Prospective Teachers’ Locus of Control, Persistent Behaviour, Classroom Anxiety and Professional Mastery Beliefs

Abstract

This study was conducted to measure the prospective teachers’ locus of control, persistent behaviour, classroom anxiety and professional mastery beliefs during teacher education program. An intact classroom of B.Ed program was randomly selected as a sample of the study. 70 prospective teachers including 67 females (95.7%) and 3 males (4.3%) with mean age of 1.83 (SD= 0.38) participated in this study. Teacher self-efficacy scale was administered at the end of first, second and third semesters of B.Ed program. Results showed that prospective teachers’ locus of control, persistent behaviour, classroom anxiety and professional mastery beliefs remained stable and did not change significantly. For further investigation focused group discussions with prospective teachers were carried out. The findings of this study can help to develop and improve teacher education programs and pre-service teaching practices. Teacher education programs must be designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice to better prepare these teachers