The study approaches as the predictors of academic self-efficacy and teacher efficacy: A study in pedagogical formation students

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to determine study approaches of students taking pedagogical formation from different departments, examine academic and teacher self-efficacy beliefs, find out the role of these factors in academic achievement and compare students in physical education and sport and students in the different field. Methods: 515 pedagogical formation students studying in the departments of physical education and sport, history, mathematics, graphic, philosophy, painting, music, business, contemporary Turkish dialects, Turkish philology, food and beverage management, biology, nutrition and dietetics, aquaculture, physics, nursing, English philology, hospitality management and sociology participated in this study. Academic self-efficacy scale, developed by Jerusalem and Schwarzer (1981), adapted to Turkish by Yilmaz, Gurcay and Ekinci (2007), was used to determine academic self-efficacy beliefs. Study Process Questionnaire, developed by Biggs, Kember, and Leung (2001) and adapted to Turkish by Yilmaz and Orhan (2011), was used to determine study approaches. Ohio Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale, developed by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy , adapted to Turkish by Baloglu and Karadag (2008), was used to determine teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Collected data was analyzed in SPSS, path analysis in AMOS. Results: Significant differences were found between genders regarding surface approach (SA) and surface motivation (SM). A significant difference was found between genders regarding academic self-efficacy. A significant difference was found between students according to their general academic averages (GAA) regarding academic self-efficacy (ASE), teacher self-efficacy (TSE) and study approaches (SA). Moreover, positive correlations were found between GAA, deep approach (DA) and TSE while a negative correlation was found between surface approach (SA) and TSE, DA, GAA. Students in physical education and sports department reported higher scores than the others regarding surface approach. Conclusion: The analysis related to the hypothesized model showed that study approaches had an impact on general academic average that had a role in increasing academic self-efficacy, correspondingly teacher self-efficacy beliefs increased.