Analysis of Classroom Teaching Candidates’ Speaking Self-efficacy in Terms of Different Variables

Abstract

Human beings are social creatures by nature and one of their most important characteristics is the multifaceted communication they establish with their environment. There are numerous ways of establishing communication. However, the most preferred manner has always been speech. For the speaking skill to be used effectively, the individual should have self-confidence. Educational institutions are the places where the foundations of self-confidence are laid. In educational institutions where self-confidence is taught, it is fundamental that the educators have self-confidence themselves. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the self-efficacy levels of classroom teacher candidates, who will be teaching in primary schools where the basic characteristics of the speaking skill are taught, display any differences in terms of different variables. The study group of the study consists of students receiving education at the Department of Primary School Teaching, Faculty of Education in a state university in the 2016-2017 academic year. The study group consists of 225 students who were selected through the typical case sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling types. With the purpose of collecting data, the ‘Speaking Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES)’ developed by Aydın (2013) consisting of four sub-dimensions with a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.95 was used. SPSS software program (Version 22) was used in the analysis of numeric data. The data was analyzed with the Independent Sample t-test, One Way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests. According to the results of the study, a significant difference has been determined in the speaking process and listener factor sub-dimensions of the students in favor of the male students. Regarding the grade levels, it was concluded that the upper grade levels regarded themselves as more self-sufficient in the skill of speaking in all of the sub-dimensions.