Emotional experiences of secondary pre-service teachers conducting practical work in a science lab course: individual differences and prediction of teacher efficacy

Abstract

The present study explored pre-service science teachers’ emotions during a semester-long laboratory science course. Emotions were measured with the experience sampling technique, which is a research method that facilitates the observation of emotional states over a long period. We studied the relationships between pre-service teachers’ emotional states (enjoyment, stress, and insecurity), self-efficacy traits and beliefs, and their momentary intentions to apply the experiment in later teaching. A total of N = 101 pre-service teachers completed a short, electronic questionnaire twice during each of the nine course sessions. Data analysis utilised random-slope multi-level models. Pre-service teachers’ emotions became more negative over time. In addition, emotional states accurately predicted teachers’ momentary intentions to use the experiment in the future. However, this relationship differed significantly for each course session and between teachers. Emotional states also predicted pre-service teachers’ habitual self-efficacy beliefs for teaching biology experiments with small but significant variances between teachers. The results indicate that emotions experienced during teacher education might influence the teacher students’ professional attitudes towards science teaching.