Preservice Elementary Teachers' Attitudes and Self-efficacy Beliefs toward Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of gender and grade level on preservice teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes toward mathematics. The analysis was based on 358 elementary and middle school mathematics teachers enrolled in an undergraduate program at two public universities in Ankara. Results showed that there was no significant effect of gender and grade level of preservice teachers on their attitudes toward mathematics. On the other hand, results also revealed that there was found a significant effect of gender as males scored significantly higher than females in their mathematics self-efficacy and there was a significant effect of grade level as senior preservice teachers had the highest and sophomore had the lowest mathematics self-efficacy scores.