STUDENT TEACHING ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM (STEP) AND PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ TEACHING EFFICACY IN SCIENCE

The present paper discusses the effect of the Student Teaching Enhancement Program (STEP) provided to science preservice teachers in a teacher education institute on their teaching efficacy. The STEP is a program that is designed to impact the areas that influence preservice teachers’ teaching efficacy. Teaching efficacy is an important construct that should be enriched among teachers since the teachers’ belief on their ability to teach significantly affects their performance in the classroom. The STEP has been conducted for a semester and a program evaluation came after. To determine the level of teaching efficacy of the participants they were asked to answer a teaching efficacy survey adopted from the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale developed by Moran and Hoy (2001).  The data collected has been subjected to descriptive statistical measures to determine the effect of STEP. Also, an inferential measure was done to compare if the said effects vary by gender and major. Implications of STEP on teacher education program were also discussed. Key words: Student Teaching Enhancement Program (STEP), Innovation in Teacher Education, Teaching Efficacy, K12 Teacher Preparation