Self-efficacy perceptions of the preschool teachers on the field of science and science education

Emel Yağmur-Kolcu and Aysun Öztuna-Kaplan

African Educational Research Journal
Published: October 30 2020
Volume 8, Special Issue 2
Pages S306-S315
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30918/AERJ.8S2.20.060

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine how adequate preschool teachers considered themselves in the field of science, to determine their awareness on this subject and to find out how adequate they are in the field of science. This study was planned by using a phenomenological approach among the qualitative research methods and was carried out interviewing with five preschool teachers selected by using maximum diversity sampling among the purposeful sampling methods. Semi-structured interview data was used as the data collection tool. After the interviews, interview texts were prepared, the content analysis was performed by open coding method, and the findings were reached. According to the findings of this study, it was concluded that most of the preschool teachers feel inadequate in the field of science and are not interested in science. Another finding of this study is preschool teachers include science activities into their programs but they cannot be creative in these activities, they neither know nor question why they do such activities and do not diversify the activities. In addition, it was observed in this study that preschool teachers had a lack of knowledge in the field of science and this caused misconceptions for the students.

Keywords: Preschool, preschool teacher, science education, self-efficacy.

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