Sources of Self-Efficacy Influencing Academic Performance of Engineering Students

C.W Loo,J.L.F Choy

doi:10.12691/education-1-3-4

Abstract

This study examined (a) the correlation of the four hypothesized sources of self-efficacy (mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, emotional arousal) with academic performance, and (b) the prediction of the main source of self-efficacy that affects academic performance. A 40-item survey measuring sources of mathematics self-efficacy was administered to 178 third-year engineering students. Academic performance, which includes mathematics module grades and cumulative grade point average (GPA) scores, were collated. The results of the present study showed that self-efficacy sources were correlated with mathematics achievement scores as well as cumulative GPA of electronics-related engineering diplomas. More importantly, mastery experience was found to be the main predictor for academic achievements of mathematics and related engineering modules. Finally, suggestions are offered to help curriculum developers in instructional design so as to improve studentsâ engineering academic performance.

Highlights

Researchers had found that self-efficacy beliefs could significantly affect academic achievement and the persistence in the field of engineering [3,15,23,27]
This study aims to investigate the influence of selfefficacy sources on mathematics academic achievements of polytechnic engineering students
Earlier segment of the analyses in this study showed that selfefficacy sources were significantly interrelated and these sources were correlated with academic achievements, hierarchical regression analysis suggested that mastery experience was the strongest predictor over the other three sources when predicting the academic achievements of mathematics modules and cumulative grade point average (GPA)

Summary

Introduction

Researchers had found that self-efficacy beliefs could significantly affect academic achievement and the persistence in the field of engineering [3,15,23,27]. Albert Bandura defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one‟s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” [3]. He hypothesized that the level of self-efficacy can determine whether a task will be initiated, the amount of effort that will be expended and the level of persistence to complete the task when face with obstacles and aversive experiences [2]. If he had acquired a high level of self-efficacy belief, he would have motivated himself to put in more effort, persisted longer and completed the marathon in his best timing. Bandura posited that self-efficacy belief is multidimensional, that is, domain specific or context dependent [3]. Certain generalization to the theory may still be applicable in the academic domain where further explanations will be elaborated below

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Results

Conclusion