Investigation of the relationship between mathematics teacher's perceptions of self-efficiency regarding spatial ability and visualization performance: A scale development and implementation study

This study, which was conducted to examine the relationship between teacher candidates' self-efficacy perceptions towards spatial ability and their visualization performance, is a scale development and application study. In this study, in which the quantitative research approach was adopted, the descriptive and relational survey model and the causal comparison model were used. During the scale development process, a 35-item scale with a reliability of 960 named "Self-Efficacy Perception Scale for Spatial Ability (UYÖYAS)" was developed. The scale consists of a three-factor structure: spatial visualization, spatial relationships, and spatial orientation. The 24-item spatial visualization factor of the scale has a reliability of .956 and consists of two sub-factors as "2D spatial visualization" and "3D spatial visualization". The reliability of the six-item spatial relations factor was ,872; The reliability of the five-item spatially oriented factor was found to be ,769. Then, with the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations, the relationship between the candidates' self-efficacy perceptions towards spatial ability and their visualization performance was examined. On the other hand, it was investigated whether the self-efficacy perceptions of the candidates towards spatial ability differ according to their gender, education department and grade level. As a result of the research, it was seen that pre-service teachers had high self-efficacy perception levels for spatial ability and there was no statistically significant difference between them and their gender. It was observed that there was a statistically significant difference in terms of department type and grade level. On the other hand, in this study, the relationship between spatial ability self-efficacy perceptions and visualization performances was examined specifically for pre-service mathematics teachers and it was seen that there was a positive and moderately significant relationship between the candidates.