Abstracts

Few researchers have examined the impact onpre-service teacher efficacy as related to a field experience in aliteracy content area. In this study, the pre-service teachers wereenrolled in a phonemic awareness and phonics course with anassociated field experience. The Teachers Sense of Efficacy Scaleand a researcher created content specific survey provided pre andpost field experience data. The researcher created content surveyprovided insight regarding the changes in attitudes of thecandidates with the overall responses in the survey indicated thatthe candidates were more confident in phonemic awareness and phoniclesson design after the field experience. The study was conductedat a small private college with early childhood education majors.The small sample size limited overall conclusions. Indeed, theresults indicated no significant differences. The impact of thefield experience on individual efficacy was not evident; furtherresearch is required.Advisors/Committee Members: Cain, Melissa (Committee Chair).