impact of collegial peer coaching teacher training program upon Palm Beach County teachers' sense of self-efficacy

The Palm Beach County School District, FL, (District) has introduced collegial peer coaching as one element of staff development in making training more effective for school improvement in making training more effective for school improvement practices. The purpose of this research was to ascertain the effects of collegial peer coaching on teachers' perception of self-efficacy. Developing skills to improve student achievement is the goal of inservice training for teachers. Teacher efficacy requires practice and refinement in order for teachers to gain executive control over newly-learned strategies. No empirical evidence exists regarding the effects of collegial peer coaching on teacher behaviors. The Teacher Locus of Control Scale was administered in a two-group study to determine whether teachers' sense of self-efficacy was impacted significantly by involvement in collegial peer coaching, years of teaching experience, teaching grade level, or by geographic location (work site) in the District. The treatment group subjects (collegial peer coaches, n = 102) and control group subjects (teachers not involved in collegial peer coaching, n=102) were surveyed in a pre- and posttest application to test the hypotheses. Results of the study indicate that teachers' sense of self-efficacy is impacted significantly by collegial peer coaching and by geographic location within the District (p <.05). A significant interaction effect was found between collegial peer coaching status and teaching grade level (p <.05).