New Perspectives in Science Education
The Self-efficacy on Adult Students in an Online Learning Context
Maria de Fátima Goulão, Unidade de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Educação e Formação / Universidade Aberta (Portugal)
Rebeca Cerezo Menéndez, Departement of Psychology, University of Oviedo (Spain)
Abstract
The need to continue their studies or to increase their competencies leads them to check that a return of adults to the education system. Their motivations associated with long periods of absence of learning contexts, as well as the evolution of these involve questions of diverse nature.
In an online education system with an emphasis on the idea of a learner as a constructor of their own knowledge aspects related to self-regulation and self-efficacy gain particular relevance.
Self-efficacy, as defined by Bandura (1993, 1994, 2003), determines how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. It relate to the beliefs that people have about their capacity to make a specific task. This is constructed from the information arriving from a range of sources.
Beliefs about self-efficacy have a significant impact on the definition of objectives and compliance through the influence they exert on each choices, motivation, resilience and the emotional reactions. These, in turn, will influence the effort and persistence in performing a given task.
The aim of our study was to understand the relationship between the feeling self-efficacy of a group of adult learners in an online learning system a) with their performance in a particular course and b) to sociodemographic variables, such as age and sex of these learners.
Data collection was taken from a group of 139 students of both sexes. The average age is 42 years. We used the scale of the MSLQ self-efficacy, adapted to the specific content and the online environment (α = .919).
The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to see the relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance and self-efficacy and age. The T Students was used to see the relationship between self-efficacy and sex .
The analysis of the data indicated that students’ level of self-efficacy is high (average=47,3; SD=5,77). Our results indicate a significant relationship between self-efficacy and age but not between self-efficacy and gender. Also did not find a statistically significant relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance.
Despite that result go against the studies in this area we point out as a possible explanation that overconfidence of the students can lead to disinvestment in the learning task because they think they already know their content.
