Files
Abstract
Teacher efficacy is the focus of research at a time when teachers are held accountable for their students performance on state standardized tests, while competing with technology and entertainment. The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) was developed by Riggs and Enochs (1990) to quantitatively measure elementary teachers science teaching efficacy. It was modified for utilization with pre-service agriscience teachers participating in an Agriscience for Teachers course at the University of Georgia. Students in two sections of this class were asked to complete the modified STEBI, and some participants were invited to join in an eight-question semi-structured interview of about one hour each. Participants signed consent forms and interviews were recorded. Insight into better preparing individuals for teaching agriscience was desired. Results revealed that many pre-service teachers feared the word science and, due to inexperience, did not see the connection between agriscience and standard science curriculums.