The aim of the research is to investigate to what extent the science literacy of science teacher candidates is explained by their epistemological beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs of science teaching through a model. A model was created and tested to determine the direct and indirect effects of the independent variables on the dependent variables of the research. The causal-comparative design was used in the research, and the study group of the research is composed of 596 university students, 415 of which are female and 181 of which are male. The basic science and technology literacy scale developed by Laugksch and Spargo (1996) and adapted into Turkish language by Yetişir (2007); the science teaching self-efficacy belief scale developed by Riggs and Enochs (1990) and adapted into Turkish language by Özkan, Tekkaya and Çakıroğlu (2002); and the Epistemological beliefs inventory developed by Schommer (1990) and adapted into Turkish language by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk (2002) were used in the research as data collecting tools. The data obtained from the research were analyzed with SPSS 21 and AMOS software packages. The path analysis was performed for testing the model in the research.It was consequently determined in the research that scientific literacy of science teacher candidates was explained by their epistemological beliefs directly, their science teaching self-efficacy beliefs indirectly. In the study, a conceptual model was suggested for the relationship between the variables (science literacy of science teacher candidates, their epistemological beliefs and their selfefficacy beliefs in science teaching). It was observed that the variable of the belief that there is only one correct was correlation inefficient with independent and the other variables, and this variable wasn’t taken into the model.The main aim of science teaching is to grow scientific literateindividuals. Growing individuals who can decide when faced with aproblem on science, who can make suggestions on scientific discussions,know the basic concepts on science and can use these concepts for theproblems in their lives, is rather important for developing societies(Çepni, Bacanak and Küçük, 2003).Although scientists make a lot of definitions about science literacy,a common definition can’t be developed. Yet, in general terms, a commonand basic concept can be mentioned for the aims in science teaching inthe schools (Deboer, 2000; Robert, 1983; as cited in Laugksch, 2000).The other variable beside science literacy that effects the scientificdevelopment of individuals is epistemological beliefs. These beliefs areabout the nature of knowledge and learning but not a strict philosophicalperception (Schommer, 1998). An extended definition of epistemologicalbelief is the subjective beliefs about what knowledge is and how knowingand learning ocur.There is a consistent relation between epistemological beliefs andlearning and studying strategies of the students. The students who haveimproved beliefs in learning process use more qualified learningstrategies and can be more successful in terms of academic than thestudents who have unimproved epistemological beliefs (Deryakulu,2004).The characteristics that science teachers must have are scienceliteracy and developed epistemological and self-efficacy beliefs. Selfefficacyis one of the concepts that came to forefront in Bandura’s sociallearning theory. Bandura firstly mentioned about this concept in hiswork "Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change" in1977 (Bıkmaz, 2004; Pajares, 2002).Self-efficacy is an important qualification for forming behavioursand individual’s judgement about himself for making necessaryorganisations and sustaining successfully (Bandura, 1997).The self-efficacy in science education can be defined as thejudgment about the students’ own skills for participation, motivation andas a result the success of them and effective and fertile science teachingof teachers (Küçükyılmaz and Duban, 2006). So, the low or high selfefficacyof the teachers may affect the applications of the teachers inscience education (Schriver and Czerniak, 1999).In the study, the self-efficacy belief in science education is veryimportant in terms of science teacher candidates. The teacher candidateswith high self-efficacy beliefs will be more determined, knowing what hewants and what he must do. In this study, the science literacy of theteacher candidates were explained in terms of the variables,epistemological belief and self-efficacy belief for science teaching, and thereasons and results were discussed comparatively CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKIt can be said that, as well as teachers’ personal characteristics,their educational process at faculty of education has a great role for theirscientific literacy. That is why many research has been done about thelevel of scientific literacy on science teacher candidates. It can be thoughtthat scientific literacy of science teacher candidates is influenced byepistemological beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs. Yet, there is no researchin literature.Searching how science candidate teacher’s scientific literacy ispredicted by their epistemological beliefs and self efficacy beliefs onscience teaching has a crucial role on teacher’s education, correctingdeficiencies in science teaching field and enlighting for further studies.METHODIn this study, casual-comparative research method, one of thescanning models, was used. Casual-comparative researches are fordetermining the reasons of a natural situation or event and the variablesaffecting these reasons or the results of an effectThis method was used for explaining the science literacy of teachercandidates depending on the epistemological belief and the variables ofself-efficacy belief for science teaching.Data Collection ToolsThe Scale of Basic Science and Technology Lit