THE PREDICTORS OF PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ ANXIETY ABOUT TEACHING SCIENCE

The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between pre-service elementary teachers' anxiety about teaching science and their self-efficacy beliefs about science teaching, their perceptions of the nature of their past experiences in science teaching, the number of science courses they took in college and their previous grades in these science courses. The data was collected from 82 pre-service elementary teachers enrolled in an M.Ed program. The results indicate that personal science teaching efficacy and number of science courses taken in college are the significant predictors of science teaching anxiety. Pearson correlations among the variables show that their perception of their experiences in science teaching, grade point average of science courses and perception of science background indirectly influence science teaching anxiety. The effect of these variables on science teaching anxiety was mediated by personal science teaching efficacy.