Out in the Field: Assessing the Impact of Vicarious Experiences on Preservice Elementary Science Teaching Efficacy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of vicarious experiences and field experience classroom characteristics (e.g., student socioeconomic status) on preservice science teaching efficacy.  The participants were forty six preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a field experience based elementary science education course and twenty inservice teachers.  A pretest was administered to the preservice elementary teachers early in the semester and consisted of demographic questions and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument B (STEBI-B).  A posttest was administered to the preservice elementary teachers at the end of the semester and consisted of field experience questions and the STEBI-B. The field experience inservice teachers provided personal, professional, and classroom characteristics data in the middle of the semester.
Unique to this study is the finding that enactive mastery experiences did not change the preservice elementary teacher’s science teaching efficacy during their field experiences as Bandura’s self-efficacy theory proposes.  Also unique to this study are the findings that variables of student ethnicity, student socioeconomic status and preservice teacher program placement were significant predictors of the preservice elementary teachers’ science teaching efficacy during their vicarious experiences. Even though variables of student ethnicity, student socioeconomic status and preservice teacher program placement negatively impacted preservice science teaching efficacy levels, preservice teachers should be placed in these environments when effective support exists. This support has the potential to reverse the negative declines observed in the preservice elementary teacher’s science teaching efficacy scores and better equip the preservice elementary teacher with the techniques needed to meet the diverse needs of their students.