Academic Motivation and Academic Self-efficacy of Prospective Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between academic self-efficacy perception of prospective teachers and their academic motivation levels. The study was conducted on 322 prospective teachers (226 female and 96 male) who were in 3^rd and 4^th grades at Faculty of Education in Sakarya University during Spring term of 2017-2018 academic year. Data was collected through “Academic Motivation Scale” developed by Vallerand et al. (1992) and adapted into Turkish by Karagüven (2012) and “Self-perception of Candidate Teachers on Teaching Proficiency Scale” developed by Çakır, Erkuş, and Kılıç (2004). SPSS 23 package program was used to analyze the data; percentage, frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD and Pearson Correlation test were used in the data analysis. The results of analyses indicated that academic self-efficacy perception levels of the prospective teachers were at desired level. However, their academic motivation levels were at middle level. The result of the analysis revealed that the prospective teachers who were female and taught at 4th grade had higher academic self-efficacy score whereas significant difference was not found in academic motivation levels in terms of gender and grade. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in both academic self-efficacy perception of the prospective teacher and their academic motivation levels in terms of department variables. Prospective teachers enrolled at the department of Preschool and Science Education had higher academic self-efficacy perception than those enrolled at the department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, English, Special Education, Social Science and Mathematics. Prospective teachers enrolled at the department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance and Science Education had higher academic motivation levels than English prospective teachers. Further, significant positive correlations were observed between academic motivation and academic self-efficacy of prospective teachers.