An evaluation of elementary and music teacher candidates' perceptions of professional self-efficacy: the cases of Pamukkale and Adnan Menderes Universities

Teacher candidates trained to be teachers in education faculties acquire certain academic skills and affective characteristics, which is important for the quality of their future teaching. Perception of self-efficacy that can be briefly defined as "professional confidence" is one of the affective characteristics which shapes teacher candidates' success. The Aim of the Study: The aim of this study is to evaluate professional self-efficacy perceptions of elementary and music teacher candidates studying in education faculties at Pamukkale and Adnan Menderes Universities in comparison. Method of the Study: In this study, survey method was used to identify students' professional self-efficacy levels as is, gather quantitative data, and produce statistics relevant to the issue. The population of the study is the teacher candidates studying their 4th year in Elementary and Music Education Departments of the Education Faculties at Denizli Panukkale and Aydin Adnan Menderes Universities. In the study conducted with 167students (elementary education=132; music education=35) from Pamukkale University and 144 students (elementary education=95; music education=28) from Adnan Menderes University an inventory was administered to 290 students in total. In this study,"Teacher Candidates Self-Efficacy Inventory" developed by Kahyaoglu and Yangin (2007) was used to identify the students' perceptions. In the study, self-efficacy inventory was administered to each student. Students' perceptions were identified and evaluated. The data gathered from the inventory was analyzed and mean scores, standard deviations and t-test scores were calculated with SPSS and EXCEL. The results of the study based on data analysis are as follows: Teacher candidates' self-efficacy perceptions do not differ according to gender, university, major and schooling shift (day or evening) variables. However, a meaningful difference was found between music and elementary teacher candidates. This difference can be attributed to that music students study at a department which requires certain abilities. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboyl