Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Department name when degree awarded

Teacher Education and Leadership

Committee Chair(s)

James T. Dorward

Committee

James T. Dorward

Committee

Patricia Moyer-Packenham

Committee

Sarah Clark

Committee

Susan Turner

Committee

Kerry Jordan

Abstract

A student’s self-efficacy, or their belief in their ability to perform a specific behavior, has been shown to have a positive correlation with their academic achievement. In other words, if their self-efficacy is high, their academic achievement is high. If self-efficacy is low, likewise their achievement is low. Research has shown that this correlation is especially true when looking at the self-efficacy and academic achievement in a specific subject, such as mathematics. However, in a typical classroom, teachers experience students who have very high self-efficacy in their mathematics abilities yet perform mathematics tasks at a low level. They may also experience students who have low self-efficacy in mathematics yet their performance in mathematics is high. The purpose of this study was to (a) define a procedure to identify these outlier students, and (b) find commonalities among these outlier students that are not common among the nonoutlier students.

This research study used a mixed-method, two-phase model. Phase I used quantitative data from four data sources to find the students’ mathematics performance level and their mathematics self-efficacy. Their self-efficacy level was compared to their performance level and students with high self-efficacy and low performance or low self-efficacy and high performance were identified. Students with high self-efficacy and high performance or low self-efficacy and low performance were also identified as nonoutlier students. Phase II used interviews to collect qualitative data about the outlier students. Some examples of factors that were common among students with high performance and low self-efficacy included feelings of jealousy, not feeling smart even when the math is easy, and not feeling encouraged by teachers and parents. Examples of factors common among students with low performance and high self-efficacy included preferring completing assignments in a group and giving up when the mathematics gets difficult. Further research is needed to understand how these factors may influence outlier students and how teachers can more efficiently help them align their self-efficacy with their performance.

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