Association between pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their confidence in physics content

Paul  Molefe; Mmushetji Petrus Rankhumise; Olivia Neo Mafa-Theledi

doi:10.56003/jse.v4i2.313

Authors

Paul Molefe Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
Mmushetji Rankhumise Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
Olivia Neo Mafa-Theledi Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56003/jse.v4i2.313

Keywords:

Belief, confidence, pre-service teachers, curriculum

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the relationship between the knowledge of selected physics concepts from the South African National Senior Certificate curriculum and the self-efficacy beliefs of preservice science teachers. Forty-one preservice physical science teachers between the ages of 16 and 30 enrolled in a higher education institution to earn a Bachelor of Education degree made up the participants. Of these, 56.1% were female and 43.9% were male. Every respondent was a recent high school graduate from South Africa enrolled in a second-year university course on basic physical science. The preservice teachers completed the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) and a teaching confidence ranking scale. A confidence ranking for teaching topics from a typical high school science curriculum was determined by analyzing the data. According to the data analysis, preservice teachers are confident and self-sufficient enough to teach science concepts.

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