Feeling Confident? Validating a Tool for Assessing Statistical Self-Efficacy in the Undergraduate Student Population

• Activity Number: 193
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, July 30, 2012 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Ian Mouzon*+ and Ulrike Genschel and Alicia L. Carriquiry and Monica Degnan and John Riddles and Elgin Johnston and Wolfgang Kliemann and Kenneth Koehler and Hien Nguyen
• Companies: Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University
• Keywords: Confirmatory Factor Analysis ; Gender ; STEM ; Factor Analysis ; Survey ; Self-Efficacy

Abstract

We present results of a confirmatory factor analysis for a survey instrument developed to measure mathematical self-efficacy and self-confidence in lower level mathematics and statistics courses at the college level. The instrument is based on the SATS (Survey of Attitude towards Statistics, Schau (1995)) but has been developed further by the authors. In Spring 2012 the survey was given to all Iowa State University students enrolled in 000-300 level mathematics and statistics courses both at the beginning and at the end of the course. A main aspect of the analysis is to identify and better understand gender differences in mathematical self-efficacy and self-confidence. We are able to verify five distinct factors (including perceived difficulty and value) that reflect student's attitude toward mathematics and statistics courses. Furthermore, understanding gender specific changes in student's attitudes throughout the semester will allow the identification of high-risk courses. This work is part of a larger project studying the association between mathematics and statistics training and career options and choices in STEM, with emphasis on gender differences.