Astronomy Teaching Self-Efficacy Belief Scale: The Validity and Reliability Study

Filiz Demirci,Cengiz Ozyurek

doi:10.5539/jel.v7n1p258

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and safe scale for determining the self-efficacy levels of science teachers in the teaching of astronomy subjects. The study used a survey approach, which is a qualitative research method. The study was conducted with a total of 106 science teachers working in the secondary schools of Ordu city centre and the surrounding towns during the academic year 2016-2017. While forming the item pool of the scale, scale development studies within the context of teacher self-efficacy and the special field competencies of science and technology teachers determined by MOE (2008) was used. In addition, the compositions written by eight science teachers outside the study group about the teaching of astronomy were also used for item pool. For the content validity of the scale, an expert opinion form was prepared to assess the content validity rate and kappa coefficient of agreement, and this was presented to six faculty members in the science teaching department. The construct validity of the scale was investigated via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of EFA showed that the scale construct included a total of three factors and 13 questions, and explained 70.60% of the total variance. CFA results showed that the chi-squared value and the degrees-of-freedom rates (c2/sd = 1.67) were perfect, and the other fit indices showed a good fit (GFI = 0.86, CFI = 0.94, NNFI = 0.92, IFI = 0.94, SRMR = 0.08 and RMSEA = 0.06). The results of the reliability analysis showed that the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was 0.84 for the whole scale, 0.90 for “student outcomes through astronomy teaching” factor, and 0.83 for both “astronomy teaching strategies” factor and “difficulty in astronomy teaching” factor. In conclusion, the results obtained showed that “Astronomy Teaching Self-Efficacy Belief Scale” can be used as a valid and reliable assessment instrument.

Highlights

In terms of pupils’ learning and development, personal beliefs about their teaching behavior as well as professional knowledge and skills of teachers are important
Items which specified the self-efficacy beliefs of teachers were noted by making use of the special field competencies of science and technology teachers determined by MOE (2008)
The factor structure of the developed scale was identified, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test whether the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the determined item-factor structure were consistent

Summary

Introduction

In terms of pupils’ learning and development, personal beliefs about their teaching behavior as well as professional knowledge and skills of teachers are important. Teachers’ beliefs about teaching competences are closely related to performances in the teaching process. Self-efficacy belief is one of the personal beliefs that directly influence the performance that teachers will exhibit to attain certain goals. Self-efficacy is defined as “one’s beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” Bandura (1977) mentioned the self-efficacy concept for the first time in his social cognitive learning theory based on a behaviour change mechanism. On the basis of social-cognitive learning theory, teacher self-efficacy beliefs are consistently associated with student outcomes and effective teaching behaviors (Henson, 2001)

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Results