Building innovative schools: the need for new approaches

Abstract

This study explored the relationships between university teachers' perceived stress and their self-efficacy beliefs, and the differences in the relationships across teachers from different tiers of institutions. A sample of 2758 teachers from 25 higher education institutions in China participated in the study. This study shows that stress from organisational inadequacy and new challenges were negatively associated with self-efficacy. Although stress from financial inadequacy and undesirable student quality were positively related to self-efficacy, the effect sizes were very small and have no practical significance. The results of multi-group analysis revealed significant differences in the relationships between perceived stress and self-efficacy beliefs among teachers from different tiers of institutions. These results provide some implications for improving university teachers' self-efficacy.