Comparing professional self-confidence: opinions of Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers

Abstract

Research issue: possible differences between Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers’ professional self-confidence. Research questions: 1. What is the structure of teacher’s professional self-confidence? 2. How do the components of teacher’s professional self-confidence correlate? 3. Is there a significant difference between Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers’ perceptions of professional self-esteem? 4. Is there a significant difference between Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers’ perceptions of professional self-efficacy? 5. Is there a significant difference between Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers’ perceptions of collective efficacy? 6. Is there a relation between teachers’ gender, age, experience rate and the components of teachers’ professional self-confidence? Research object: the professional self-confidence of teachers. Research aim: to analyze and describe the concept of teacher’s professional self-confidence, measure and compare the average degrees of its components for Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers. Results: current study reports findings about quantitative investigation of the opinions of Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish teachers’ about their perceived professional self-confidence with a sample of 393 practicing teachers. Teachers’ self-esteem, self- and collective efficacy were examined as components of teachers’ professional self-confidence and statistically significant correlations between them were defined. The results indicated that Finnish teachers have a significantly higher level of professional self-esteem, while Lithuanian teachers indicated lower level, and Ukrainian – the lowest. There is no significant difference between self- and collective efficacy of Lithuanian and Finnish teachers, while Ukrainian teachers scored significantly lower. Hence, Finnish teachers have comparatively the highest level of professional self-confidence, while Lithuanian teachers have an average level, and Ukrainian teachers have the lowest. The components of professional self-confidence’ are highly dependent on teachers’ age and experience rates. The female teachers are less certain about their professional self-esteem than male teachers.