Fear and efficacy appeals in the classroom: the secondary teachers’ perspective

Abstract

Previous research has examined the use of classroom fear and efficacy appeals from a student perspective, but little is known about teachers’ views towards fear and efficacy appeals. In this preliminary study, we conducted a survey of 234 secondary school teachers. Results showed that teachers held mixed views towards the use of fear appeals and their domain knowledge of fear appeals, but more homogenous views about efficacy appeals, reassuring messages and domain knowledge of efficacy appeals. There were no differences in the endorsement of fear and efficacy appeals from teachers of differing school general certificate of secondary education performance, however, teachers reported students to be less efficacious from schools whose performance is deemed to be ‘under average’. There were no differences in the endorsement of fear appeals or domain knowledge of fear appeals between novice and experienced teachers. These findings provide a first step in examining fear and efficacy appeals from a teacher perspective.

Keywords:

• fear appeals
• efficacy appeals
• classroom environment
• teachers’ attitudes
• teachers’ beliefs

Notes

1. We acknowledge that criteria for assessing model fit indices are debated and that criteria proposed here may be viewed as overly rigorous (Marsh, Hau, & Grayson, 2005; Marsh, Hau, & Wen, 2004).

2. ‘Dont know’ responses were excluded from this analysis.