Faculty Beliefs, Self-Efficacy, and the Implementation of Differentiated Instruction in Jolo I District

Abstract

The research presented provides a comprehensive look into how faculty beliefs and perceived self-efficacy affect the implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI). This descriptive-correlational study focused on a sample of 135 elementary school teachers within the Jolo I District. Looking closely at the participant demographics, the respondent pool consists primarily of young individuals, with 59.3% falling between the ages of 20 and 35. Additionally, the group is overwhelmingly female at 83.7%, and a significant portion consists of early-career professionals, with 44.4% having one to five years of teaching service. According to the data, the findings show that these educators maintain highly positive beliefs regarding DI, yielding a mean score of 3.43, alongside a high level of perceived self-efficacy, which scored a mean of 3.40. In practice, while teachers consistently succeeded in creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment—marked as "Always" implemented—the technical execution of diverse performance tasks and offering varied assignment choices achieved a lower rating of "Mostly Implemented." The regression analysis highlights that both internal variables significantly impact the overall extent of DI execution. Crucially, self-efficacy proved to be a much stronger predictor, explaining 64% of the variance, whereas faculty beliefs explained only 39% of the variance. This pattern remained largely stable across most demographic lines, except for a tiny segment of Doctorate degree holders where the relationship was statistically non-significant. Ultimately, the study concludes that while teachers possess the necessary psychological readiness for inclusive schooling, professional development efforts must target concrete technical confidence to bridge the gap between beliefs and practical execution.