Abstract:

This study investigated the perceptions of the special education student teachers about self-efficacy beliefs. It also attempted to explore whether there were any differences in the perceptions of the special education student teachers about self-efficacy beliefs regarding gender, age and year of class. The participants of the study were 221 special education student teachers studying in the teacher training programme of a private university in Northern Cyprus context. In this study, there were 97 female and 124 male participants. To collect data, Turkish Version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TTSES) was utilized. The Teachers’ Sense of Self Efficacy Scale was originally developed by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy (2001) and later adapted to Turkish by Çapa, Çakıroğlu & Sarıkaya (2005). In order to test the gender-related differences in the perceptions of the participant special education student teachers regarding self-efficacy beliefs, if any, a t-test was employed. To find out whether there were any significant differences in the perceptions of the participant student teachers self-efficacy in relation to age, an ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test was administered. In order to explore if the participant student teachers’ perceptions about self-efficacy beliefs differed in relation to year of class, the collected data was subjected to an ANOVA test. The findings of the study revealed that all the participants had high self-efficacy beliefs. They also indicated that there were no gender-related, age-related and year of class-related differences in the perceptions of the participants regarding their sense of self-efficacy beliefs. 

Keywords: