An Investigation into Elementary School Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Skills for Creating Constructivist Learning Environments

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the elementary school teachers' ability to create a constructivist learning environment and self-efficacy belief differentiate according to the variables of the school graduated, age, seniority and sex and also to determine whether there exists a relationship between the abilities of creating a constructivist learning environment and self-efficacy beliefs. In this study, 125 elementary school teachers in total were included. "Constructivist Learning Environment Scale" and "Teachers' Self-Efficacy Scale" have been used as the data collection tool. In the analysis of the data, t-test, one way ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis Test, Mann Whitney U-test and Spearman Brown correlation coefficients were used. According to findings from the study, self-efficacy beliefs of the classroom teachers towards classroom management differ according to seniority and sex. The elementary school teachers' ability of creating a constructivist learning environment differs from in the sub-dimension of motivation toward reflections and concept investigation according to sex and school graduated and also, it differs statistically significantly in the sub-dimension of conceptual conflicts and dilemmas according to sex in favor of male teachers. In this study, a positively significant medium-level relationship was found between the classroom teachers' self-efficacy and the ability to create a constructivist learning environment.