ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARINDA ÖZ YETERLİK VE AKADEMİK KATILIMIN AKADEMİK DOYUMU YORDAMA GÜCÜ

PREDICTIVE POWER OF SELF-EFFICACY AND ACADEMIC INVOLVEMENT ON ACADEMIC SATISFACTION IN TEACHER CANDIDATES

Abstract

The need to understand the nature of the relations between various theories and thus to explain the differences in the quality of students’ behaviours is important for educational activities. In light of this perspective, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the teacher candidates’ self-efficacy and academic involvement on academic satisfaction. The descriptive survey model was used in the study. The participants were 336 third (n = 113) and fourth (n = 223) grade undergraduate students included 90 male and 246 female studying in different majors at the Faculty of Education in Pamukkale University. Teacher Self-Efficacy, Academik Involvement and Academic Satisfaction Scales were used to gather the data. The bivariate correlation coefficients and stepwise regression analyses were performed to analyze the data to answer the questions conducted in the study. Results showed that the academic satisfaction level of the candidate students is positively related with the sense of efficacy concerning instructional strategies, student engagement and academic involvement. In addition, regression analyses indicated that the contribution of self-efficacy and academic involvement together to the variance of academic satisfaction is significant. The best predictors of academic satisfaction were found as all there dimensions of the sense of efficacy and academic involvement. The findings presented many important cues for the evaluation of the effectiveness of educational environments, programs and learning behaviours of the students. In the study, implications of the findings were discussed and suggestions were given for educators and researchers The students’ life quality, their well being and academic performance are effected by plenty of factors such as their developmental characteristics and tendencies, social, cultural and educational frames that surround them from far to near. Satisfaction is an important relational part of this dynamic and for hat reason, factors affecting satisfaction has been a major concern for researchers in both academic and non-academic settings. Satisfaction in academic settings, has been defined as the level of satisfaction students attained from some college-related variables such as academic department, online courses, campus-wide, college experience, quality of instruction, major curriculum, advising, assessment, the quality of the university education, the contribution of that education to students professional life and the relationships between the students and the colleagues. Researches show that students with high level of satisfaction are likely to exert more effort in their educational studies and get high grades with the effects of their positive characteristics and environment. Although academic satisfaction has been searched with many factors related with academic settings, very little researches have been done about its relationship with personel variables such as self efficacy and academic involvement together. Also there is no research documenting the predictive power of self-efficacy and academic involvement on academic satisfaction. Research findings and their implications show that personel variables also have significantly predictor role in cognitive, emotional and behavioral reactions of students in and out of school settings and function as active frames during their process of self-regulation. For that reason, educational psychologists and educators need to understand whether the various theories provide insights into different constructs and thus explain the difference in the quality of students’ behaviours during the process of learning and development. Following this view, to verify the nature of the relations between the teacher self-efficacy, academic involvement and academic satisfaction become an important concern in the present study. Of these constructs teacher self-efficacy refers to the “teachers’ beliefs about their ability to have a positive affect on student learning and their achievement”. With the framework of Social cognitive theory, researchers have been studying on the teacher self-efficay construct and cited a wide spread of findings their implications and suggestions. Similar with the conceptualizations and reserach implications about self efficacy, students’ involvement in university activities is also considered advantagous to their overall educational experiences. It is also usefull for researchers, college and faculty administrators to design their investigation of student development and more effective learning environments. For hat reason, involvement has become a powerful concept in higher education. According to the student involvement theory, academic involvement is one of the specific forms of student involvement as out of class activities, honors programs, student-faculty interaction, athletic involvement etc. As discussed in literature, many findings and implications show the role of self efficacy and involvement in students performance, well being and personel tendencies. Researches also demonstrate that due to its affects on both individual and organizational performance, the stdents’ academic satisfaction level and the factors affecting it, is an important concern to university administration as well as academic and educational planners. Following this view, in this study, it is aimed to verify the nature of the relations between the teacher self-efficacy, academic involvement and academic satisfaction. Paralel to these relationships to examine the contributions (predictive power) of the teacher self-efficacy and academic involvement on academic satisfaction becomes the primary goal of the present study. It soughts to specifically answer the following questions: 1. Do teacher self efficacy and academic involvement correlate with academic satisfaction? 2. Do teacher self efficacy and academic involvement predict academic satisfaction together? Method The descriptive survey model was used in the st

Özet

Farklı kavramsal çerçevelerin birbirleriyle ne tür bir ilişki içinde olduklarının bilinmesi hem gerekli eğitsel anlayışın oluşması hem de öğrenme süreçlerinde öğrencilerin davranışlarındaki farklılıkların nedenlerinin anlaşılması açısından önemlidir. Bu perspektiften hareketle bu çalışmada öğretmen adaylarında akademik doyumu yordamada öz yeterlik ve akademik katılımın rolü incelenmiştir. Çalışma tarama modelinde betimsel bir araştırma niteliğindedir. Araştırmaya Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi'nde farklı bölümlerde öğrenim gören 336 üçüncü (n = 113) ve dördüncü (n = 223) sınıf öğrencisi katılmıştır. Katılımcıların 90'ı erkek, 246'sı kızlardan oluşmuştur. Veri toplama araçları olarak Öğretmen Öz Yeterlik, Akademik Katılım ve Akademik Doyum Ölçekleri kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde değişkenler arasındaki olası ilişkileri belirlemek için Pearson korelasyon, özyeterlik ve akademik katılımn birlikte akademik doyumu yordama gücü için de adımsal regresyon (stepwise regression) teknikleri kullanılmıştır. Korelasyon analizleri akademik doyumun öz yeterliğin öğretim stratejilerini kullanma ve öğrenci katılımını sağlama boyutları ve akademik katılım ile pozitif yönde ilişkili olduğunu göstermiştir. Ayrıca yapılan regresyon analizleri sonucunda öz yeterlik ve akademik katılımın birlikte akademik doyum değişkenliğini anlamlı olarak yordadığı görülmüştür. Buna göre akademik doyumun en güçlü yordayıcılarının öz yeterliğin üç alt boyutu ve akademik katılım olduğu gözlenmiştir. Bu sonuçlar, eğitim ortamlarının, programaların ve öğrencilerin öğrenme davranışlarının etkililiğinin değerlendirilmesinde dikkate alınabilecek birçok önemli ipuçları sunmuştur. Çalışmada elde edilen bulgular eğitsel doğurguları açısından tartışılmış ve ilgililere önerilerde bulunulmuştur.