Self-Efficacy of Middle School Girls in a STEM Class



Self-Efficacy of Middle School Girls in a STEM Class

Introduction

The chances of a career in any field of a person, in particular those of a woman; depend on the self efficacy perception of the person about his or her competence of the subject. Self efficacy is so important because this is the best motivation factor for a child. Girls who have high level of self-efficacy have been found to be high performers in that they not only set higher goals for themselves but also remain resilient in the fact of difficulties (American Association of University Women, 2008). This is especially true when it comes to STEM or Science, technology, Engineering and Mathematics courses. Self-efficacy is one factor that can help a person achieve more than their ability and capacity. This means that the belief in one's ability can help a person in advancing and progressing in their academic careers. This self-efficacy has led to gender inequality in STEM. Girls are doubtful about their ability to success in a particular course and drop out upon the very first unsatisfactory result. There is a need to keep them engaged with it.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to the person's belief in oneself, his confidence that he can perform certain tasks, challenges and contexts. According to Bandura (1986), self-efficacy is essentially a belief a person holds “about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives” (p.71). People who are high on self-efficacy take difficult situations as challenge when the others who are at par with them in terms of skill and competence but lower on self-efficacy find the same situation discouraging. High self-efficacy leads to intrinsic interest in everything where a person wants to engross in every new experience. On the contrary, low self-efficacy leads to a lower ability to learn and slackened aspirations.

This concept of self-efficacy was generalized across various disciplines until Pajares and Schunk (2001) asserted the need to focus this research on certain tasks and domains. It was then that the concept of self-efficacy was applied to STEM. Predictive relevance and validity then became a part of the research. The scope of the research was then limited to focus on the gender equity in STEM and the reasons behind the confidence gap of girls and boys.

Confidence gap

According to the research conducted by Greenberg-Lake: The Analysis Group on Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America the confidence gap is not only found in girls and boys but also it is more prevalent in pre-adolescent and adolescent girls in the United States of America. This also differs with the socio economic background of the girls. The results of the research have far-reaching impacts. The prospect of a girl's ability to remain in school is a function of the rise in self-efficacy. There are many changes that take place during adolescence. This is true for both girls and boys (Wolff, 2008). However, there are gender differences when it comes to the ...