Applicability of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale to educators teaching innovative programs Nikolaos Tsigilis, Vasilios Grammatikopoulos and Athanasios Koustelios Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece Abstract Purpose – The purpose of the present study is to examine the applicability of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy) to educators teaching an innovative program, namely, the Olympic Education Program. TSES applicability was inferred from examination of the TSES factor structure, its internal consistency and its logical, theoretical consistent pattern of relations between TSES and other measures. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 175 educators completed a Greek version of the TSES along with the reduced personal accomplishment subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Findings – Exploratory factor analysis showed that TSES can be applied to educators of an innovative educational program to study an overall factor of teachers’ sense of competence. Mean values suggested that educators had strong efficacy beliefs. In addition, TSES responses were negatively associated with reduced personal accomplishment scores (r ¼ 20:37). Research limitations/implications – Self-reported strong sense of efficacy may not be well-grounded or authentic, since a variety of factors (e.g. social desirability) may have influenced educators’ responses. Originality/value – The present study extends the existing evidence of the applicability of the TSES in a cultural context different from that for which it was originally developed, namely, in the Greek educational setting, for assessing educators teaching an innovative educational program. Keywords Teachers, Greece Paper type Research paper Educational research has devoted much attention to the concept of teacher efficacy. This is conceivable given that teachers’ sense of competence has been frequently related to a variety of positive teaching behaviors and student performance. For example, teachers having strong efficacy beliefs tend to be more open to new ideas and innovations, exhibit greater commitment to teaching, invest greater effort in teaching, are less critical to students who make mistakes and provide assistance to low achieving students (Hoy and Spero, 2005; Ross, 1998; Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001). According to Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy (2001) teacher efficacy can be defined as a “judgment of his or her capabilities to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning, even among those students who may be difficult or unmotivated.” (p. 783). Various instruments have been developed to measure teachers’ self-efficacy. Initially, Rotter’s (1966) locus of control theory used to conceptualise teachers’ efficacy. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-354X.htm IJEM 21,7 634 International Journal of Educational Management Vol. 21 No. 7, 2007 pp. 634-642 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0951-354X DOI 10.1108/09513540710822229