Reinvestigating role of teacher's job attitudes in student's academic achievement: A new look at on the casual role of an exogenous and an indigenous latent variable

The importance of teacher's job attitude and its role in academic achievement is highlighted in different research. But very few studies have looked at the casual impact of teachers’ sense of efficacy and job satisfaction. Through testing a hypothesized model, in the current study, role of teachers’ sense of efficacy (as an exogenous latent variable) and teachers’ job satisfaction (as an indigenous latent variable) in academic achievement were investigated. In doing so 184 chemic teachers of high schools in Lorestan province were completed "Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale" (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and "Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire" (MSQ) (Weiss, et al., 1967). Mean scores of students of sample teachers in chemic national exam were used to measure academic achievement. After reliability and construct validity analysis, research hypotheses were tested with Pearson correlation coefficient, standard multiple regression and path analysis. Results showed that there is a significant correlation between sense of efficacy, job satisfaction and academic achievement. Also the results of regression analysis showed that subscales of sense of efficacy (efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management) and subscales of job satisfaction (intrinsic, extrinsic and general satisfaction) has significant explanation from academic achievement. Result of tested hypothesized model revealed that sense of efficacy can influence academic achievement directly and indirectly through significant mediating role of job satisfaction. This model has a good fit with observed data. Results of this study draw attention to the importance of strategies to promote teachers’ sense of efficacy. Some implications were proposed in the final section of the article.