Pre-service Science Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs of Teaching in Kenya and the United States of America; USA: A Comparative Study

By surveying 168 Kenyan and 189 US pre-service teachers through a cross-sectional survey research design, this study analysed and compared science teacher efficacy beliefs of elementary pre-service teachers in Kenya and the United States. This study was guided by two main questions: 1. How will science teacher self-efficacy beliefs differ between Kenyan and US pre-service elementary teachers? 2. Do self-efficacy beliefs vary with gender? Data were collected using STEBI-B scale, an inventory developed by by Enochs and Riggs [1], with a reported Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients as 0.90 and 0.76 for Personal Science Teacher Efficacy (PSTE) and Science Teacher Outcome Expectancy (STOE), respectively. A 2 x 2 factorial MANOVA was used to analyse the data both descriptively (means and standard deviations) and inferentially (means and standard deviations). PSTE and STOE scores were the dependent variables. The independent variables were participant gender and country of origin. Results indicate a significant interaction between gender and country. The main effect for country was considerable, but not for gender. Following a significant MANOVA, univariate ANOVA tests revealed a statistically significant difference in the PSTE, with the United States scoring higher on average, and a statistically significant difference in the STOE score, with Kenya scoring higher. There is a discussion of the implications for teacher education programmes.