An investigation of primary school teacher?s self-efficacy beliefs

This study was conducted to investigate primary school teachers? self-efficacy beliefs. In the study, relational screening model was used; and the target population was composed of 1136 primary school teachers teaching in 71 primary schools( 62 public primary schools, 1 primary school for the hearing-impaired, 3 private primary schools, and 5 private education centers) located in Elazığ city center in 2009-2010 school year. The sample was composed of 625 primary school teachers ( of them, 214 graduated from Faculty of Education; 163 from Institute of Education and School of Teachers; and 248 from different majors) teaching in 54 primary schools located in the city center.In the study, the long Turkish version of Teachers? Sense of Efficacy Scale, generated by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) and validity and reliability of Turkish translation of which was assessed by Çapa et al. (2005), was used in order to determine the teachers? self-efficacy beliefs.As a result of the data obtained, it is concluded that the primary school teachers participated in the survey feel highly efficient in their perceptions of general self-efficacy and its sub- dimensions. Examining the participants in the survey, it is also determined that there are not any differences in teachers? marital status, level of instruction and the type of higher education institutions they graduated from while there are meaningful differences among teachers in terms of gender, age (except for the efficacy in student participation), length of service (except for the efficacy in student participation), and the socio-economical status of schools (except for the efficacy in classroom management).Key Words: Self Efficacy, Teacher Self- Efficacy Perception