An application of the revised ‘Lecturer Self-Efficacy Questionnaire’: an evidence-based route for initiating transformational change

Abstract

This article presents findings arising from the first UK application of a revised 70-item lecturer self-efficacy questionnaire recently developed for use in the Australian higher education context. Intended to probe and systematically measure confidence in the core functions of research, teaching and other academic or service-related activities among lecturers, the institutional case-study presented here suggests that this instrument has considerable diagnostic potential for leaders, managers and administrators wishing to explore operational aspects of policy, evaluate strategy and initiate professional dialogue at a variety of levels. Its indicated value as a diagnostic tool suggests a relevance not only to higher but also to further education, where degree-level provision is established and likely to increase. Following an earlier rigorous reassessment and re-evaluation of the questionnaire's validity and reliability, including a robust statistical analysis of its associated scales and subscales, findings indicate that respondents felt most confident across all aspects of teachingthe core function which also occupied most of their time. Perhaps surprisingly for the institution involved in the case study, researchwhich occupied the least amount of timegenerally displayed the most pronounced confidence hierarchy, from activities attached to data collection and analysis to leading funded research projects. Outcomes for other academic or service-related activities were generally mixed, but confidence attached to internal academic events was higher than that linked to external ones. Taken together, the findings, including the effects of career stage, qualifications, gender, research output and workload distribution, were considered sufficient to initiate an appropriate strategic response directed towards transformational change. The limitations of the questionnaire are considered in detail.

The relationship between research self-efficacy, research disposition and publication output

“…pressure to publish). Support for this specific finding can be found in recent work conducted in Australia (Hemmings & Kay, 2010a, 2010b and the UK (Hemmings, Kay, Sharp, & Taylor, 2012;Sharp, Hemmings, Kay, & Callinan, 2012) where research self-efficacy, that is, an individual's confidence to successfully perform tasks when conducting research (Forester, Kahn, & HessonMcInnis, 2004), proved to be the most potent predictor, amongst several other factors, of research output. Again, these studies drew on quantitative data obtained from mail-out surveys.…”

“…Arguably, other indicators of research disposition could be used or the existing ones refined but relatively strong evidence for the three used came from research studies conducted in both Australia and the UK (see, e.g. Hemmings & Hill, 2013;Sharp et al, 2012). Further study employing these measures or similar measures is warranted given the paucity of research that exists around research disposition.…”

“…However, the primary catalyst is the recent quantitative work conducted by Kay (2010a, 2010b), Hemmings et al (2012) and Sharp et al (2012) suggesting that both research self-efficacy and research disposition appear to be key determinants of publication activity and subsequent career success. The latter construct, research disposition, could be viewed as a product of person and environment interaction.…”

Tenure Expectations and Career Aspirations Among Female Assistant Professors in STEM

“…Faculty task-specific self-efficacy. The Lecturer Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Sharp et al, 2013) is a 70item self-report measure to assess confidence in the core functions of three areas: research, teaching, and other academic or service-related activities among professors. Participants were asked to indicate how confident they felt about performing tasks on a 10-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (not confident) to 9 (completely confident).…”

“…An example item is “keeping up to date with research literature.” Higher scores indicate higher self-efficacy in that domain. The internal consistency for the research, teaching, and other service subscales ranged from α = .78 to .91, .85 to .95, and .87 to .89, respectively, within a sample of academics in four higher education institutions (Sharp et al, 2013). Additionally, the teaching and research subscales have been found to be predictive of job satisfaction in a sample of university faculty (Ismayilova & Klassen, 2019).…”