Relationship Between Professional Attitudes and Professional Commitment of Classroom Teachers: The Mediating Role of Teacher Self-Efficacy Belief

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between classroom teachers' commitment to their profession and professional attitudes, as well as the mediating role that self-efficacy belief plays in this relationship. The relational screening model was chosen as the method in the research. The study group of the research consists of a total of 235 classroom teachers, 188 of whom are female and 47 male, working in various primary schools in Turkey. In the research, attitude towards the teaching profession, dedication to the teaching profession, and teacher self-efficacy belief scales were used as data collection tools. Data were analyzed by correlation and structural equation model analysis. The analyzes show that there are positive and moderately significant relationships between teacher self-efficacy belief and attitude towards the teaching profession, and between commitment to the teaching profession and teacher self-efficacy belief. In addition, the results reveal that there is a highly significant positive relationship between commitment to the teaching profession and attitude towards the teaching profession. On the other hand, the Z value calculated according to the Sobel test equation was found to be 4.64 and it was concluded that self-efficacy belief partially mediated the relationship between professional attitude and commitment to the profession. In order to increase the validity of the significance levels of direct and indirect effects, bootstrapping was performed and the mediating role of self-efficacy belief was supported in the relationship between professional attitude and commitment to the profession.