Cross-National Study on Relations between Motivation for Science Courses, Pedagogy Courses and General Self-Efficacy
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Andrej Šorgo 1 * , Vincentas Lamanauskas 2, Slavica Šimić Šašić 3, Zehra N. Ersozlu 4, Iztok Tomažič 5, Milan Kubiatko 6, Pavol Prokop 7, Alpay Ersozlu 4, Jana Fančovičova 8, Martin Bilek 9, Muhammet Usak 10
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1 Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics & Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, SLOVENIA2 Faculty of Education, University of Siauliai, Siauliai, LITHUANIA3 Department of Teachers’ and Preschool Teachers’ Education, University of Zadar, Zadar, CROATIA4 Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA, AUSTRALIA5 Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA6 Faculty of Humanities, University of Žilina, SLOVAKIA7 Faculty of Education, Trnava University, Trnava & Institute of Zoology, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA8 Faculty of Education, Trnava University, Trnava, SLOVAKIA9 Faculty of Education, Charles University, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC10 Science Education Research Center, TURKEY* Corresponding Author

Abstract

1799 prospective elementary and prospective science teachers from six countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey) participate in the study about the level of motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and self-efficacy. The most important findings were that choosing educational career as the first choice of prospective teachers depends on country and study track. The highest percentage of prospective teachers who choose teaching career and will probably stay teachers is in participating institutions from Slovenia and Croatia and the lowest in Slovakia and Turkey with Czech Republic and Lithuania in between. The percentages are higher for prospective elementary teachers than for prospective science teachers. Motivation of prospective teachers’ regarding to the science courses and pedagogy courses vary. Differences between countries are small but as a rule future science teachers are more motivated for science courses than for pedagogy/didactics courses and the opposite is true for elementary teachers. Differences on general self-efficacy beliefs vary within and between countries? On average values falls in the upper third range what can be predictor of good teaching. Correlation between students’ motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and their self-efficacy beliefs is statistically significant but low, showing that good students are generally motivated for all courses but differences between motivation toward science and pedagogy exists and depends on study track. Conclusion of our study is that science teachers are better equipped to cope with problems than elementary teachers, but elementary teachers will most probably work at the working place they choose as their first will.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2017, Volume 13, Issue 10, 6597-6608

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/76970

Publication date: 02 Oct 2017

Online publication date: 13 Sep 2017

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