The relationships among student science achievement, elementary science teaching efficacy, and school climate

This study was conducted to determine the relationships among science achievement, science teaching efficacy, and school climate in public elementary schools. Three samples were used for study: (1) the schools, (2) the teachers, and (3) the students. The sample consisted of 157 teachers, 12 principals, and 1032 students in twelve schools in a central Illinois school district participated in this study. Five instruments were used for data collection. Three instruments were used to obtain teachers' perceptions of school climate, teachers' beliefs about science teaching efficacy, and personal teacher data. The climate instrument, developed by Hoy, Tarter and Kottkamp, measured five indices of school climate (institutional integrity, collegial leadership, resource influence, teacher affiliation, and academic emphasis). The science teaching efficacy instrument, developed by Riggs and Enochs, measured two factors of efficacy (personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy). The fourth instrument that gathered school demographic data was completed by school principals. The fifth form was the Illinois Goal Assessment Plan Science Test taken by grade four students.;The statistical techniques employed in the analysis of the data were mean, standard deviation, correlation, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. The following are among the results obtained: (1) Student science achievement is higher in schools where the teachers have a higher sense of science teaching efficacy. (2) Teachers holding a bachelor's rather than a higher degree have a lower sense of personal science teaching efficacy. (3) As teachers' sense of affiliation with the school and colleagues increases, their belief that science teaching can affect science achievement decreases. (4) The extent to which a teacher believes student science learning can be influenced by effective science teaching is positively related to the number of years of teaching experience and the school climate indices for institutional integrity, collegial leadership, and academic emphasis. (5) The teacher's sense of affiliation with the school and colleagues decreases as the proportion of White or low-income students enrolled increases. (6) Experienced teachers feel less positive about the integrity of the school's program. (7) Teachers' beliefs about the principal's effectiveness in obtaining resource materials drops with increases in the proportion of White students enrolled. (8) Teachers' beliefs that the principal is providing collegial leadership decreases with increases in the proportion of White students enrolled, proportion of low-income students enrolled, and the number of years of principal service. (9) The Riggs and Enochs conceptualization of science teaching efficacy, based on Bandura's hypothesis that teacher efficacy has two dimensions was supported by the study. In addition, the Hoy, Tarter, and Kottkamp conceptualization of school climate as five dimensions of organizational health was supported by the study.