Determination of science teachers' special field competence tendencies with situational judgment test

Continuous development for teachers may be provided with need-oriented professional development services. Determining teachers' professional needs using scientific methods requires determining general and specific professional competence tendencies with valid and reliable tools. The aim of this study is to develop a situational judgment test (SJT) to determine science teachers' specific field competence tendencies. The second purpose of the research was to reveal whether science teachers' special field competence tendencies difference according to some variables. The stages of the test development process were followed in the research. The test development process was carried out with the survey research pattern. 199 science teachers from 31 provinces of Turkey voluntarily participated in the research. 48 scenarios covering five competence fields, 24 competence topics and 132 performance indicators were prepared. Each scenario contained four reactions and every reaction was rated as "I wouldn't definitely do this", "I wouldn't probably do this", "I would probably do this" and "I would definitely do this". SPSS and LISREL statistical package programs were used in data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed. It was revealed that the science teachers' special field competence tendencies were about 50% for the non-preferred reactions. Additionally, the tendency of teachers to show reactions at the A1 level was higher than at the A2 and A3 levels. The other result of the research was that the science teachers' special field competence tendencies differed according to gender, the school administration's attitude, the year of service and the career stage. Another result of the research was that eight variables (gender, educational status, career stage, place of work, year of service, course load, the school administration's attitude and frequency of organizing scientific activities) had a predictive effect on teachers' competence tendencies. Additionally, the results showed that the positive attitude of the school administration had a significant predictive effect on teachers' competence tendency for all sub-dimensions of the test. The aim of the developed SJT was to systematically follow the professional development of science teachers and organize professional studies appropriate to their needs. In addition, the measurement of specific field competence tendencies may be used as a reference in the standardization of science teacher qualifications across the country and in the need-oriented planning of professional development activities. This study has the potential to develop SJTs for general teacher competencies and teacher competencies in different fields.