Effects of STEM Teachers' Self-efficacy on Their Job Satisfaction: A Multidimensional Study

Abstract

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is gaining increasingly widespread attention and substantial support on an international scale. Therefore, addressing critical issues and challenges in the context of its prosperous developments is of realistic significance. A tremendous problem hindering the development of STEM education is the shortage of STEM teachers. The high turnover rate of STEM teachers in the United States is a major contributor to the shortage of STEM teachers since up to 30% of new STEM teachers leave the profession within two years of serving. Improving STEM teachers’ job satisfaction can ameliorate this situation. Urged by such concern, the current dissertation focused on the STEM teacher shortage issue by examining the effect of STEM teachers’ self-efficacy, a frequently used teacher-perceived variable that is emphasized by education researchers, on their job satisfaction.

This dissertation is composed of three closely related studies: a meta-analysis of existing studies examining the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and their job satisfaction, an analysis of the impact of U.S. STEM teachers’ self-efficacy on their job satisfaction using an educational large-scale dataset, and international comparison of such impact between the U.S. and China, the world’s first and second-largest economies.

The first study is a meta-analysis. A total of 38 studies examining the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction were identified. The overall effect size (Fisher’s Z) computed is .41 (p < .001), which means a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and their job satisfaction was found.

The second study employed a structural equation modeling (SEM) model to examine the impact of U.S. secondary STEM teachers’ self-efficacy on their job satisfaction. Statistical results revealed that self-efficacy has a statistically significant positive impact on job satisfaction (γ = .35, p < .001) among U.S. STEM teachers.

Lastly, an international multi-group SEM analysis was employed to evaluate the similarities or differences of such impact between the U.S. and Chinese STEM teachers. The results showed that both U.S. and Chinese STEM teachers’ self-efficacy has a statistically significant positive impact on their job satisfaction, and there was insufficient evidence to show a significant difference in this relationship.