Attitudes, self-efficacy and science processing skills of teaching certificate master's program (OFMAE) students

Abstract

Problem Statement: The present research investigated attitudes toward science teaching, science teaching self-efficacy, and science processing skills of 77 students attending a teaching certificate master's program on Secondary Education Science and Mathematics Fields Teaching (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematic Teaching) at Mersin University Graduate School of Natural Sciences. Purpose of Study: The purpose of the study is to explain the relationship between attitudes toward science teaching, self-efficacy and science processing skills of teaching certificate master's program (OFMAE) students. Methods: A survey method was the main research approach. Seventy-seven students attending a teaching certificate master's program on Secondary Education Science and Mathematics Fields Teaching were administered the Inventory for Attitude toward Science Course, Science Education Self Efficacy Inventory for Form Teacher Candidates and Science Processing Skills Questionnaire. Findings and Results: At the end of the research, no gender difference was observed in the scores of the students gathered from the measures related with those variables. The results of the ANOVA applied to the data showed the differences between the attitude scores of the students in relation to the departments. Significant differences were observed between chemistry and physics, mathematics, and biology and mathematics students' attitude scores. The results of the ANOVA applied to the data related with self-efficacy according to the department showed the differences between chemistry and biology, mathematics and physics and mathematics students' self-efficacy scores. The results of the ANOVA applied to the data related with the science processing skills according to the department showed the differences between chemistry and physics, and biology and physics students' scores. Conclusions and Recommendations: The results of the study showed that in the attitude variable, a) there was no gender difference in the attitude toward science teaching and b) chemistry students have the most positive attitudes toward science teaching and there was a significant difference between chemistry and physics students' attitudes toward science teaching. In the self-efficacy variable, a) there was no gender difference in self-efficacy and b) chemistry students have the greatest self-efficacy scores and there was a significant difference between chemistry and mathematics and biology students' and physics and mathematics students' self-efficacy scores. In the science processing skill variable, a) a gender difference was observed and females performed better than males in science the processing skills inventory and b) biology students had the greatest science processing skills scores and there was a significant difference between biology and physics, and chemistry and physics students' science processing skills inventory scores.