Self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service science teachers on fieldtrips

Abstract

Science is compr ised of theory and practical w work and to stu dy either part is not enough to understand the whole. Pr ractical work su uch as observa tion and fieldtr rips should be used to devel p students’ inquiry skills as o well as to su upport the theor ry. Teachers with high self‐effi cacy on fieldtrip ps will be more likely to use th his technique. S Self‐efficacy ca an be describe ed as the perception of in ividual d capac city. When th he teacher cand didates and tea achers are co onsidered, self‐e fficacy beliefs a affect teachersʹ c lassroom practi ices and teacher rs with a high s self‐efficacy leve el are more pa assionate about teaching. This study intended to construct a self‐efficacy s scale for pre‐se ervice science t teachers on us sing field‐trips. The study also aimed to determine whether t ese beliefs vary h y by gender, cla ass, secondary s school type, wh hether fieldtrip p was used in h high school an nd university courses. Survey design was us sed in this stud dy and the po opulation was determined as a all science educ cation students at Turkish univ versities. The sa ample consisted d of all 265 stu udents at Niğd de Ömer Halis demir Universit ty. Data were c collected by administering the e “Self‐Efficacy y Beliefs on Fie eldtrip Scale” b by Öztürk (2008) to 249 pre‐serv vice science teac chers. The students’ responses s were analysed in order to co onstruct a self‐ef fficacy scale. Item and scale an nalyses were do one to assess the e reliability of th he scale and validity of the sc ores. Nonparam metric tests we ere used to det termine whethe er the beliefs d differ according g to those facto ors. Results sh howed that self f‐efficacy belief fs are multidim mensional (cons sisted of task e efficacy, coping g with problem ms efficacy, tea aching efficacy, , and pre‐visit actions efficacy y); and pre‐serv vice teachers’ b beliefs were po ositive except co oping with pr roblems efficacy . The results als so revealed that t efficacy beliefs s of the pre‐serv vice science teac chers differed w ith gender (fo or pre‐visit actio ns efficacy girl ls had higher sc ores than boys) , the class level (pre‐service tea achers at lower grades had hi gh efficacy on p re‐visit and ta ask efficacy compared to those e at higher grades), and wheth her fieldtrips we re used in hi gh school (for t ask efficacy pr re‐service teachers whose high h school courses were taught w with fieldtrips h ad higher sc ores than thos e whose high school courses were not tau ught with fieldtrips. On the o other hand no significant di fferences were found among p pre‐service teach hers on class l vel, secondary school type, a d whether field e n dtrips were u ed in university s courses.