Awareness of the student's own effectiveness (self-efficacy) in the school environment

Knowing the student's own efficacy (self-efficacy) in the school environment

1. Introduction

In the beginning, we would define the term self-efficacy (awareness of one's own effectiveness) taken from the English self-efficacy. Self-efficacy as the perception of actual effectiveness in all areas of life. The most concise definition of the term is from the author Bandura (1997), who considers self-efficacy or awareness of one's own effectiveness as an important element of a person's self-regulatory structure. It develops on the basis of personal experience, from experiencing one's own successes, but also from observing other people and subsequently reflecting on their behavior and its consequences. The perception of one's own self-efficacy affects the evaluation of personal abilities, it is an internal individual belief in what a person can do under certain conditions, using his dispositions and abilities. However, if people do not believe that they can achieve the desired results through their actions, they have little incentive to act. For this reason, belief in effectiveness is the main basis of action. Self-efficacy is a multidimensional construct that is typical of the social-cognitive approach and the conceptualization of the individual as a goal-oriented, proactive, self-evaluative and self-regulatory personality (Bandura, 1997).

Due to the focus on the concept of self-efficacy, we will define only its specific component, specifically academic self-efficacy, which is specific to the student and his achievement in school.

Perceived academic self-efficacy is the student's belief about what he can do at school, how he will be successful at school (Bandura, 1997). Perceived academic self-efficacy is individual for each pupil/student, but it also differs for individual pupils/students between subjects in school. It follows that a pupil may be convinced of his high academic self-efficacy in, for example, physics, but in humanities subjects the pupil/student will show low academic self-efficacy.

Krejčová (2011) divides perceived academic self-efficacy into several dimensions. It indicates, for example, the dimension of the level of difficulty of the tasks in which the pupil/student believes he can handle them. As another dimension, he mentions the extent of pupil/student academic self-efficacy in the context of whether it is general academic self-efficacy, or only if the pupil/student is convinced of self-efficacy in a certain subject, subjects or even only in some areas of a certain subject. Based on Bandura (1997), the author also talks about the intensity of academic self-efficacy, while low intensity means that the pupil/student stops believing in his/her success after any failure, and those pupils/students who show high self-efficacy remain convinced of their effectiveness even after many failures.

This research trend has been growing mainly in recent years, where in the studies of several authors (for example, Greene, Miller, Crownson, Duke and Akey 2004, Pajares, 2006, Kennett and Keefer 2006, Klassen, Krawchuk and Rajani 2008, Lee, Lee & Bong 2014), a significant expansion of the number of sources that shape the construct of academic self-efficacy is beginning to be discovered. In several meta-analyses, self-efficacy has been shown to be a reliable indicator of performance motivation over time and across settings (Bandura & Locke, 2003, Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991).

Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1993) present a comprehensive social-cognitive framework that includes motivational elements, cognitive and metacognitive strategies, as well as resource management strategies. For example, students with high self-efficacy who tend to be more persistent, hard-working, decisive for difficult tasks, make more significant use of self-regulatory processes such as goal setting, self-evaluation, and self-control (Zimmerman, 2000). Several authors believe that students with higher self-efficacy achieve higher levels because they can cope more effectively with cognitive demands (Lane & Lane, 2001), strive for mastery goal orientation (Hsieh, Sullivan, & Guerra, 2007), perceive their learning as tasks/demands that are interesting and valuable, and use meaningful learning strategies (Greene, Miller, Crownson, Duke, & Akey, 2004).

1.2 The need and formation of high self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is probably higher when, with the help of self-regulation, learners actively manage their internal and external environment gradually according to the planned schedule for studying, determine the level of necessary effort, clarify the intentions of achieving goals, while it is necessary for them to know who to ask for help and guidance (Pintrich, 2004). Similarly, Kennett and Keefer (2006) report that self-confident students tend to have significantly higher self-control when they experience failure, they start working harder, they don't give up, their main goals are learning and getting better grades.

According to Barinková and Mesárošová (2011), it is important to find out the competencies that are necessary for subsequent performance, as well as knowledge that can influence the predictive power of self-efficacy in the area of ​​performance. According to the authors, the relationship between self-efficacy and performance was the subject of interest of several experts (for example, Bandura, 1997, Skaalvik, Skaalvik, 2004, Heggestad, Kanfer, 2005, Akama, 2006, Savia, 2008, Cheng, Chiou, 2010). In the research, the authors managed to confirm the relationship of self-efficacy to performance in tasks with a mathematical and verbal focus in women, and in men only in the case of performance in a written test.

The pupil/student's own experience is one of the most important sources of perception of academic self-efficacy. However, mediated experiences, verbal and non-verbal information about one's performance from classmates and teachers also play a significant role in its formation (Bandura and collective, 2003).

For students who do not use self-regulation strategies or use them insufficiently, this is not because they do not know them, but because they do not trust them and thus do not apply them when starting, progressing or completing tasks (Klassen, Krawchuk and Rajani, 2008). Consequently, the teacher should coach students in developing self-regulatory learning strategies, as this is an effective mechanism for improving self-efficacy, motivation, and performance (Tuckman, 2003).

Many researchers, such as Zimmerman and Schunk (2008), Hsieh, Sullivan, Sass, and Guerra (2012), believe that motivation determines the extent to which students invest in learning self-regulation, which predicts their later achievement of learning goals.

According to Zimmerman (1990, In Lee, Lee & Bong, 2014), self-regulation is a strong predictor of academic success. The aforementioned presupposes the active and systematic use of one's own processes to achieve educational goals. According to Pintrich (2000) and Zimmerman (2000, In Lee, Lee & Bong, 2014), the achievement of learning goals is characterized by deep cognitive and motivational activity during the learning process. According to Zimmerman and Schunk (2008, In Lee, Lee & Bong, 2014), pupils/students perform learning self-regulation more effectively when they are highly motivated. Lee, Lee & Bong (2014) believe that it is more than likely that goal planning and monitoring helps to modify and achieve regulatory processes in achieving tasks.

2 Development of self-efficacy through online technologies

The author Tekinarslan, E. (2011) also includes the ability to adapt to new technologies, which is essential in today's technical world. In his work, Tekinarslan, E. (2011) dealt with the comparison of research in the field of self-efficacy and the use of technological achievements, especially the use of computers. Authors such as Whitty, M. T. and McLaughlin, D. (2007 In Tekinarslan, E. 2011), who discuss that individuals with high confidence or self-efficacy in their abilities often approach difficult tasks as challenges that they can handle, while those who doubt their abilities avoid these tasks. There is a considerable amount of research studies in the literature such as Tekinarslan, E. (2011), Compeau, D. and Higgins, C. (1995), Davis, F. D. (1989), Doll, W. J., Torkzadeh, G. (1988) Taylor, S., Todd, P. A. (1995) who examined the effect of self-efficacy on computer use. Author Tekinarslan, E. (2011), building on the results of 21st century research by authors such as Shaw, F.S. Giacquinta, J.B. (2000), Teo, T. (2008), examining self-efficacy and computer use.

Others are the research of the authors Johnson, D. M. and Wardlow, G. W. (2004) examining self-efficacy and attitudes towards the Internet Sam, H. K. and colleagues (2005) who came to the conclusion that the differences are insignificant with respect to the study of differences between genders and self-efficacy and Internet use.

The author Tekinarslan, E. (2011), came to the conclusion that there is only an insignificant difference between the sexes in the use of online technologies and self-efficacy is in line with the conclusions of previous studies, which revealed insignificant gender differences in the use of the Internet and online technologies and their level of self-efficacy, provided that all respondents own a computer, or at least actively use it, as well as other technological achievements such as a mobile phone, or tablet with internet. In addition, the author's study demonstrated the equality of women and men in working with the Internet and using a computer, and the number of opportunities to work with the Internet. Based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that there is no difference in gender and self-efficacy, provided that everyone has the same opportunity to use the computer, the Internet, and new technologies.

In general, these studies directly reflect a positive relationship between computer and effective computer use directly related to self-efficacy. Also, these studies indicate that the computer and self-efficacy play a significant role in an individual's decision to use the computer. Similarly, research has found that self-efficacy is directly related to the completion of tasks on the Internet and also to the amount of Internet use, but in cooperation with the completion of the given task.

However, some authors such as Durndell, A., Hägg, Z., (2002), Eastin, M. S., LaRose, R. (2000 In Tekinarslan, E. 2011), discuss that today's world of the Internet and its use depending on self-efficacy may be different from computer use then and now by considering the advancements in Internet or online technologies and differences in the skill set of computer use and technology based on the Internet. For example, until recently, most access to the Internet was gained through the use of desktop computers, but the rapid development of mobile and wireless technologies (for example, laptops, mobile phones, tablets) changes this fact and requires further investigation of the given issue, and we can argue about the relevance of self-efficacy research and technology use research conducted into the 21st century.

2. Research file

We created the research set based on the selection of compact groups. "In the school environment, it is very difficult to make a random selection of individuals - students. In such cases, the entire classes that correspond to the given selection characteristic (year, type of school) are included in the research. By random selection, the classes are chosen in the number that the researcher has determined" (Gavora, P. et al., 2010).

The research sample consists of 457 pupils, of which (268 girls and 189 boys) aged between 15 and 18 (average age 16.24). When choosing the research group, we were based on the studies of the authors Woods, Addington, Pollard, Srihari and Breitbord (2010), who state that it is appropriate to have at least 400 respondents to investigate the mediation effect. When selecting respondents, we followed the approximation of Morgan and Krejci (1970) for equal representation of the sample in individual regions of the Slovak Republic. The research sample meets the stated criterion.

2.1 Research methods and data processing

We measured the construct of academic/school self-efficacy using the Student efficacy scale (MJSES; school self-efficacy questionnaire by Jinks and Morgan, 1999). The scale consists of 30 items. Respondents answer individual statements on a 4-point scale. The items are divided according to the respondent's statement, according to how he perceives his success, whether he attributes it to talent, effort, or chance. The score on the scale can range from 30 to 120 points. A higher total score on the scale expresses a higher level of self-efficacy. The reliability of the scale measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient in our research is α = 0.687.

We determined the school success rate (GPA) using the overall assessment of students at the end of the school year. The resulting GPA is the average academic achievement calculated from all end-of-year evaluations of subjects by the grade from the end-of-year report (minimum 1, maximum 5) and we understand it as a heteronomous evaluation.

The research data were processed in the statistical programs IBM SPSS 20 (Statistical Package For The Social Sciences. The results of the statistical analyzes are presented in the following tables. The statistical analyzes were carried out in the statistical program IBM SPSS 20. To determine the correlation between the individual variables, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

Descriptive statistics are presented in table no. 1.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of research monitored variables

Legend: N- number; M- diameter; SD- standard deviation; S- skewness; C- pointedness.

In Table 1, we present the minimum value (Min) and the maximum value (Max) reported by the respondents within the individual variables, the average (M) of the values of all respondents from the individual variables and the standard deviation (SD), which expresses the extent to which the measured values are scattered around the mean value, (S) the skewness of the measured values of the variables and (C) the peakedness of the measured values of the individual variables.

We found that the average value (M=61.23) in the monitored research variable academic/school self-efficacy (ASE) among adolescents in our research group falls into the middle range (the total range of possible scores for the entire scale is min. 30-max. 120). Since the scale is created in such a way that the lower the measured score, the higher the academic self-efficacy, we conclude that the average value measured by us is at the beginning of the band of average ASE and approaches the band of high ASE.

In Table No. 2, we present the strength and direction of the relationship between academic self-efficacy (and its factors) and the evaluation of school success expressed using the Pearson correlation coefficient by the significance of the relationship.

Table 2: Correlations between academic self-efficacy (and its factors) and evaluation of school success (GPA - arithmetic average of marks on the report card)

Legend: *correlation is significant at the 0.05 level of statistical significance; **correlation is significant at the level of statistical significance 0.01; The results of the measured correlations point to the following findings: Academic self-efficacy (r = .406**) and all its subscales (ASE Talent (r = .402**), Context (r = .132**) and Effort (r = .267**) are statistically significantly correlated with the assessment of school success of students. 4 Discussion

We found that students with high academic self-efficacy also have a highly positive assessment of school success by teachers (expressed as GPA at the end of the school year). The most statistically significant and strongest relationship between academic/school self-efficacy and its Talent subscale. Our findings are also in line with the research of the experts we present in the theoretical analysis of the issue: Chemers, Hu and Garcia, 2001, Valentine, DuBois and Cooper, 2004, Zajacová, Lynch and Espenshade, 2005, who confirm that self-efficacy is significantly related to school success/achievement.

5 Conclusion

Based on the research of Pajares (2002, In Papastergiou, 2010), it can be concluded that self-efficacy also has an impact on people's affective states, and has a clear positive connection with attitudes, motivation and perseverance, and a negative relationship with stress and anxiety. The author states that individuals with high self-efficacy are oriented toward positively completed tasks, and have a greater intrinsic interest in completing and performing more difficult tasks and feel at ease when solving challenging tasks. This means that a person who believes that they are capable of performing a challenging task has a higher level of self-confidence and motivation to complete the task, a more positive attitude toward the task, and less anxiety while completing it. Pupils/students are helped by a strong belief in their own competences and attaching great importance to achieving educational goals while fulfilling them. Lee, Lee & Bong (2014) also confirm the link between learning goals, self-efficacy and self-regulation. Self-efficacy positively affects self-regulation and the achievement of expected educational outcomes. In our research, we confirmed a statistically significant relationship between self-efficacy and school success of students through Pearson's correlation.

Author: Mgr. Lucia Foglova References

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