1 / 19

Charles B. Hodges Pamela F. Murphy Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Sources of Self-efficacy Beliefs of Students in a Technology-intensive Asynchronous College Algebra Course. Charles B. Hodges Pamela F. Murphy Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Study Purpose.

keelie-bruce
Download Presentation

Charles B. Hodges Pamela F. Murphy Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Sources of Self-efficacy Beliefs of Students in a Technology-intensive Asynchronous College Algebra Course Charles B. Hodges Pamela F. Murphy Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

  2. Study Purpose • To explore the influence of the four traditionally hypothesized sources of self-efficacy on learners’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding learning mathematics in an asynchronous environment.

  3. Research Context • Virginia Tech Math Emporium • Math 1015: College Algebra and Trigonometry • Course offered in an emporium format

  4. The emporium format • All course materials delivered online • Quizzing and Testing online • Weekly deadlines • Just-in-time help available many hours each week in computer lab

  5. Background • Self-efficacy • Self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1977) • Developing Self-efficacy beliefs • Mastery experiences • Vicarious experiences • Social persuasion • Affective/physiological

  6. Current Study • Purpose was to investigate the relative strength of the four traditionally proposed sources of self-efficacy beliefs of students enrolled in Math 1015 • Data collected January 2008 • 99 students (43 male, 56 female) , iPod lottery offered as enticement • Online questionnaires • Regression analysis

  7. Instruments • Demographics questionnaire • SELMA • Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy (SMSE) scale • (Lent, Lopez, & Bieschke, 1991) • 4 subscales for 4 traditional sources of self-efficacy

  8. Participants • 99 students (43 male, 56 female) • Most of the participants had never taken an online math course (n=57) • Most of them (n=77) were taking this course for the first time

  9. Regression SMSE subscales predicting SELMA r2=.289

  10. Multicollinearity • "There is no consensus about the meaning of this term" (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991, p. 448) • In general, it refers to a situation in which independent variables in a regression analysis are highly correlated with each other. • Problems multicollinearity may cause: • Unstable regression coefficients • Uninterpretable results • Difficulty identifying each variable's unique contribution to the variance

  11. Multicollinearity Correlations between predictor variables * Denotes p < .01

  12. Multicollinearity • Allison (1999, pp. 141-142) suggests that tolerances close to .40 and below should be flagged as possible indicators of multicollinearity.

  13. Dealing with Multicollinearity • Drop predictor variables • Conceptually, that is not the intent of this study • Use a different statistical technique

  14. Ridge Regression • Ridge regression is a technique suggested for dealing with multicollinearity (Joe & Mendoza, 1989; Kidwell & Brown, 1982; Thomas, Hughes, & Zumbo, 1998). • “Basically, ridge regression tries to stabilize the parameter estimates by trading off unbiasedness in estimation for a reduction in the variance of the estimate” (Joe & Mendoza, 1989, pp. 218-219). • Kidwell and Brown (1982) describe ridge regression as “a modification of the OLS formula designed to minimize the variance by introducing a small amount of bias into the estimate” (p. 290).

  15. Ridge Trace

  16. Ridge Coefficients

  17. Results • Most influential predictors: • Vicarious Experiences • Affective/Physiological • Ridge regression confirms results of initial analysis

  18. Discussion • From the perspective of self-efficacy theory, this study provides insight into how the four traditional sources of self-efficacy may influence learners in environments like the context of this study • Results make sense, given that the emporium environment is new for most learners • Implications for practitioners and instructional designers • Address vicarious component: past student testimonials in orientation • Self-regulation: encourage learners to engage in this course at times when stress is not high

  19. Where to from here… • More investigation is needed, especially if the problem of multicollinearity can be avoided • Design/develop effective orientation activities to address vicarious and affective/physiological components of self-efficacy

More Related