Self-Efficacy for Science Teaching Scale Development: Construct Validation with Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

The measurement of teacher self-efficacy has a history of more than 30 years. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the development and validation of a new scale to measure the science teaching self-efficacy of elementary school teachers. Therefore, a scale has been created to measure elementary teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy and the evidence for validity of the scale is presented in this study. Data collection for this study occurred during 2014-2015 academic year. Measurement tool applied to 135 science teachers in elementary school. All of these participants completed the Self-Efficacy for Science Teaching Scale (SSTS) in January 2015 and again in June 2015. “The Self-Efficacy for Science Teaching Scale (SSTS)” was developed and has undergone revisions to the original version through processes defined in this study. The SSTS is comprised of three parts: “Science Teaching Self-Efficacy (STSE), Efficacy for Understanding Science Content (EUSC) and Efficacy for Teaching Science Content (ETSC)”. Reliability for each part of the SSTS was found to be acceptable for both versions of the scale. Evidence of reliability and validity were collected to determine if the SSTS is an adequate scale to measure science teaching self-efficacy of teachers. Findings indicate that reliability and validity of the scale is adequate. Finally, theoretical implications for elementary school teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy are discussed.