Does Intention Matter? Assessing the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs of Pre-service Teachers as Compared to the General Student Population

Abstract

Teachers' sense of efficacy, that is, the extent of their belief that their efforts affect student learning is a significant indicator of effective teachers. Self efficacy has two dimensions: self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy.  The research tests the hypotheses that there is no difference in the science teaching efficacy of science majors who planned to teach and science majors who did not; non-science majors who planned to teach and those that did not; and also compared science majors and non-science majors in the general student population. Among all pre-service teachers, science majors had a significantly higher Personal Science Teaching Efficacy (PSTE) but their Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy (STOE) was not significantly different from their non-science counterparts.   In a comparison of science majors the pre-service teachers had a lower STOE than their peers who did not intend to teach.  Pre-service non-science majors did not have a significantly different PSTE or STOE from the general population, demonstrating that completing a teaching minor and intending to be become elementary teacher did not positively impact their science teaching efficacy.