DEVELOPING A SELF-EFFICACY SCALE TOWARD PHYSICS SUBJECTS FOR LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The term of self-efficacy is theoretically based on Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977). However, being formed in the light of cognitive processes, self-efficacy addresses to Social Cognitive Learning Theory in later times (Schunk & Parajes, 2009). Bandura (1997) stated self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments”. According to Zimmerman (1995), self-efficacy includes an individual’s judgements about performing a task or an assignment rather than the physical or psychological characteristics owned by that individual. In other words, self-efficacy is not an observable skill that the individual owns. It is the individual’s personal beliefs, expectations, or judgements about the answers that he or she gives to the question “What can I do?” in relation to a specific field, task, or situation (Bandura, 1997; Klassen & Usher, 2010). Self-efficacy belief is related to an individual’s ability to discover and manage his or her own abilities. As a specific domain-oriented term rather than a global and stable structure, self-efficacy belief occurs with direct or indirect experiences in a certain process (Bandura, 1997). Bandura (1997) has underlined the four principal sources of self-efficacy as follows: (a) mastery experiences (interpretations of actual performances, past accomplishments, or failures etc.) (b) vicarious experiences (observation of others’ positive or negative situations) (c) verbal persuasion (supportive messages, encouragement of teachers etc.) (d) physiological and emotional situations (emotions, stress, happiness, concern etc.). The findings of some studies highlighted that these factors were power predictors of self-efficacy (Usher & Parajes, 2009). As a determinant of behaviour changes, self-efficacy belief also affects the task choice, effort, persistence in achieving resilience to difficult situations (Bandura, 1997). In educational studies, self-efficacy is one of the critical variables in explaining the learning performance (Richardson et al., 2012; Schunk & Pajares, 2009). Accordingly, it has gained attraction from educators and researchers over the past decades (Britner & Pajares, 2006; Usher & Pajares, 2009). Selfefficacy has an important role on cognitive and affective outcomes such as learning achievement, motivation, attitude, self-regulation, and learning goals (Schunk & Pajares, 2009; Schunk & Usher, 2011). Actually, students with high Abstract. Physics subjects or topics as a part of science education enable students to explore nature and natural events by using physics laws and scientific methods. In the lower-secondary school, physics is a subfield within the science curriculum developed holistically with the broad field curriculum design unlike the subjectcentred curriculum in the upper-secondary education. As an important factor that directs the achievement, self-efficacy is one of the predecessors of these cognitive and affective skills. Accordingly, most of the scales which evaluate the students’ cognitive or affective skills in the lower-secondary school are related to science course in a general context. This research aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale measuring the students’ self-efficacy beliefs toward physics subjects for lower-secondary schools. The sample consists of 2737 students. The draft scale consisted of 52 items and was applied to 1882 students in the first stage. To construct validity of the scale, exploratory factor analysis was performed. The results showed that the scale consisted of singlefactor with 28 items. To confirm its factor structure, the scale was applied to 785 students. The research findings indicate that the scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the self-efficacy beliefs towards physics subjects.