Which Task Characteristics Do Students Rely on When They Evaluate Their Abilities to Solve Linear Function Tasks? - A...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Mathematics Education

Background:

• Self-efficacy, a key predictor of academic achievement, is typically assessed via task-specific evaluations.
• Previous research often assumed self-efficacy is a single, unified construct.
• However, student performance varies with task characteristics, questioning the one-dimensional assumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential multi-dimensionality of self-efficacy in the domain of linear functions.
• To investigate the influence of task characteristics—representational format, real-life context, and required operation—on students' self-efficacy.
• To determine if self-efficacy in linear functions is a multi-dimensional construct.

Main Methods:

• Survey administered to 376 8th and 9th graders.
• Students evaluated self-efficacy on linear function tasks varying across representational format, real-life context, and operation.
• Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare one-dimensional and two-dimensional models.

Main Results:

• A two-dimensional model incorporating the real-life context characteristic demonstrated a superior fit to the data compared to other models.
• This indicates that self-efficacy regarding linear functions is empirically separable based on the presence or absence of a real-life context.
• Students' self-evaluation of linear function tasks is significantly influenced by whether the task is embedded in a real-life context.

Conclusions:

• Self-efficacy in the specific domain of linear functions is a multi-dimensional construct.
• The distinction between tasks with and without real-life contexts is a critical factor in students' self-efficacy perceptions.
• Educational assessments of self-efficacy should consider task-specific contextual factors, even within a single subject area.