Pre-service teachers self-efficacy for alternative assessment

Abstract

Since the paradigm of teaching and learning has been changed in Turkey as well as in many countries throughout the world , the primary curriculum introduced in the 2005 2006 academic year considered constructivism as a model. Through these changes, the importance and use of alternative assessment strategies are also emphasised. This brought the issue of training pre-service teachers in which they can use these strategies effectively when they become teachers. Many researchers agree that self-efficacy is one of the determining issues in understanding pre-service teachers’ actual behaviour in practice. This research aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy on alternative assessment. This study is supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (project number 112K321). Data are collected from the primary pre-service teachers in CanakkaleOnsekiz Mart University. The ‘Selfefficacy Scale for Alternative Assessment’ developed by the author was administered to pre-service teachers. In addition to this, 7 preservice teachers are also interviewed to elaborate the issues raised in the scale. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers have high selfefficacy regarding the use of alternative assessment. Among the pre-service teachers, there is no statistically significant difference regarding gender and regarding their educational background. Pre-service teachers’ responses to the interviews also supported the findings from the quantitative part of this research. Although pre-service teachers indicated that the nature of the subject and students’ level will influence their way of using alternative assessment strategies, they all claimed that they will use these strategies when they become teachers.