Predicting Graduation

Abstract

Self-efficacy in the mathematics/science domain is conceptualized as partially determining whether science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students would persist toward reaching important milestones like graduating with a bachelor’s degree. The authors conducted a longitudinal study to examine if mathematics/science self-efficacy would significantly predict graduation status 4 to 8 years later after high school academic performance and mathematics aptitude were controlled in a university sample of introductory science students. Moreover, they looked at whether mathematics/science self-efficacy would significantly predict graduation status 4 to 8 years later after first semester grade point average (GPA) was controlled in addition to prior performance and aptitude. The sample consisted of 211 university students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree and 69 university students who did not graduate with a bachelor’s degree. The authors reported that mathematics/science self-efficacy significantly predicted graduation status 4 to 8 years later after controlling for prior performance and aptitude. The addition of mathematics/science self-efficacy improved the accuracy of identifying which participants dropped out before graduation by 4.4% in this sample. When first semester GPA was included in the control variables, the incremental contribution of mathematics/science self-efficacy to the prediction of retention status was null as expected. Findings are related to theory and prior research.

A Nuanced Look at Women in STEM Fields at Two-Year Colleges: Factors That Shape Female Students' Transfer Intent

“…Our results also show that math self-efficacy and science self-efficacy may enhance intent to transfer into STEM fields, which also resonates with existing empirical evidence pointing to the foundational role of self-beliefs in math and science performance in shaping students' STEM educational trajectories and outcomes (e.g., Peters, 2013; Wang, 2013a,b; Starobin et al, 2014; Larson et al, 2015; Lent et al, 2015). While these general patterns are what we would expect, it is important to note that, overall, these three factors seem to exert very similar positive influence on the intent to transfer into STEM as well as transfer into other fields.…”

“…This finding is interesting, considering that self-efficacy has been long established as a reliable and important precursor to students' academic aspirations and achievement (e.g., Hackett, 1985; Lent et al, 2015), especially in STEM fields (Heinze and Hu, 2009; Larson et al, 2015; Sax et al, 2016). It is plausible that first-generation two-year college women are more inclined to pursue STEM fields for reasons beyond their self-perceptions of their math abilities.…”

Exploring the gender gap in the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism

“…The differences identified in CPP/NonQnt between men and women present additional instructional challenges because of a potential interaction between self-efficacy [87] and CPP/NonQnt where male students seem to learn the material more easily because of prior preparation in physics. This could cause women, already with lower selfefficacy toward science [88], to fail to develop self-beliefs consistent with their accomplishments and ability; these women may choose to leave science or engineering careers. This effect has been found in computer science, a field with comparably poor performance in attracting and retaining women [8].…”

Improving STEM self-efficacy with a scalable classroom intervention targeting growth mindset and success attribution

“…Self-efficacy refers to "People's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" [19, p. 391]. University students' self-efficacy beliefs are strongly related to their aspiration to and persistence in STEM majors and careers [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Impacting self-efficacy to improve STEM learning is promising because it not only correlates with, but also mediates, high academic achievement [29][30][31][32][33].…”