Investigation of the relationship between science teachers' self-efficacy for laboratory work and teacher self-regulation

This study aims to examine the relationship between self-efficacy for laboratory work and teacher self-regulation of science teachers working in different cities throughout Turkey. For this purpose, a descriptive study was carried out using the correlational survey model, one of the quantitative methods. The Participant Information Form developed by the researcher, the Qualification of Science Teachers' towards Laboratory Work Questionnaire developed by Kaya, Çepni and Küçük (2004) and adapted by Kaya and Böyük (2011), and the Teacher Self-Regulation Scale developed by Çapa-Aydin, Sungur and Uzuntiryaki (2009) based on Zimmeman's self-regulation model were used as data collection tools in this research. Science teachers working in each region of Turkey in the spring term of the 2021-2022 academic year were reached online via Google forms. Data have been collected from 445 science teachers, 283 females and 162 males, working in public and private secondary schools during the study. The mean age average of the participants was 37.35 (SD=6.79) and the professional experience is 13.31 (SD=7.06).In the data analysis, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, minimum value, maximum value) were calculated to determine the level of participants' self-efficacy for laboratory work and teacher self-regulation. Then, Pearson correlation coefficients were interpreted to determine the relationships among these variables. Then, independent samples t-Test was used to test whether the self-efficacy for laboratory work differed according to gender and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) has been used to investigate the difference in teacher self-regulation by gender. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the role of teacher self-regulation in their self-efficacy for laboratory studies. With the results of the descriptive statistics, it was determined that the self-efficacy perceptions of science teachers for laboratory work were at a high level. When the descriptive statistics calculated for the nine sub-dimensions of the Teacher Self-Regulation Scale were examined, it was seen that all the participants considered themselves at a very high level in the sub-dimensions of goal setting, intrinsic interest, self-instruction, emotional control, self-evaluation, self-reaction, and help-seeking. On the other hand, it was found that they considered themselves at high level in terms of mastery goal orientation, and at low level in terms of performance goal orientation. When the relationships between the self-efficacy of science teachers for laboratory work and the sub-dimensions of teacher self-regulation were examined, it was found that there was a high-level positive and significant relationship with goal setting and self-instruction sub-dimensions, medium-level relationship with sub-dimensions of emotional control, self-evaluation and help-seeking, a low-level relationship with the sub-dimensions of self-reaction, intrinsic interest, and mastery goal orientation. However, there was no significant relationship with the performance goal orientation. It was determined that the self-efficacy perceptions of the participants for laboratory work did not differ in terms of gender. When examining whether teacher self-regulation differred in terms of gender, it was seen that there was a significant difference between the groups in favor of males in the sub-dimension of self-instruction and in favor of females in the sub-dimensions of self-evaluation, self-reaction and help-seeking. Finally, as a result of the multiple regression analysis performed to determine the role of teacher self-regulation in their self-efficacy for laboratory work, in order of importance, it has been found that goal setting and emotional control significantly explained science teachers' self-efficacy perceptions about laboratory work. It is noteworthy that there are few studies in the literature examining the relationship between science teachers' self-efficacy for laboratory work and their teacher self-regulation. It is recommended that more studies can be conducted on this subject to compare the results of the present study.