Graduation Year
2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Granting Department
Chemistry
Major Professor
Jennifer Lewis, Ph.D.
Committee Member
John Ferron, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Santiago Sandi-Ureña, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Robert Potter, Ph.D.
Keywords
Higher education, HLM, gender differences, ethnicities, SAT scores
Abstract
Self-efficacy is a person's own perception about performing a task with a certain level of proficiency (Bandura, 1986). An important affective aspect of learning chemistry is chemistry self-efficacy (CSE). Several researchers have found chemistry self-efficacy to be a fair predictor of achievement in chemistry. This study was done in a college preparatory chemistry class for science majors exploring chemistry self-efficacy and its change as it relates to achievement. A subscale of CAEQ, Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (developed by Dalgety et al, 2003) as well as student interviews were used to determine student chemistry self-efficacy as it changed during the course. The questionnaire was given to the students five times during the semester: in the first class and the class before each the four tests taken through the semester. Twenty-six students, both men and women, of the four major races/ethnicities were interviewed three times during the semester and events that triggered changes in CSE were followed through the interviews. HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) was used to model the results of the CSE surveys. Among the findings, women who started at significantly lower CSE than men accomplished a significant gain by the end of the semester. Blacks' CSE trends through the semester were found to be significantly different from the rest of the ethnicities.
Scholar Commons Citation
Garcia, Carmen Alicia, "Tracking Chemistry Self-Efficacy and Achievement in a Preparatory Chemistry Course" (2010). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1638
