Assessing the impact of vicarious experiences on preservice elementary science teacher efficacy and preservice elementary teacher efficacy

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of vicarious experiences (preservice teacher field experiences) on perceived preservice science teacher efficacy and perceived preservice teacher efficacy. The participants for the study were 46 preservice elementary education students who were enrolled in CIED 3430 (Early Lab and Clinical Experience in Elementary Education II) at a large Midwestern state university and 20 classroom inservice teachers. A pretest was administered early in the spring 2007 semester, before the preservice teachers did their field experience and consisted of demographic questions and the STEBI-B. A posttest was administered at the end of the spring 2007 semester, after the preservice teachers had completed their field experiences, and consisted of demographic questions, a rating of the teachers they observed during their educational field experience, the STEBI-B and the TES. The field experience classroom inservice teachers provided personal, professional, and classroom data in the middle of the spring 2007 semester. All data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

Findings and Conclusions: Factors of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and preservice teacher program placement were found to be significant predictors of preservice teachers' efficacy scores. Even though, in some cases, these factors negatively impacted preservice teacher efficacy, preservice teachers should be placed in these environments when support is most available. The Teacher Efficacy Scale (Gibson & Dembo, 1984) is invalid. Even the construct of a general teacher efficacy is questionable.