Science teaching self-efficacy in a primary school: A case study

Bandura's theory of self-efficacy predicts that teachers with high, self-efficacy should persist longer, provide a greater academic focus in child-centred classrooms and exhibit different types of feedback than teachers who have lower self-efficacy. This paper reports on the science teaching self-efficacy in a group of teachers at a state primary school. The research was conducted in two stages using firstly the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-A) to identify cases, and secondly, a semistructured interview coupled with classroom observations. Thirty seven teaching staff were surveyed with the STEBI-A instrument. The five highest and five lowest scoring teachers on the personal science teaching self-efficacy subscale of the STEBI-A were interviewed. The analysis of interviews and observations indicated that teachers with high personal science teaching self-efficacy have had a long interest in science and a relatively strong background of formal science studies with opportunities for exploring out of school activities. Although they may have experienced negative science experiences in their own schooling other ameliorating factors existed which maintained their interest. Their instructional strategies in science lessons were more child-centred than those reported by teachers with lower personal science teaching self-efficacy. The implications of the results for the inservice training of teachers are discussed.