Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to examine the prospective teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about teaching. Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2001) with demographic part was administered to prospective teachers at the first and last years at a state university in Turkey. TSES was adapted to Turkish language by Çapa, Çakıroğlu&Sarıkaya (2005). Their study confirmed that three sub-scales of TSES is valid for Turkish prospective teachers. The sub-scales of the TSES: efficacy of instructional strategies and efficacy of classroom management strategies and efficacy of student engagement.In the present study, 213 freshman and 240 senior prospective elementary teachers’ data was analyzed by independent sample t-tests. Means of efficacy sub-scales of freshmen are Minstructional= 6.80, Mmanagement= 6.84 and Mengagement=6.72. Means of efficacy sub-scales of seniors are Minstructional= 6.73, Mmanagement= 6.73 and Mengagement=6.59. Based on means, Turkish prospective teachers’ efficacy beliefs were high. There was no significant mean difference between freshman and senior prospective teachers with respect to their efficacy beliefs in student engagement (t (485) =1.37. p= .169), instructional strategies (t (471.497) =0.726. p= .486), and classroom management (t (472.451) = 1.119. p= .264).Implications for further research were given.

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