Determining the Self-Efficacy of Science Teachers in Developing Digital Teaching Materials

This research analyzes the self-efficacy levels of science teachers in developing educational materials using Web 2.0 tools and whether or not these levels vary according to the variables such as gender, professional experience, location of workplace, daily internet usage duration, and participation in digital education training courses. The study was conducted with 81 science teachers working in public middle schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education across Turkey. In the study in which a survey model was utilized, the "Teachers' Digital Teaching Material Development Self-Efficacy Scale," developed by Korkmaz et al. (2019), was employed for data collection. The data were analyzed using parametric tests in SPSS 22.0 software. The findings reveal that teachers generally have high confidence in developing digital materials, but they have moderate confidence in developing Web 2.0 tools and higher confidence in design-related tasks. Variables such as gender, years of professional experience, and daily internet usage were determined not to create significant differences. However, significant differences were found based on the location of the workplace and participation in digital education courses. Teachers working in provincial centers were found to have higher levels of self-efficacy in developing digital teaching materials compared to those working in districts and villages. Additionally, the self-efficacy perceptions of teachers who participated in digital education courses were found higher than of those who did not. The results denote that increasing access to professional development opportunities, expanding training on the use of Web 2.0 tools, and providing more support to teachers working in rural areas are necessary to enhance the digital teaching material development skills of science teachers.