High school science teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching practice on socio-scientific issue-based teaching

Abstract

Self-efficacy has a tendency for teachers to adopt new instructional
methodologies and affects good teaching practices. To enhance science
teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching practices using SSI-based teaching in
a specific school context, this qualitative study aimed to investigate the following:
(1) the level of self-efficacy of in-service science teachers in socio-scientific
issue (SSI)-based teaching, (2) the current teaching practices of in-service
science teachers in SSI-based teaching, and (3) the relationship between
self-efficacy and teaching practices in SSI-based teaching. Fifteen science
teachers were selected through purposive sampling at a high school in
northeast Thailand. To achieve this, the study used the following instruments:
questionnaires to assess the current situation of SSI-based teaching practices
and self-efficacy levels and semi-structured interviews to evaluate the
SSI-based teaching practices and self-efficacy levels of the study group. The
data obtained from the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics and
content analysis. The results indicated that the self-efficacy level of the study
group in SSI-based teaching was moderate (x̄ = 3.22, SD = 0.99). While five
out of the 15 science teachers (33.33%) claimed to use SSI-based teaching
in their science classrooms, their teaching practices failed to cover the entire
SSI-based teaching framework. The study also found a relationship between
self-efficacy and teaching practice in the study group in SSI-based teaching.
The study concluded that it is critical to design a professional development
program that focuses on enhancing self-efficacy and teaching practices in
SSI-based teaching.