The assessment of the relation between self-efficacy belief levels, learning styles of science teacher candidates towards science teaching and their attitudes towards science teaching

This research was conducted with the aim of assessing the relation between the self-efficacy beliefs, behaviors and learning styles of science teacher candidates towards science teaching. The research was carried out with a total of 902 science teacher candidates (660 female, 242 male students) from 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of 3 state universities within Ankara. The data was collected within the fall semester of 2007-2008 education year by means of the science teaching self-efficacy belief scale developed by Enochs and Rings (1990) and translated into Turkish by Özkan, Tekkaya and Çakıroğlu (2002), science teaching attitude scale developed by Thompson and Shringley (1986) and translated into Turkish by Özkan, Tekkaya and Çakıroğlu (2002) and learning styles inventory developed by Kolb (1984) and translated into Turkish by Aşkar and Akkoyunlu (1993).The results of the research showed that the scale of science teaching self-efficacy of science teacher candidates is at a good level in sub-dimension of personal self-efficacy and result expectation. Moreover, analysis results demonstrated that science teacher candidates develop positive attitude towards science teaching and possess different learning styles. Additionally, there was found a statistically meaningful relation between attitudes of science teacher candidates towards science teaching plus their learning styles and their changes in science teaching self-efficacy belief. Furthermore, it was deducted that science teacher candidates differentiate in their attitudes towards science teaching in parallel to self-efficacy belief compared to learning styles.