Self-efficacy and negative silence in the classroom: The mediating role of fear of negative evaluation

Abstract

BackgroundNegative silence in the classroom is a usual passive behavior, which means students tend to keep silent and are unwilling to participate in the teaching interaction. It hinders the classroom teaching quality severely. Previous studies have shown both self-efficacy and fear of negative evaluation are related to silent behavior. However, little research has explained whether self-efficacy affects negative silence in the classroom through fear of negative evaluation. PurposeTo investigate the relationships between self-efficacy, fear of negative evaluation and negative silence in the classroom. MethodsA cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted to collect data from 568 undergraduate nursing students from a higher medical institution in Guizhou Province, west of China, from October to November 2021. the T-Test or analysis of variance was used as a univariate analysis and the Bootstrap test was applied to verify the mediating effect. FindingsNursing students' self-efficacy was negatively related to both fear of negative evaluation and negative silence in the classroom（r = −0. 188, P＜0. 05; r = −0. 298, P＜0. 05, respectively; fear of negative evaluation was positively related to negative classroom silence（r = 0. 392, P＜0. 05; mediation analysis showed the mediating effect of fear of negative evaluation accounted for 23. 53% of the total [Effect Value= −0. 08, 95%CI（− 0. 12，− 0. 03]. DiscussionFear of negative evaluation partially mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and negative silence in the classroom. Therefore, reducing nursing students' negative evaluation fear can be used as a target for interventions to address nursing students' negative classroom silence issue, promoting the quality of classroom teaching and learning.