Abstract
This study examined the malleability of math self-efficacy (SE) among children with poor calculation fluency via an intervention that targeted four sources of SE (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasions, and emotional and physiological states). The effect of pure strategy training was contrasted with an intervention that integrated strategy training and explicit SE support. Moreover, the changes in SE source experiences and their relation with math SE, as well as the relation between math-SE profiles and calculation fluency development, were examined. In a quasi-experimental design, 60 Finnish children with calculation fluency problems in Grades 2 to 4 participated in strategy training (N = 38) or in an intervention that integrated SE support with strategy training (N = 32) for 12 weeks. The results showed that the explicit SE intervention integrated with strategy training enhanced math SE among children with poor calculation fluency and low SE (effect size, r = 0.61). Changes in mastery experiences and social persuasions were positively associated with changes in math SE among children who received the explicit SE intervention. An initially high math-SE profile and a profile indicating an increase from low to high math SE were related to growth in calculation fluency that approached the children's average age level during the interventions. In conclusion, an integrated approach that combined skill training and SE intervention was especially beneficial for children with poor calculation fluency and low math SE.
Highlights
Self-efficacy (SE) refers to people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action that are required to attain designated performances (Bandura, 1986)
We extended a recent study with the same participants, which focused on reporting the effectiveness of calculation strategy training on calculation fluency among second to fifth graders who used immature counting-based strategies in basic addition despite formal schooling for several years (Koponen et al, 2018)
Post-hoc analysis revealed a significant increase in math self-efficacy (math SE) among both intervention groups but not among the control group during the intervention
Summary
Self-efficacy (SE) refers to people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action that are required to attain designated performances (Bandura, 1986). SE refers to the beliefs that students hold about their capability to perform and execute a learning task under specified conditions or to perform behaviors at desired levels (Bandura, 1986). Students who hold a low level of SE for mastering a certain task, such as in mathematics, Self-Efficacy Intervention in Math may avoid the task or give up whereas those who believe they are capable work harder and persist longer. Children with dysfluency problems often rely on slow and error-prone counting strategies despite several years of schooling (Geary, 2004); these children need to work much harder in order to complete the same number of math tasks or the same amount of homework as their typically performing peers. Whether children’s beliefs can be strengthened by providing positive efficacy-building experiences in math still needs to be researched
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