Self-efficacy, mathematics’ anxiety and perceived importance: an empirical study with Portuguese engineering students

Abstract

The accomplishment in mathematics has gained attention from educators and arises as an emerging field of study, including in engineering education.However, in Portugal there is still incipient research in the area so it is high time to explore factors that might enlighten the gap in the study of the relationship between Portuguese engineering students and the learning of mathematics. The main purpose of this study is to explore three factors identified in the literature as influencing the learning of mathematical concepts -self-efficacy, anxiety towards mathematics and perceived importance of mathematics -and search for differences by gender and by type of engineering course, a dimension not much reported in the literature but which revealed important in team´s previous research. Based on a sample of 140 undergraduate students of different engineering courses from University of Minho, results only identify differences in the type of course and not in gender. These results constitute a contribution and open new paths for future research in the engineering education.

Swedish first-year engineering students’ views of mathematics, self-efficacy and motivation and their effect on task performance

“…In (Alves et al, 2016), the authors found that the Portuguese engineering students have rather high self-efficacy in mathematics and rate the importance of mathematics high. Consequently, they proposed a study focusing on the relationship between these measures and students' grades.…”

“…Our study is naturally related to every study mentioned above but, especially, it can be seen as a complement to Bengmark et al (2017) and Alves et al (2016) as we are interested in the relations between the Swedish first-year engineering students' performance in mathematics, their views of mathematics, and their motivation and self-efficacy in mathematics.…”

First-year engineering students’ mathematics task performance and its relation to their motivational values and views about mathematics

“…This finding is worth acknowledging, since many previous studies suggest that female students' self-efficacy in mathematics is lower than that of male students (Sax et al 2015). There are also studies that associate mathematics anxiety with gender, so that female students suffer more anxiety dealing with mathematical tasks compared to male students (Alves et al 2016). The present results show that this may not be the case in every culture.…”

“…Further, they base on the self-determination theory by Ryan and Deci (2000). Alves et al (2016) collected data from a group of Portuguese undergraduate engineering students and examined the relationships between students' self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety (i.e. a tension that interferes with the manipulation of mathematical expressions and the solving of mathematical tasks), and the perceived importance of mathematics.…”

Exploring English Speaking Anxiety Among Filipino Engineering Students: Its Influence on Task Performance and Its Sources

“…A number of them even expressed stern belief that their anxiety in language learning is worse than their anxiety in mathematics. This lends legitimacy in focusing also on anxiety towards learning in non-technical courses, whereas previous studies dealt with anxiety in traditionally engineering-related course, i.e., mathematics (Alves et al, 2016;Firouzian et al, 2015;Jamil et al, 2011;Leppävirta, 2011;Vitasari et al, 2010).…”