Determining Preservice Teachers’ Levels of Self-Efficacy and Occupational Anxiety

Teachers are among the key actors of education who are responsible for preparing students to become qualified and well-educated individuals. Therefore, teachers should be trained well throughout their education. The knowledge and skills that teachers acquire throughout their study may have either a positive or a negative impact on their future professional careers. Identifying factors involved in the teaching professional early in the teacher training processes and finding applicable solutions will change the direction of that impact. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between preservice teachers' levels of teaching self-efficacy and occupational anxiety and find out whether their self-efficacy and occupational anxiety differ according to the year of study. To this end, a descriptive survey research design was used. The sample consisted of 156 preservice teachers studying at the faculty of education of a university. The “Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers” and the “Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale” were employed as data collection instruments. The analysis results showed that preservice teachers' self-efficacy differed according to the year of study, while their occupational anxiety did not differ. The results also showed a moderate positive correlation between preservice teachers' levels of teaching self-efficacy and occupational anxiety. Thus, based on the correlation between teaching self-efficacy and occupational anxiety, it is recommended to make efforts to increase preservice teachers' self-efficacy and decrease their occupational anxiety during their study.