Predictors of Self-Efficacy in Preservice Health Teachers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified six behaviors that are directly related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the nation. These include behaviors that contribute to intentional and unintentional injuries, tobacco use, drug and alcohol use, sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and STD’s, unhealthy dietary behaviors and lack of activity. Since most of these behaviors begin early in life, the burden of prevention education falls largely on health educators in the school system. While most states have adopted some form of standard health curriculum, the quality of instruction is dependent on the competency of the teacher. In addition, the level of teacher preparation has been shown to significantly impact teachers’ self-efficacy to deliver high quality health education and self-efficacy is related to teacher effectiveness. The purpose of this research was to determine which of several variables tested, either alone or in combination serves best to predict self-efficacy in pre-service health teachers. Undergraduate students (n = 424) at a large midwestern urban university were subjects for this study. A 46-item survey instrument was designed to determine self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and outcome value. Demographic questions addressed the number of health courses taken, number of methods courses taken, hours completed in a school intern experience, hours completed of student teaching, grade point average and score on the state certification exam. Construct validity, internal reliability and test-retest reliability were all established on the instrument. Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis was conducted. Self-efficacy was entered as the dependent variable and all of the other variables were entered as independent variables. Predictors that contributed no unique variance to the model were excluded. Three variables made a significant contribution to the variance: number of methods courses taken r²= .11, p = 0.012; hours completed in a school intern experience r² = .20, p = 0.001; and hours completed of student teaching r² = .30, p = 0.000. These three variables combined to account for 61% of the variance in teaching self-efficacy in pre-service teachers. The significance of the school experience for pre-service teachers, whether as a methods class, internship or student teaching experience coupled with the importance of health education in the fight against chronic disease, implies that teacher preparation curricular must include practical experience. For those colleges and universities not currently providing that experience curricular revision is imperative.
Keyword(s): college level issues, professional preparation