Keywords

Moral education (Secondary) -- Florida, Social sciences -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Florida, Student teachers -- Florida

Abstract

Character education is one of the most controversial aspects of academic institutions in the United States. The responsibility of educating children about democratic principles and moral values is something many states and schools are taking very seriously as a vital part of a teacher’s role in the classroom. This study investigated the personal teaching efficacy and general teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-service secondary teachers at a large university in the state of Florida. This study investigated the responses of 130 pre-service secondary teachers in language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics within one teacher education program. The questionnaire utilized in this quantitative research study was the Character Education Efficacy Belief Instrument (CEEBI), which was designed by Milson and Mehlig (2002). This instrument is composed of 24 items designed to understand personal teaching efficacy (PTE) and general teaching efficacy (GTE) beliefs. This study examined if there was a statistically significant difference in PTE and GTE scores between secondary pre-service teachers based on the independent variables of a) program/major, b) gender, c) race/ethnicity, and d) coursework in character education. The results of this survey adds to a rich field of research and literature on character education and teacher education by taking a closer look at the specific beliefs of secondary preservice teachers regarding their PTE and GTE for character education. This study was an attempt to better understand the teaching efficacy beliefs for secondary pre-service teachers graduating from a teacher preparation program within a state that mandates character education.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2011

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Russell, William B.

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003686

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003686

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education;Education -- Dissertations, Academic;

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