Pre-service biology teachers’ professional knowledge and Self-Efficacy beliefs towards the use of activity-based teaching method

Abstract

Numerous studies have reported that the performance of students from Ghana and other countries in Africa in the field of biology and science at large have declined over the years. This development has become a major cause for concern to parents, guardians and stakeholders in academia. This performance largely depend on the quality of classroom teaching and interest of students toward science subjects which can be attributed to poor teaching method such as rote approach that make science to appear abstract. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate pre-service biology teachers’ professional knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs towards effective application of activity-based teaching method which has become a major concern for stakeholders in education. The research focused on fourth year pre-service biology teachers of the University of Education, Winneba pursuing Bsc. Biology Education. The pre-service biology teachers were required to respond to items of professional knowledge and self-efficacy instruments in ordered to determine their levels of professional knowledge and self-efficacy-beliefs. The data for the study were collected with the use of adapted Pre-service Teachers’ sense of efficacy scale (TSES) originally developed by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2009). Professional knowledge was also explored using Pre-service Professional Knowledge test Instrument. Smart PLS 4.0.9.8 computer software was used to statistically to analyse the data for the study. Descriptive statistics were employed to describe and summarize the data. Participants for the study were 87 pre-service biology teachers. The outcome of the study suggested that the professional knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs of preservice biology teachers towards teaching biology were high. The self-efficacy beliefs are gained from a high professional knowledge level of the pre-service biology teachers. However, results of some items showed average efficacy levels of some of the participant. This calls for courses design to tackle this finding. Also, from the findings, pre-service biology teachers can effectively implement activity-based teaching method during biology lessons as data collected and analysed indicated very strong correlation amongst the variables. From the data, it can be said that participants have strong capability to implement activity-based teaching method. This capability had been correlated to strong sense of self-efficacy beliefs. Albeit, the study suggested that observation of the pre-service biology teachers must be conducted in future research in order to have comprehensive information on the effects of professional Knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs towards the use of activity-based teaching method during biology lessons.