International Portal of Teacher Education

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 64 (2017) 1-11
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

This study aimed to adapt the well-established Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument- B (STEBI-B) (Enochs & Riggs, 1990) for preservice teachers and to pilot the new instrument to determine its validity and reliability in The Arts.

Methods
The participants were 110 preservice teacher education students, who enrolled in the one-year Graduate Diploma of Education course in an Australian university.
The participants enrolled in this course had previously completed an undergraduate degree in a discipline other than Education prior to entering the course.

The participants completed an amended version of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument- B (STEBI-B) developed by Enochs and Riggs (1990).
The authors chose the STEBI-B as it has already been successfully adapted for other learning areas and has been widely investigated with findings reported in the science education literature since its creation.

The authors revised the 30 item STEBI-B to make the items applicable to preservice teachers in The Arts subjects. For instance, the subject name was changed to either music or visual arts.
The participants completed a pre-test questionnaire during the first week of their Arts instruction and a post-test questionnaire during their final week of Arts instruction.

Discussion
The authors argue that this study offers new contributions to the field of educational measurement in The Arts, specifically in measuring primary preservice teacher self-efficacy in music and visual arts.

The authors note that validating Arts-specific instruments in preservice teacher education affords Arts educators and researchers a diagnostic measurement tool that can be used to assess preservice teacher efficacy.
The findings reveal that Arts Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (ATEBI) had good internal consistency and re-test reliability on the personal teaching efficacy scale.
Furthermore, it was found that ATEBI had good validity statistics using ANOVAs on all scales.
The authors also argue that this model displaying best fit consisted of six items measuring outcome expectancy and 10 items related to teaching efficacy.
The authors suggest that linking arts activities to the mandated curriculum could provide the preservice teachers with more clarity about how they are to effect learning that meets educational outcomes when they begin classroom teaching.

The authors conclude that the ATEBI is a promising start to developing a quantitative instrument for use in The Arts within preservice teacher education courses.

They also argue that ATEBIs need to be developed un a way that reflect the uniqueness of each of the Arts subjects.

Reference
Enochs, L., & Riggs, I. (1990). Further development of an elementary science teaching efficacy belief instrument: A preservice elementary scale. School Science and Mathematics, 90, 694-706.