Early childhood teachers’ science teaching intentions and behaviours: an application of the theory of planned behaviour

Download
2016
Özcan, Gökcen
The purpose of the present study was to examine the factors influencing early childhood teachers' intentions and behaviours regarding science teaching in the light of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). In addition to the original TPB constructs (i. e. behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs, control beliefs, attitude toward behaviour, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intention, and behaviour), four variables (i.e. personal norms, self-efficacy beliefs, science content knowledge, and epistemological beliefs) were added into the TPB model in this study. Data were collected from 893 early childhood teachers working in public pre-schools in Turkey. Early Childhood Teachers' Science Teaching Intention and Behaviour Questionnaire was prepared in accordance with the TPB and previous science education literature. A model was developed to describe the relationships among study variables and tested in a complex correlational technique, Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS- SEM). Results indicated that early childhood teachers’ science teaching intentions were significantly related to their attitude, subjective and personal norms, perceived behavioural control, and self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, teachers' science teaching intentions and their self-efficacy beliefs were significantly associated with the frequency of science instruction in the classroom. Attitude towards science teaching was the strongest predictor of teachers' science teaching intentions and perceived behavioural control over science teaching was the weakest predictor of teachers' science teaching intentions. Moreover, science content knowledge of teachers did not directly predict teachers’ intention, and epistemological beliefs did not provide any contribution to the model. Overall, the model explained 41.2 % of variance in intention to teach science, and 13.5 % of the variance in self-report science teaching behaviour. The findings implied that an extended model of the TPB was beneficial to investigate teachers' science teaching intentions and behaviours.

Suggestions

Pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards the profession of early childhood education in terms of sex and gender role
Karaduman, Muhammet Ali; Olgan, Refika; Department of Early Childhood Education (2011)
The purpose of this study is to understand the attitudes of pre-service teachers, who are studying at the departments of early childhood education in universities in Turkey, towards the profession of early childhood education. Specifically, this study investigated the effect of sex and gender role on the attitudes of pre-service early childhood teachers. The sample of this study includes 1528 participants from 11 different state universities of Turkey. 278 of them are male pre-service teachers and 1250 of t...
Early childhood teachers’ views about and practices with differentiated instruction in the primary years programme
Özkanoğlu, Özden; Erden, Feyza; Department of Elementary Education (2015)
The aim of this study was to investigate the views and practices of early childhood teachers on differentiation. In order to explore the research questions, 19 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers of an International Baccalaureate (IB) world school in Turkey were interviewed about differentiation, their written curriculum documents were analyzed, and the classrooms were observed. This study was designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. As the case, an authorized International Baccalaureate P...
Exploring preservice science teachers’ energy conservation behavior through motivation, psychological needs and attitude: further supported with their awareness
Çakır Yıldırım, Birgül; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Elementary Education (2017)
The primary focus of this study was to examine the relationships among attitudes toward energy conservation, self-determined motivation and basic psychological needs of preservice science teachers. To this end a model showing the relationship among these variables was suggested. In order to better understand the observed relationships in the model, interviews with PSTs were conducted. For the purpose of the study mixed method was used. In quantitative part of the study, 1136 preservice science teachers, who...
Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Self-reported Practices about Circle Time
Mumcuoğlu, Ayşenur; Demircan, Hasibe Özlen; Department of Early Childhood Education (2022-5)
The aim of the study is to investigate in service early childhood teachers’ beliefs and self-reported practices about circle time. In this study, explanatory sequential mixed method design which comprises quantitative part and qualitative part followed by each other was employed sequentially. Participants of the study were in service early childhood teachers who are working in six main districts of Ankara. In the first part of the study, Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Self-reported Practices about Ci...
Pre-service science teachers‘ self-efficacy in relation to personality traits and academic self-regulation
Şenler, Burcu; Sungur, Semra; Department of Elementary Education (2011)
The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among pre-service science teachers’ personality, self-regulation, and teaching self-efficacy by proposing and testing a comprehensive conceptual model. In the model, it was hypothesized that personality traits are directly linked to pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy and academic self-regulation, and pre-service science teachers’ academic self-regulation is directly related to their self-efficacy. A total of 1794 pre-service science teachers (8...
Citation Formats
G. Özcan, “Early childhood teachers’ science teaching intentions and behaviours: an application of the theory of planned behaviour,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2016.