In this study it is aimed to develop a measurement tool to determine the attitudes of foreign language teacher candidates towards a second foreign language. The item pool was prepared by literature review and teacher candidates' views and finalized by taking expert opinions. The 61 item preliminary form was applied to 504 teacher candidates studying in different grades of Foreign Language Teaching Departments of Gazi University Gazi Faculty of Education in 2018-2019 academic year Spring semester. Analyses towards determining the psychometric features of the scale were made on the data set obtained from the application. The data set was applied first Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for construct validity and then Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The exploratory and confirmatory analyses were made on two groups by dividing the total student number into two. EFA was conducted on the first group (n1=252) whereas CFA was conducted on the second group (n2=252). At the end of exploratory factor analysis, the scale was observed to consist of 43 items and 3 subdimensions. The sub-dimensions were named according to the judgments the scale items reflected as "positive belief towards learning a second foreign language", "resistance to learning a second foreign language" and "attaching importance to learning a second foreign language". The three factor structure about the scale explains the 49.72% of the total variance. At the end of the reliability analysis Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient for the overall scale is .95, for sub-dimensions respectively as .95 and .90 and .76. The model fit indices for the scale at the end of the confirmatory factor analysis are determined as RMSEA, .076; χ2/df=2.4; SRMR=.81; NFI=.94; NNFI=.96; IFI=96; CFI=.96; RFI=94. Values obtained from confirmatory factor analysis are in acceptable reference range and shows that 3 factor scale construct is validated.
Learning activities employed in out-of-school learning activities (OOSLA) provide students with a different learning experience while enabling teachers to discover, implement, and evaluate different teaching approaches. This study intends to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs levels of teachers as regards OOSLA and whether these self-efficacy levels differ significantly depending on their gender, graduated faculty, educational status, seniority, and department graduated from. It adopts the descriptive survey design. The sample is composed of 308 teachers. The data were collected utilizing the "Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs Toward Out-of-School Learning Activities Scale''. Parametric test statistics were used in data analysis. The results revealed that teachers had a high level of self-efficacy beliefs regarding OOSLA and that gender was not a determinant of teachers' self-efficacy beliefs. It was also found that the participants who completed graduate studies had firmer self-efficacy beliefs than those who did not. The teachers with 21 years and above of teaching experience had higher self-efficacy levels than those with 6-10 and 11-15 years of teaching experience. On the other hand, graduates of mathematics and science education departments had lower self-efficacy levels than primary education, Turkish education, and social science education departments. Finally, researchers recommend encouraging pursuing graduate studies, collaborating with experienced teachers, eliminating institutional obstacles to out-of-school activities, and supporting teachers in increasing their self-efficacy regarding out-of-school learning activities.
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