Student Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Their Sense of Self-Efficacy: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis ∗

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the student teachers’ traditional versus constructivist educational beliefs and their sense of self-efficacy by some variables: gender, grade, and department. Also it is intended to examine the association between them. The population of the study is 3.817 (1.822 female, 1955 male) student teachers in Faculty of Education at Inonu University during the first semester of 2007-2008 academic year. The sample of the study comprises 411 students chosen using proportional stratified sampling technique. Participants were given “Teachers Belief Survey” and “Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale”. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis, LSD, Mann Whitney U and Pearson correlation. The analysis revealed that participants’ professional self-efficacy levels were moderately over average and they had both constructivist and traditional beliefs, the former being moderately more dominant. The comparisons between independent groups (gender, grade, and department) gave some results partly consistent with the relevant literature. Also a positive correlation was found between constructivist teacher beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs about student engagement, and between traditional teacher beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs about class management, instruction, and overall self-efficacy.