Instructional Autonomy, Teacher Self-Efficacy, and Reported Emphasis on Students’ Social and Emotional Skills Development: A Design-Sensitive Analysis of Mathematics Teachers in TALIS 2024 Türkiye

Abstract

Social and emotional skills can be addressed within ordinary mathematics activities, but the teacher-level conditions associated with such emphasis remain unclear. This study examined whether mathematics teachers’ perceived instructional autonomy was associated with their reported emphasis on students’ social and emotional skill development and whether overall teacher self-efficacy statistically carried part of that association. Data came from 863 teachers in 352 schools in TALIS 2024 Türkiye. Analyses retained the teacher weight, school clustering, and the 100 official Fay-BRR replicate weights for the separately calibrated ISCED 2 and ISCED 3 populations. Instructional autonomy was positively associated with self-efficacy and with reported social–emotional emphasis, and self-efficacy was positively associated with the outcome. The statistical indirect association was positive (B = 0.140, 95% CI [0.100, 0.179]); all four primary hypotheses were supported. The association was positive at both educational levels, and no statistically reliable difference from teachers of other subjects was detected. The findings identify a design-sensitive association pattern in a substantively meaningful mathematics-teaching context, but they do not establish temporal or causal mediation and should not be interpreted as evidence about observed practice or student outcomes.