The determination the relationship between primary school teacher's levels of science literacy and their self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching and the examination them according to different variables

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs towards science teaching with the science literacy levels of primary school teachers and determine how variables such as gender, seniority, age and graduated department affect these two situations. In the study, the comperative survey method and structural equation model were used. The study group of the study consists of 506 primary school teachers, 337 female, and 169 male teachers, working in primary schools in Bursa province and its districts during the 2020-2021 academic year. "Science for All Americans" publication, which was prepared by Laugksch and Spargo in 1996 and translated into Turkish by Duruk in (2012), "Basic Science Literacy Test", which all validity and reliability tests were carried out, "The Self-Efficacy Belief Scale of Primary School Teachers in Science Teaching", which was developed by Enochs and Riggs (1990) and adapted into Turkish by Bıkmaz (2004) and "Personal Information Form", which was prepared by the researcher, was used to obtain research data. As a result of examining the research data; no significant difference was observed between the variables of gender, seniority, graduated department and the science literacy levels of primary school teachers. However, it is observed that the age variable has a significant difference for the science-technology-society sub-dimension. It has been determined that this difference is in favor of the groups under 25 years old among the groups between ages of 31-35, under the age of 25, and over the age of 40. When the self-efficacy beliefs about science teaching are examined; in terms of gender variable, a significant difference was found in favor of male teachers in the sub-dimension of "result expectation". When the seniority variable is examined; it is observed that length of service leads to a significant difference in terms of both total self-efficacy in science teaching and sub-dimensions of self-efficacy belief and outcome expectation. For the "self-efficacy belief" sub-dimension of this difference, it is seen that it occurs among teachers with a service length of 6-10 years and teachers with a service length of more than 20 years, and this difference is in favor of teachers whose service length is more than 20 years. When the age variable is examined; the age of teachers leads to a significant difference in terms of both the total of the self-efficacy belief scale in science teaching and the self-efficacy belief, which is one of the sub-dimensions. No difference was observed for the outcome expectation sub-dimension. It is understood that the difference emerged between the teachers, who were between the ages of 26-30 and over the age of 40, for both the "self-efficacy belief" sub-dimension and "self-efficacy belief in science teaching". When the results are examined, it was understood that the mentioned differences were in favor of teachers whose age is over 40. When the graduated department variable was examined, no significant difference was found. When the relationship between science literacy levels and self-efficacy beliefs towards science teaching is examined; it was found that the science literacy levels affect the self-efficacy belief in science teaching positively and significantly.