Academic Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Prospective Primary School Teachers

The purpose of this study is to put forward the academic self-efficacy beliefs in prospective primary school teachers and investigate whether or not they tend to change according to diverse variables. The study group consists of 148 prospective primary school teachers at the Education Faculty of Dumlupinar University. “The Academic Self-Efficacy Scale”, which was originally developed by Jerusalem and Schwarzer (1981) and adapted to Turkish by Yılmaz, Gürçay and Ekici (2007) was used as the data collection instrument. Descriptive statistics, t- testing, one-way variance analysis, Scheffe test, Kruskal Wallis’s H test and Mann Whitney’s U test were employed for analyzing data obtained. Based on findings of this study, the academic self-efficacy beliefs of prospective primary school teachers generally retain a high level. The prospective teachers tend to believe at higher levels that they would attain success, to the extent that they prepare well for their exams. On the other hand, self-efficacy beliefs for achieving success in each and every exam they take retain a lower level. The academic self-efficacy beliefs of prospective primary school teachers exhibit a significant difference by such variables as age, level of grade, thoughts for becoming a teacher after taking and passing KPSS (Public Servant Selection Test). The academic self-sufficiency beliefs of prospective class teachers of or above twenty-two years of age are at significantly higher levels than those of prospective teachers in an age range of 20-21.