High school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs,self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward physics: a structural equation model

Background: There are some theoretical evidences that explain the relationships between core beliefs (i.e., epistemological beliefs) and peripheral beliefs (self-efficacy in learning) in the literature. The close relationships of such type of beliefs with attitudes are also discussed by some researchers. Constructing a model that investigates these relationships by considering theoretical and empirical evidences can empower researchers to discuss these relationships more comprehensively.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among Turkish high school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics.

Sample: A total of 632 high school students participated in this study; however, 269 female and 229 male (a total of 498) high school students’ data were used.

Design and methods: Three distinct instruments that measure scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward physics were combined into a unique questionnaire form and it was distributed to high school students. To explore the relationships among these variables, structural equation modeling was used.

Results: The results showed that scientific epistemological belief dimensions uncovered by the nature of knowing (source and justification) significantly and positively related to both self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward other important physics dimensions. Additionally, self-efficacy in learning physics significantly and positively predicted attitudes toward multiple physics dimensions (importance, comprehension and requirement). However, epistemological belief dimensions related to the nature of knowledge (certainty and development) did not have significant impact on self-efficacy in learning physics or attitudes toward physics.

Conclusions: This study concludes that there are positive and significant relationships among Turkish high school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics.     

Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Mathematical Problem-Solving of Gifted Students

Path analysis was used to test the predictive and mediational role that self-efficacy beliefs play in the mathematical problem-solving of middle school gifted students (n= 66) mainstreamed with regular education students (n= 232) in algebra classes. Self-efficacy of gifted students made an independent contribution to the prediction of problem-solving in a model that controlled for the effects of math anxiety, cognitive ability, mathematics GPA, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, and sex. Gifted girls surpassed gifted boys in performance but did not differ in self-efficacy. Gifted students reported higher math self-efficacy and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning as well as lower math anxiety than did regular education students. Although most students were overconfident about their capabilities, gifted students had more accurate self-perceptions and gifted girls were biased toward underconfidence. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in A. Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory.     

Looking at Teacher Practices Through the Lens of Parenting Style

In this article, the author used a parenting style framework to explain mixed evidence about the influence of teacher practices on student outcomes. Participants included 3 fifth-grade math teachers and 45 of their students. The author assessed teacher practices, teaching style (i.e., demandingness and responsiveness), student engagement, self-efficacy, and standardized achievement test scores. The most academically and socially competent students were those who experienced an authoritative teaching style (i.e., consistent classroom management, support of student autonomy, and personal interest in students). The author found disengagement and limited ability beliefs in the authoritarian context (i.e., consistent classroom management but limited autonomy support and limited personal interest in students). She found smaller academic gains in the permissive context (i.e., inconsistent management, autonomy support, and interest in students).     

Investigating the relationships among students’ self-efficacy beliefs,their perceptions of classroom learning environment,gender, and chemistry achievement through structural equation modeling

Background: Investigating factors contributing to chemistry achievement is important since it enables us to make more concrete instructional decisions related to improving students? chemistry achievement.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate how students? perceptions of learning environment, self-efficacy and gender are related to chemistry achievement.

Sample: Three hundred fifty six high school students with the age range of 14 and 19 from three different schools in the same district were the participants.

Design and methods: A structural equation model was designed and tested. Constructivist learning environment survey, self-efficacy scale were the instruments of the study. Information about students? gender and their chemistry grades belonging to the previous semester were also collected.

Results: The model testing showed that chemistry self-efficacy beliefs, students? perceptions of constructivist learning environment (through chemistry-self efficacy) and gender were significantly related to chemistry achievement. Moreover, the findings showed that students? chemistry self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relation of students? learning environment perceptions to their chemistry achievement.

Conclusions: The present study has some educational implications for teachers, teacher educators and curriculum developers. First of all, self-efficacy was found to have an effect on students? achievement. Therefore, teachers should consider students? self-efficacy beliefs and devise their instruction accordingly. Another implication of this study is the necessity of considering gender differences in designing teachers? instruction.     

Implicit beliefs of ability and maladaptive learning: does self-efficacy matter?

This study investigated the interaction between self-efficacy and implicit beliefs of ability in their association with maladaptive learning in mathematics. The analysis was based on a large sample of 2538 Singapore Secondary 2 students (M_age = 13.75), who took measures of entity beliefs of ability, self-efficacy, and three maladaptive learning variables in mathematics: novelty avoidance, cheating, and anxiety. We conducted latent interaction analysis with gender and previous mathematics achievement controlled and found that higher self-efficacy did not buffer, but enhanced the positive association between entity beliefs of ability and the three maladaptive learning variables. When entity beliefs of ability were higher, the increase in the three maladaptive learning was larger for those with higher self-efficacy than those with lower self-efficacy. Findings suggest a revision of the moderation hypothesis in the literature: higher self-efficacy is more helpful in preventing maladaptive learning for incremental theorists than for entity theorists.     

Comparative School Marks of September and January Junior High-School Entrants

ABSTRACT

The author used an explanatory mixed methods research design. The first phase involved the collection of quantitative data to examine the nature of preservice teachers’ (N = 192) culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Follow-up face-to-face interviews were carried out with a subsample selected from Phase 1 participants. These interviews were used to identify the types of culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy-forming experiences that preservice teachers encountered during their teacher education program and the perceived influence that these experiences had on the development of their self-efficacy beliefs. The face-to-face interviews uncovered disparities among preservice teachers regarding the aspects of culturally responsive teaching that were discussed, modeled, and practiced. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

Structural relationships between learning environments and students’ non-cognitive outcomes: secondary analysis of PISA data

Relationships between students’ perceptions and their non-cognitive outcomes (epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy and attitudes to science) were investigated through secondary analysis of data from 14,167 United Arab Emirates students who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested that students’ perceptions of the learning environment were related to the non-cognitive outcomes of epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy and attitudes. Also, epistemological beliefs were found to have a statistically-significant and positive relationship with self-efficacy and attitudes, and self-efficacy was significantly related to attitudes.

     

Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen und Pädagogisches Professionswissen im Verlauf des Lehramtsstudiums

Teacher Self-Efficacy and General Pedagogical Knowledge During Teacher Education. The present study investigates how teacher self-efficacy beliefs develop during teacher education and how self-efficacy beliefs and general pedagogical knowledge of student-teachers are related. In a cross-sectional study, 257 student-teachers were investigated (173 first year students, 27 advanced students, 35 examination candidates, 19 preservice teachers). The data show that self-efficacy beliefs for the subscales classroom management and assessment increase between the start and the end of training (preservice teachers). Concerning diagnostic competency, self-efficacy beliefs do not change during studies and even decrease for the preservice teachers. For the subscales communication and conflicts as well as coping little difference is noticeable. Professional knowledge, in contrast, increases during studies. Self-efficacy beliefs for classroom management and assessment are linked to professional knowledge. Finally, the usefulness of the multidimensional measuring of self-efficacy beliefs is discussed and implications for future research approaches are presented.     

Grade Level and Gender Differences in the Writing Self-Beliefs of Middle School Students

The objectives of this study were to determine whether middle school students' writing self-efficacy beliefs make an independent contribution to the prediction of their writing competence and to explore grade level and gender differences in writing self-beliefs (N = 742). Writing self-efficacy was the only motivation construct to predict writing competence in a model that included writing self-concept, writing apprehension, perceived value of writing, self-efficacy for self-regulation, previous writing achievement, gender, and grade level. Girls were more competent writers than were boys, but there were no gender differences in writing self-efficacy beliefs. However, when students were asked whether they were better writers than their peers, girls expressed that they were better writers than were other boys or girls in their class or in their school to a greater degree than did the boys. These findings suggest that girls and boys may use a different metric when responding to traditional self-efficacy scales. Students in Grade 6 reported higher self-efficacy and found writing more valuable than did their older peers, and students in Grade 7 reported lower writing self-beliefs than did students in Grades 6 or 8.     

Implicit STEM ability beliefs predict secondary school students' STEM self-efficacy beliefs and their intention to opt for a STEM field career

Despite the widely accepted view that low self-efficacy beliefs negatively influence students' intention to opt for a STEM field oriented study or career path, it remains unclear how to effectively stimulate these beliefs in students who do seem to have the ability and motivation to opt for a STEM career. A suggestion from previous literature is that students' implicit beliefs about the malleability of their learning ability can have a major impact on their self-efficacy beliefs, and, importantly, that these implicit beliefs are malleable themselves. Even though this relation between implicit beliefs, self-efficacy, and STEM field aspirations has been suggested multiple times, there is no empirical evidence to support this claim. The goal of the current study was to examine whether implicit beliefs about the malleability of STEM ability are associated with secondary school students' intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor's degree, using a Structural Equation Modelling approach. Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of STEM-oriented self-efficacy beliefs on the relationship between implicit ability beliefs and STEM intention. We used a Likert-type questionnaire, consisting of subscales to measure ability beliefs, self-efficacy, and intention to opt for a STEM degree of secondary school students in their fifth grade (n = 483). Results showed that there is a positive relation between implicit STEM ability beliefs and the intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor degree, and that this relation is partly mediated by self-efficacy beliefs. Incremental STEM ability beliefs predicted positive self-efficacy beliefs and increased STEM intention. These findings provide a foundation for a novel approach to stimulate and motivate students for the STEM field, namely by stimulating incremental beliefs about their STEM ability.     

Enclothed cognition: putting lab coats to the test

ABSTRACT

Although there has been some success with programmes that aim to increase STEM involvement by women and underserved minorities, science educators continue to seek ways to promote students’ interest in STEM. This study builds on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and the theory of enclothed cognition to assess the impact of wearing lab coats on 5th-grade students. Students were assigned to a treatment group (that wore lab coats, n = 106) or a control group (that did not wear lab coats, n = 110) for 10 science classes taught by their classroom science teacher. Students were assessed pre and post to the intervention with a survey designed to measure science interest, recognition from others as a science person, science self-efficacy, and STEM career goals. Results showed students’ interest in science was not significantly changed due to wearing the lab coat, but the lab coats did have significant effects on students’ perceived recognition by others as being a science learner. Furthermore, those treatment students with low self-efficacy (compared to those with high self-efficacy) and those with who did not report having access to a parent with a STEM career had significant increases in perceptions of self-efficacy in science.     

Writing essays: does self-efficacy matter? The relationship between self-efficacy in reading and in writing and undergraduate students’ performance in essay writing

Self-efficacy beliefs have been identified as associated with students’ academic performance. The present research assessed the relationship between two new self-efficacy scales (self-efficacy in reading [SER] and self-efficacy in writing [SEW]) and students’ writing performance on a piece of assessed written coursework. Using data from first and second year undergraduate psychology students at a UK university (N?=?145), the results showed that both SER and SEW were related to actual writing performance. Overall the results support the importance of the concept of self-efficacy in relation to student performance. We discuss the relevance of self-efficacy on students’ perceptions and self-regulations.     

Competitive comparison in music: influences upon self-efficacy beliefs by gender

This study profiles gender differences in instrumental performance self-efficacy perceptions of high school students (N?=?87) over the course of a three-day orchestra festival in which students competed against one another for rank-based seating and then rehearsed and performed as a group. Reported self-beliefs rose significantly for the sample over the course of the festival. Self-efficacy beliefs of females were significantly lower than those of males before the seating audition and first rehearsal, but were no longer different by the midpoint of the festival. Survey free-response data were coded according to Bandura's (1997 Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W. H. Freeman. [Google Scholar]) four sources of self-efficacy. A 52% drop in the frequency of student comments regarding competitive comparison appeared at the same point in which female self-efficacy beliefs were no longer different from those of males. Results support past research to suggest that males and females may respond differently to rank-based competition versus social support.     

Self-efficacy and science anxiety among preservice primary teachers: Origins and remedies

The preservice training of primary teachers is an opportunity to provide positive experiences which may ameliorate students' anxiety about science and science teaching, and enhance their beliefs that they may become effective science teachers. The previous and current science related experiences, and beliefs, of an intake of primary teachers participating in an introductory science content subject, were explored. Matter and energy concepts were major content components of the subject. Data were collected from pre- and post-test administrations of psychometric tests designed to measure students' science teaching self-efficacy, science related attitudes, interest in science teaching, and preferred learning environment. A randomly selected sample of students was interviewed at the commencement and finish of the subject. One third of the sample was assigned to a study group in which a constructivist approach to laboratorys sessions was adopted. The remainder of the sample experienced a more traditional transmissive format in laboratory sessions. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed no group differences in self-efficacy. Interesting contrasts between students evident in the data from the interviews facilitated the articulation of tentative assertions about the causative factors that may influence the development of students' sense of self-efficacy and possible science related anxiety. Specialisations: science teacher education, conceptual change, scientific reasoning. Specialisations: science teacher education, conceptual change, scientific reasoning.     

The Impact of Teaching Preparation Practices on Self-Efficacy Toward Teaching

Coursework in teaching, fieldwork, and supervised teaching experiences were examined as predictors of counselor education doctoral students’ (N = 149) self-efficacy toward teaching. Results revealed that all 3 variables related significantly to self-efficacy toward teaching. Results suggested that students’ satisfaction with supervision of teaching was particularly important in strengthening self-efficacy.     

The Relationship Between Changes in Teachers' Self-efficacy Beliefs and the Science Teaching Environment of Danish First-Year Elementary Teachers

This study's purpose was to determine whether science teaching self-efficacy beliefs among new teachers of elementary science interact significantly with teaching environments in their schools. The study hypothesized a mechanism by which environments can interact with self-efficacy and, consequently, affect the quality of science teaching. The self-efficacy of new elementary teachers from Denmark was assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of their first year of teaching. Their teaching success and environments were also assessed. It was found that positive changes in self-efficacy seemed positively related to the occurrence of environmental factors helpful to teaching (r= .401; p= .011; n= 39). In three case studies, there was some support for this association from assessments, interviews, and success in teaching.     

Community colleges maintain modest response rates to prospective student inquiry

None of the community colleges in this study responded with a text message, as requested in the prospective student’s inquiry. Only 1.38% (n = 3) of the institutions responded to the inquiry with a telephone call. This research realized a slightly higher rate of e-mail response within five working days; 54.98% (n = 116) as opposed to the 2009 results of 50.5% (n = 110) in Shadinger’s (2014) study. More community colleges (n = 12, 5.5%) also had e-mail addresses or information request forms (n = 182, 83.5%) than in the original study (n = 170, 78.0%). Nearly 100% of community college websites had social media links, even when an e-mail address or information request form was not available. In an expansion of previous statements about communication, Noel-Levitz (2014a) reported prospective students were “more likely to consider schools that use e-mail, text messages or social media to communicate” (p. 4). Concurrently, the underutilization of e-mail, social media, and cell phones will simply exacerbate communication and recruiting issues for community colleges.     

A Bridge to Developing Efficacious Science Teachers of All Students: Community-Based Service-Learning Supplemented with Explicit Discussions and Activities about Diversity

This study explored the effects of community-based service-learning (CBSL), supplemented with discussions and activities about diversity, on the self-efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers regarding equitable science teaching and learning for diverse student groups. The study was conducted with 81 preservice teachers enrolled in four sections of an elementary science methods course over a semester. Employing a mixed-methods research design, data were collected using pretests–posttests with the study sample and semistructured interviews with a subsample. The results support the value of preservice teachers engaging in CBSL experiences, supplemented with discussions and activities about diversity, as a way to improve their self-efficacy beliefs regarding equitable science teaching and learning of all students.