| The goals of this study were to determine the validity and reliability of the science concept test (SCT), to investigate pre-service teachers’ biology knowledge as related to their prior physics and chemistry knowledge, and to examine the relation of confidence levels and efficacy beliefs of the pre-service teachers to their achievement in biology, physics and chemistry. The SCT and Science Teacher Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-B) were given to 91 pre-service teachers at two medium size universities in north Texas in spring 2008. It is found that pre-service teachers in this study have a better physics and chemistry knowledge than biology knowledge for some of the subjects although they had a lack of knowledge in both scales. It is hypothesized that they are not aware of their misconceptions. Although their efficacy expectancies and outcome expectancies are significantly correlated, their efficacy expectancies were significantly higher than their outcome expectancies. |
