Pixel International Conferences

Self-efficacy is a learner’s belief that the learner can learn something or master some skill. Recently, self-efficacy has been considered as one of important factors in academic success [1,2]. Thus, many of studies have examined what factor affects academic self-efficacy (ASE) and its improvement. A previous study have reported that gender difference existed in academic self-efficacy improvement on blended foreign language learning environment [3]. However, that study did not statistically test the interaction between the intervention effect and gender directly. The current study used larger sample than the previous study, and tested the interaction between the intervention effect and gender directly. The result showed that the statistically significant interaction between the intervention effect and gender was found in repeated measures ANOVA, and the more ASE improvement for female students was found than that for males. However, because female ASE scores were less than the male ones regardless of the intervention, the current study conducted the further analysis to test the hypothesis that lower ASE learners show larger improvement than the higher ASE learners. As a result, the difference between the pre-intervention ASE and post ASE was significantly correlated with the pre-intervention ASE. Also, when the difference between the pre-intervention ASE and post ASE is included as a confounding covariate in ANOVA, no significant interaction between the intervention effect and gender was found. These results indicate that there is no gender difference of ASE improvement in blended foreign language learning, and that the difference occurs due to the lower ASE at the pre-intervention period regardless of gender. The current study implies that when using ASE, teachers and researchers may need to pay attention not to gender difference but to the lower ASE before intervention.

Keywords: academic self-efficacy, improvement, gender difference, foreign language learning, blended learning.

References:

• Ehsan Namaziandost & Fidel Çakmak (2020) An account of EFL learners’ self-efficacy and gender in the Flipped Classroom Model. Education and Information Technologies.
• Honicke, T., & Broadbent, J. “The influence of academic self-efficacy on academic performance: A systematic review”, Educational Research Review, 2016, 17, 63-84.
• Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R. Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Psychological Bulletin, 2012, 138(2), 353-387.