Investigation of social studies teachers? and social studies teacher candidates? self efficacy in the learning strands of the primary school social studies curriculum

The aim of this research is to investigate the self-efficacy of social studies teachers and social studies teacher candidates regarding the learning strands of primary school social studies curriculum. Accordingly, studies on the efficacy of social studies teachers and social studies teacher candidates has first been examined and then ?Social Studies Teacher Subject Matter Standards? was developed by requesting opinions of specialists with a method called ?delphi?. The standards, then, have been turned into self-efficacy items which have been designed in a 5 degree likert style scale. The validity and credibility studies of this new scale were carried out with the teachers in Ordu and Giresun provinces and the pre-service teachers at Amasya University.The scope of this reseach consists of both social studies teachers on duty throughout Turkey during the 2009-2010 educational year, and senior pre-service social studies teachers enrolled in colleges of education in Turkey. The sampling study group of the reseach includes in-service social studies teachers on duty in İstanbul, Tekirdağ, Muğla, Bilecik, Ankara, Isparta, Niğde, Zonguldak, Artvin, Erzincan, Bingöl and Şırnak provinces which was decided on the basis of NUTS 1, and senior pre-service social studies teachers in Gazi, 100.Yıl, Adıyaman, Dicle, Cumhuriyet, Gaziosmanpaşa, Ondokuz Mayıs, Muğla ve Balıkesir Universities. The sampling group consists of 3806 in-service, and 549 pre-service social studies teachers.Descriptive and predictory statistical methods were used in the process of analyzing the data gathered. For the purpose of determining the level of the self-efficacy of in-service and pre-service social studies teachers in each learning strand and social science, the assessment was done using a scale prepared by the reseacher. In addition, the ?Independent Samples t Test? and ?One-way Anova? tests were done for the purpose of determining if the in-service teachers? self-efficacy levels differ statistically on the base of independent variences such as gender, graduation major, length of service and graduation level; and the same was measured for pre-service teachers in terms of gender, education type (normal or secondary education), and university transcript grades. The two-optioned variences were analysed by the ?Independent Samples t Test?, and the three and more optioned variences were analysed by using the ?One-way Anova?.According to the findings, it has been found that although in-service social studies teachers in general have a high level of self-efficacy in learning strands, pre-service social studies teachers have a moderate level of self-efficacy. Besides, it was determined that although in-service teachers? self-efficacy levels are not significantly different based on gender and length of service, independent variences such as graduation major and graduation level do differ. It was also found that, although pre-service teachers? scores do not significantly differ by gender and transcript grades, they do differ on education type and university. Plus, it was found that the scores of both groups differentiate from each other statistically and meaningfully in terms of both learning strands and social sciences.Key Words: In-service social studies teachers, pre-service social studies teachers, learning strands, self-efficacy.