Font Size: 

Attention to teachers’ self-efficacy has been increasing because researchers have proved that teachers’ self-efficacy is not only related to students’ learning but teachers’ willingness to conduct STEM education. Teachers with good performance in readiness tend to have a high level of self-efficacy; however, readiness from multiple aspects (e.g., affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects) toward implementing STEM education has not yet been considered. The current study aims to examine the relationships between teachers’ self-efficacy and readiness from three aspects in STEM education, and to explore differences between teachers from Taiwan and South Korea. A total of 140 teachers were asked to complete a survey with 33 questions for investigating readiness from the three aspects, and 23 questions for measuring STEM teaching self-efficacy. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine the structural relationships between teachers’ self-efficacy and affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects readiness in STEM education. The results revealed that teachers’ STEM self-efficacy was strongly related to behavioral readiness and cognitive readiness, while affective readiness did not show a significant effect on predicting self-efficacy. Additionally, the results further indicated that teachers’ three aspects of readiness showed different effects on self-efficacy in STEM education in countries.

readiness; self-efficacy; STEM education; South Korea; Taiwan; teacher education