motivation stimulation" and "[…] independent learning and challenge providing" (HUANG, 2006, p. iv-v).

Teachers' Efficacy
The concept of teacher efficacy is derived from Bandura's socio-cognitive theory (1993,1997).Wheatley (2005, p. 748) has been defined teacher efficacy as "[…] teachers' beliefs in their ability to actualize the desired outcomes".Soodak and Podell (1993) believed that teacher efficacy has been linked to teacher effectiveness and appears to influence students in their achievement, attitude and affective growth.According to Bruce et al. (2010) research in the field of teacher efficacy beliefs has provided key information which shows that high self-efficacy teachers are more likely to persevere in their attempts to reach learning goals when they encounter obstacles, are more prone to experimenting with effective instructional strategies that represent a challenge, and are more willing to run risks in their classrooms.
Researchers have shown that teacher efficacy has positive effects on teacher effort and persistence in the face of difficulties, student motivation (MIDGLEY et al., 1989), and openness to new methods in teaching and positive teacher behavior (GHAITH;YAGHI, 1997).Moreover, teachers with a high sense of efficacy are more likely to use student-centered teaching strategies, while lowefficacious teachers tend to use teacher-directed strategies, such as didactic lectures and reading from textbooks (CZERNIAK, 1990).Thus, the importance of teacher efficacy is well established.Some researchers (CHANG, 2009;DOYLE, 1986;EVERTSON;WEINSTEIN, 2006;GOOD;BROPHY, 2000;JONES, 1989;GRAHAM et al., 2010) have shown that there are three teaching tasks for all teachers: (a) instructional tasks, (b) organizational tasks, and (c) behavioral management tasks.In refer to details of these tasks they have explained that 'Instructional tasks' highlight teachers' skills in using a variety of methodologies and resources (e.g., preparing or administrating lesson plans or assignments, assessing or observing learned objectives, using instructional aides, instructing via interactive means) to maximize student learning.'Organizational tasks' involve teachers' provisions to construct a classroom setting and climate to enhance effective teaching and student participation (e.g., seating assignments, transitioning between activities, monitoring student activities, organizing equipment/materials). 'Behavioral management tasks' encompass teachers' 'proactive' strategies (e.g., outlining rules, routines, policies) to monitor or prevent misbehaviors along with 'reactive' strategies (e.g., utilizing disciplinary systems) to respond to and handle challenging behaviors as they occur.

Teachers' Efficacy in Student Engagement (TESE)
Student engagement is one of most important factors that affect teaching and student motivation to learn.When students are apathetic toward learning, a barrier to learning is created.Student engagement is critical to student motivation during the learning process.The more students are motivated to learn, the more likely it is that they will be successful in their efforts.Student engagement refers to the degree to which students are actively involved in and take responsibility for their education; whether, in short they see schooling as 'theirs'.A considerable body of research, as well as educators' own experience, shows that students' sense of involvement in their education is vital to their effort and success.Moreover, engagement with learning is critical to students' capacity to be lifelong learners and is likely to be predictive of their ability to take on new challenges after they leave school.Finally, including engagement in the assessment will broaden its focus beyond specific curricular outcomes and, together with the student self-assessment…, will support a dialogue about student commitment to learning among students and parents that can itself have useful educational consequences (LEVIN, 2004).
Student engagement is primarily and historically about increasing achievement, positive behaviors, and a sense of belonging in the classroom (HARRIS, 2008;WILMA et al., 2009).Harris extensive review of student engagement explains the challenge: While there is general agreement that student engagement produces positive outcomes, defining the concept is problematic as there is disagreement about what counts as student engagement (HARRIS, 2008, p. 58).Anderson et al. (2004) divide engagement into four types: behavioral, academic, cognitive, and psychological.While their categories are similar to those described by Fredericks et al. ( 2004) above, they use academic engagement to specify time spent doing learning activities as opposed to general behavioral engagement where students may be participating in nonacademic pursuits.In their model, psychological engagement encompasses similar aspects to emotional engagement.

Teachers' Efficacy in Instructional Strategies (TEIS)
Instructional strategies refer to the structure, system, methods, techniques, procedures, and processes that a teacher uses during instruction.According to Roberts et al. (2007) instructional strategies are those behaviors associated with the mechanics of teaching.Teachers must focus on effective instructional strategies to prevent academic and behavior difficulties and thereby facilitate increased student achievement especially among poor and minority students who tend to lag behind their more affluent peers.
Research shows that strategies used by educators are vital components of the motivational learning environment (DRUGER, 2000).According to Wiseman and Hunt (2001) the teachers who are skilled at incorporating a number of different types of strategies into their lessons are more effective than those teachers who are limited to only a few instructional approaches.About the teachers who uses varying instructional approaches, Theobald (2006) and Wiseman and Hunt (2001) believe that they increased student interest, piques student curiosity to learn, and creates unique stimuli in the classroom, all of which increase the cognitive ability of students.
Effective teachers have higher rates of positive student responses to their instruction (ESPIN;YELL, 1994).Students who are attending to academic tasks cannot at the same time be engaged in disruptive, off-task behavior (CARNINE, 1976;SUTHERLAND et al., 2003).Effective instruction minimizes disruptive behavior through higher rates of academic engagement.
According to Carnine (1976) instruction that is effective in encouraging high rates of academic engagement and on-task behavior is characterized by several key features: -Instructional material that students find educationally relevant; -A planned, sequential order that is logically related to skill development at students' instructional level; -Frequent opportunities for students to respond to academic tasks.For example, the use of response cards, choral responding, and peer tutoring are ways to increase such opportunities (CHRISTLE;SCHUSTER, 2003;GREENWOO et al., 1989;LAMBERT et al., 2006).

Teachers' Efficacy in Classroom Management (TECM)
The ability of teachers to organize classrooms and manage the behavior of their students is critical to achieving positive educational outcomes.Although sound behavior management does not guarantee effective instruction, it establishes the environmental context that makes good instruction possible.Reciprocally, highly effective instruction reduces, but does not eliminate, classroom behavior problems (EMMER; STOUGH, 2001).
Teachers' sense of efficacy also appears to be related to the teachers' classroom management and instructional strategies (SMYLIE, 1989).Henson (2001) examined the relationships between teacher efficacy and classroom beliefs about control.Results indicated that more efficacious teachers use positive strategies for classroom management.Emmer and Hickman (1991) proposed that rather than regarding teachers as high or low in overall teaching efficacy, it may be more valuable to examine their efficacy in critical sub areas such as classroom management.Recent research about perceived self-efficacy in classroom management by Brouwers and Tomic (1999) also indicated a relationship between classroom management efficacy and three dimensions of burnout and supported the earlier studies thorough revealing that teachers who consider themselves less competent in classroom management report high levels of burnout.
Improving the ability of teachers to effectively manage classroom behavior requires a systematic approach to teacher preparation and ongoing professional development.There is no evidence to support the assumption that new teachers will just 'pick up' classroom management skills given the experience and time.Although surveys indicate that experienced teachers have fewer concerns regarding classroom management, such surveys may be less an indication that teachers learn over time how to manage classrooms effectively and more a result of the fact that many teachers who did not learn classroom management skills simply have left the profession (BAKER, 2005).Thus, improved teacher preparation and professional development in classroom management are critical parts of the solution.
Ongoing professional development in classroom management is essential for all teachers but especially important for new teachers.Effectively managing the classroom is much more difficult for new teachers, who may not have received sufficient training and who may be assigned to classes with a large percentage of atrisk students.Overwhelmed by the needs and often unexpectedly disruptive behaviors of their students, these new teachers often are more reactive and more likely to respond to a student's inappropriate behavior by removing the student from instruction.Thus, students who already are at risk for poor academic and behavioral outcomes receive less instruction, and they fall further behind; subsequently, their minor behavioral problems escalate and they are more likely to be inappropriately referred for special education services.In addition, students with disabilities are significantly more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities; further, students with emotional and behavioral disorders are suspended at more than four times the rate of students in other disability categories (WAGNER et al., 2005).To address these concerns, school leaders need to ensure ongoing professional development in the area of classroom organization and behavior management.Highly effective instruction reduces, but does not fully eliminate, classroom behavior problems (EMMER; STOUGH, 2001).Effective classroom management requires a comprehensive approach that includes the following: -Structuring the school and classroom environment; -Actively supervising student engagement; -Implementing classroom rules and routines; -Enacting procedures that encourage appropriate behavior; -Using behavior reduction strategies; -Collecting and using data to monitor student behavior, and modifying classroom management procedures as needed.
Effective classroom management requires teachers to be adept at employing multiple strategies and to be skilled at recognizing when current strategies are ineffective and modifications are necessary.Practice with feedback from a supervisor or mentor is useful in developing these skills.
The purpose of this study was to find out the current situation of high school teachers' wellbeing and teacher efficacy and also the relationships among these variables.The study also aims to investigate how teachers' wellbeing and teacher efficacy differ with teachers' demographic characteristics, such as sex, age, marital status and job experiences.

Research methodology
The methodology of this study was that of a quantitative research.The population of this study was all high schools' teachers in 9 th to 11 th grades in Zahedan, Iran.Out of 1775 high school teachers (1036 female and 739 male) with using Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) sample size table, 315 teachers 184female and 131malewere selected as two sample groups.The valid sample of this study was 290 (169 female and 121 male. The two questionnaires employed here were The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire of the Hills and Argyle (2002) and Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale of the Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy's (2001).
The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire has 29 items by a five point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.Internal consistency reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alphas.For this Questionnaire an alpha of .89 was obtained.
Teachers' sense of efficacy scale is sometimes referred to as the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale, because it was developed at the Ohio State University.In this study, the long form of the scale was used.This instrument has 24 items by a five point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) nothing to (5) a great deal.Internal consistency reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alphas.For the total items of "Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale" an alpha of .92wasobtained.In the long version of the scale, the factors' names, items, and reliabilities were as follows: Factor1: Efficacy in student engagement, 1-2-4-6-9-12-14-22(α=.85)Factor2: Efficacy in instructional strategies, 7-10-11-17-18-20-23-24(α=.90) Factor3: Efficacy in classroom management, 3-5-8-13-15-16-19-21(α=.88) SPSS 15 was used to produce mean; standard deviations; Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r); t-test; Bonferroni Post Hoc test; and Analysis of Variance.
The details of sample descriptive statistics are displayed in Table 1.-The situation of high school teachers' wellbeing and teacher efficacy.The figures at Table 2 show that the high school teachers scored over average on wellbeing and also marked relatively high scores on teachers' efficacy and factors related to this variable: Efficacy in Student Engagement (ESE); Efficacy in Instructional Strategies (EIS) and Efficacy in Classroom Management (ECM).
-Relationship between the high school teachers' wellbeing, teacher efficacy and the factors related to teacher efficacy.The results of Table 3 show that there is relatively high positive correlation between teachers' wellbeing, teacher efficacy and sub variables related to teacher efficacy.The most correlation is between teachers' wellbeing and teachers' efficacy in instructional strategies.
-Relationship between the teachers' wellbeing and teacher efficacy among sex, age, marital, and job experiences groups.The results show that there is relatively high positive correlation between teachers' wellbeing, teacher efficacy and sub variables related to teacher efficacy in female, older and married teaches and also teachers with 5-10 years job experiences in comparison with male, younger, single, and teachers with more than 10 years job experiences (Table 4).
-Comparison teachers' wellbeing by sex and age, marital status, and job experiences.In the Table 5, the compute of t-test showed that there were no significance difference between sex and age groups, but there was a significance difference between teachers by marital status.In fact, the teachers who got the higher scores on happiness were those who were married.The compute of Analysis Variance showed that there was no difference between teachers by job experiences in this variable.
-Comparison teachers' efficacy by sex and age, marital status, and job experiences.
In the Table 6, about the teacher efficacy, the compute of t-test showed that there were no significance differences between sex and marital groups; however, there was difference between age groups.In fact the older teachers got the higher scores on teacher efficacy were those who were younger.The compute of Analysis Variance about job experiences groups showed that there were significance differences between the groups.Indeed, the compute of Post-Hoc Bonferroni showed that teachers were between 16 to 20 years job experiences that got the higher scores on teacher efficacy in comparison with other groups.

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to find out the relationships between high school teachers' wellbeing and their efficacy.The study also aims to investigate how teachers' wellbeing and teacher efficacy differ with teachers' demographic characteristics, such as sex, age, marital status and job experiences.The results showed that the high school teachers scored over average on wellbeing and also marked relatively high scores on teachers' efficacy and factors related to this variable.There was a positive relationship between teachers' wellbeing and their efficacy in instructional activities, and also between teachers' wellbeing and sub variables related to teachers' efficacy.The most correlation is between teachers' wellbeing and teachers' efficacy in instructional strategies.In fact, the happy teachers had higher efficacy in student engagement, classroom management, and use of appropriate instructional strategies.These findings are similar to the previous results in educational literature such as, Day et al. (2006), Barker and Martin (2009), Noddings (2005), and Huang (2006).For example, the findings of Noddings' study showed that a teacher's happiness can affect the classroom climate and therefore affect students, and Barker and Martin showed that the happy teachers are more able to give to students and teach them well.The study of these variables by teachers' demographic characteristics e.g.sex, age, marital status and job experiences showed that there was relatively high positive correlation between teachers' wellbeing, teacher efficacy and sub variables related to teacher efficacy in female, older and married teaches and also teachers with 5-10 years job experiences in comparison with male, younger, single, and teachers with more than 10 years job experiences.The results also showed the teachers who got the higher scores on happiness were those who were married.there was no difference between teachers by job experiences in this variable, the older teachers got the higher scores on teacher efficacy were those who were younger, and about job experiences groups, there were significance differences between the groups.Indeed, the teachers were between 16 to 20 years job experiences that got the higher scores on teacher efficacy in comparison with other groups.These findings are consistent with previous studies which found that for example, female, married teachers had higher levels of wellbeing and self efficacy (BRIDGWATER, 1982;CHEN, 2003;CHEN-YI HOU, 2007, CURTIS;LIYING, 2001;ENTWISTLE, 1987;FISLER;FIRESTONE, 2006;HUGHES et al., 1988;MUIJS;REYNOLDS, 2005;MULLINS, 1992;NODDINGS, 2005;ONAFOWORA, 2005;POLK, 2006;POST, 2005;QI LI-LI, 2009;ROGALLA, 2004;SELIGMAN, 2002;YOON, 2002).

Conclusion
As a result, teachers should have a working environment which improves their wellbeing and self-efficacy levels, therefore it should focus on improving the working conditions of teachers, because working conditions affect both wellbeing and efficacy levels of teachers.This study also revealed that teachers' efficacy belief is significantly related with their wellbeing; when teachers have high wellbeing levels, they also have high efficacy levels.Educational policy-makers should pay greater attention to teachers' professional wellbeing, reducing workloads, improving financial incentives and making efforts to provide them with a more satisfying work environment.This conclusion encourages to develop teachers' reflective awareness and to stimulate teachers to make their views on education explicit.It might help them to become more aware of their influence on students.

Table 2 .
Mean, Std.D., and One-Sample T-test of Teachers' Wellbeing and Teacher Efficacy and Sub Variables (N=290).

Table 3 .
Correlation between Teachers' Wellbeing; Teacher Efficacy and Sub Variables of Teacher Efficacy (N=290).

Table 4 .
Correlation between Teachers' Wellbeing; Teacher Efficacy and Sub Variables among Sex, Age, Marital status, and Job Experiences Groups (N=290).