Identifying predictors of teachers’ intention and willingness to teach about cancer by using direct and belief-based measures in the context of the theory of planned behaviour

Estonian science teacher beliefs about competence-based science e-testing

“…Perceived control over the given behavior (control beliefs) -whether the skills, resources, etc., are perceived to perform a given behavior; this belief component enables behavioral predictions, which are not always completely under one's own control (in Figure 1, this is illustrated by the direct link between the control beliefs and behavior). Ajzen's TPB has been successfully applied in science education to explore teacher beliefs (e.g., Vaino et al, 2013;Haney and McArthur, 2002;Heuckmann et al, 2020). Research findings (both quantitative and qualitative) support the general assumption of TPB, whereby the more positive belief structures (attitudes, capability, and context beliefs) a teacher holds toward a given behavior, the more likely it is that s/he actually executes it in practice.…”

Topic Specificity and Antecedents for Preservice Biology Teachers’ Anticipated Enjoyment for Teaching About Socioscientific Issues: Investigating Universal Values and Psychological Distance

“…For example, one study found psychological distance as a predictor of anticipated enjoyment for teaching in the topic of the return of wild wolves (Büssing et al, 2019c). Similarly to this, another study investigated how personal experiences of cancer may affect in-service teachers' motivation to teach about the disease (Heuckmann et al, 2020). Therefore, we hypothesize that the psychological distance to specific topics is connected to the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about the respective topic.…”

Advantages and Disadvantages of Modeling Beliefs by Single Item and Scale Models in the Context of the Theory of Planned Behavior

“…Teachers have expressed the belief that teaching about cancer education is challenging because of the complexity of the topic and its emotional psychosocial implications [22][23][24]61]. Therefore, Heuckmann et al [62] employed the theory of planned behavior to investigate teachers' beliefs about teaching cancer education in German high schools. In two preparatory studies, the authors developed questionnaires assessing attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, intention [63] and behavioral, normative, and control beliefs [7].…”

“…In total, 49 items aligned with the behavioral, normative, and control belief constructs of the theory of planned behavior were generated. Both questionnaires from [7,63] were combined in a study described by [62]. In their study, Heuckmann et al [62] first analyzed the predictive power of attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control on teachers' intentions to teach about cancer using structural equation models.…”

“…Both questionnaires from [7,63] were combined in a study described by [62]. In their study, Heuckmann et al [62] first analyzed the predictive power of attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control on teachers' intentions to teach about cancer using structural equation models. To prevent ceiling effects for intention (i.e., cancer education became a mandatory topic in the biology curriculum at the time the study was conducted), the teachers were also encouraged to indicate how willing they would be to teach about cancer education if teaching the topic was obligatory.…”