Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 14, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2013) Ana Belén BORRACHERO, María BRÍGIDO, Emilio COSTILLO, M. Luisa BERMEJO and Vicente MELLADO Relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and emotions of future teachers of Physics in secondary education Previous Contents Next

Method

Objective

The objective was to determine whether there exists a relationship between the self-efficacy beliefs of prospective secondary education teachers and the emotions they experience in teaching physics content.

Sample

The sample was one of non-probabilistic convenience, chosen for the availability of cases and of time. It comprised 178 students of the "CAP" (Curso de Aptitud Pedagógica – Pædagogical Aptitude Course) at the University of Extremadura in the 2008/2009 academic year. Most were women (67%), and most were younger than 30 (76.4%).

These are future secondary school teachers who have followed different paths in their university studies (Figure 1). In particular, 28% of the sample had studied Social Sciences, 25% Engineering, 21% Health Sciences, 14% Sciences, and 12% Arts and Humanities.

Figure 1. Distribution of the sample's subjects according to their undergraduate itinerary.

Data collection instrument

The methodological approach taken in the study was that of a descriptive (also termed non- experimental) survey-based study. This was chosen as the most appropriate approach with which to gather opinions, beliefs, and attitudes (de Vaus, 2001). The instrument applied was a purpose designed questionnaire of closed items. These were based on the work of Buendia (1999) and on some ideas in the primary teacher questionnaire of Brígido, Caballero, Bermejo and Mellado (2009) which includes items concerning teacher self-efficacy measured on a 4-point Likert scale (1 - Strongly Disagree, 2 - Disagree, 3 - Agree, 4 - Strongly Agree). In Table 1, these items are displayed.

Table 1. Items concerning to the teacher self-efficacy.

	1	2	3	4
I believe that would be able to teach physics with my training
I will feel more confident to teach physics if my students are in the first years of secondary education
The explaining of complex scientific content will cause me anxiety
I believe that I possess the necessary skills to teach science content
I will feel more confident  when I am teaching theory than when the pupils are doing practical work

The specific emotions considered were selected in accordance with the classification made by Damasio (2005). They were presented as a table of 12 positive emotions (attraction, confidence, enthusiasm, fun, gratification, joy, motivation, pleasure, pride, satisfaction, sympathy, and tranquillity) and 12 negative emotions (anger, anxiety, boredom, concern, depression, fear, frustration, hate, nervousness, pessimism, sadness, and uncertainty), with the subjects being asked to indicate those they believe they will experience when they are teaching the content of secondary school physics.

Analysis procedure

The questionnaire was responded to by several groups of CAP students during class time. They took about 45 minutes to complete them. They showed great interest in the content of the questionnaire and in the subsequent results. The completed questionnaires were processed using the SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) vn 17.0 for Windows software package.