Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">Contemporary educational reforms, both in the fields of science and mathematics, highlight the importance of pre-service teachers’ preparation with regard to several meaningful standards. However, teachers’ own self-confidence in science and mathematics teaching are likely to influence their efforts. Framed within a growing body of research focusing on pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs in science and mathematics teaching, the present study attempts to investigate Greek pre-service primary teachers’ efficacy beliefs in science and mathematics teaching; and further examine whether there is a relationship between the two. Participants comprised 171 pre-service primary teachers, who were in their second (n = 55), third (n = 64) or fourth year (n = 52) of study and the majority were female (n = 148). Pre-service teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument - Form B (STEBI-B) and the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI). Principal component analyses and reliability analyses were performed for both instruments to examine their adaptation into Greek. According to the results, preservice teachers had medium to high scores in the personal efficacy and outcome expectancy scales, for both science and mathematics teaching. Minor differences in pre-service teachers’ scores were detected according to their year of study. Furthermore, pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs in science were strongly correlated with their efficacy beliefs in mathematics. In general, although pre-service teachers appeared to be confident and well-prepared to teach science and mathematics in classrooms, more effort is required to put the international education reform standards into practice.</p>
Highlights
Contemporary education reform efforts have consistently called for higher quality science and mathematics teaching in primary schools, underlining the importance of pre-service teachers’ preparation during their studies (NCTM, 1991, 2000, 2014; NGSS Lead States, 2013; NRC, 1996, 2012)
Pre-service teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument - Form B (STEBI-B) and the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI)
The present study contributes to the existing literature by providing preliminary data regarding the Greek adaptation of two well-known instruments for investigating pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs in science and mathematics teaching, the STEBI-B and MTEBI
Summary
Contemporary education reform efforts have consistently called for higher quality science and mathematics teaching in primary schools, underlining the importance of pre-service teachers’ preparation during their studies (NCTM, 1991, 2000, 2014; NGSS Lead States, 2013; NRC, 1996, 2012). In accordance with these reform efforts, teachers are asked to implement innovative teaching practices which will enable students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills (e.g. by facilitating students to conduct their own inquiries in order to learn scientific and/or mathematical ideas/concepts). Other instruments have been developed, both the STEBI-B and MTEBI are frequently employed in the literature since they appear to provide valid and reliable data for these complex constructs (Deehan, 2017; Shroyer, Riggs, & Enochs, 2014)
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