Modeling the interrelationships among pre-service science teachers' understanding and acceptance of evolution, their views on nature of science and self-efficacy beliefs regarding teaching evolution

This study proposed a path model of relationships among understanding and acceptance of evolution, views on nature of science, and self-efficacy beliefs regarding teaching evolution. A total of 415 pre-service science teachers completed a series of self-report instruments for the specified purpose. After the estimation of scale scores using unidimensional IRT models, path analysis suggested that sophisticated views on NOS were associated with higher levels of both understanding and acceptance of evolution, and the higher level of understanding of evolution was related to the higher level of acceptance of evolution. Besides, higher levels of both understanding and acceptance of the theory and naïve views on NOS were found to be associated with stronger self-efficacy beliefs for teaching evolution effectively. © 2012 The Association for Science Teacher Education, USA.