Science teaching self-efficacy of first year elementary teachers trained in a site based program. Paper presented at the annual meeting

The purpose of this study was to determine if the teachers trained in the site based preparation program that had obtained significant gains in self-efficacy were still expressing self-efficacy in science teaching after being in their own classrooms for one year. The 31 returned STEBI (science teaching efficacy belief instrument) surveys were analyzed for any significant changes in mean on the complete instrument and on each of the two constructs of PSTE (personal science teaching efficacy) and STOE (science teaching outcome expectancy). The mean for the entire instrument as well as for each of the two constructs remained statistically unchanged within a 95% confidence interval. The implication for teacher educators is that this specific affective dimension can be significantly enhanced and that increases can be maintained over time. The site based program can provide the four factors Bandura identified as sources of information used to determine self-efficacy. The lasting impact of the site based teacher preparatio