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Science and Mathematics Education Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Science and Mathematics Education

Understanding Second Grader’S Computational Thinking Skills In Robotics Through Their Individual Traits, Youngkyun Baek, Dazhi Yang, Yibo Fan Nov 2019

Understanding Second Grader’S Computational Thinking Skills In Robotics Through Their Individual Traits, Youngkyun Baek, Dazhi Yang, Yibo Fan

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigated the relationship between the personal traits and computational thinking skills of second graders within the context of robotics activities. The hypothesized model showed that learning preference, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were the main predictors of coding achievement and computational thinking skills, while no direct relationship was found between learning preference, intrinsic, or extrinsic motivation. The final path analysis revealed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation predict self-efficacy, self-efficacy predicts coding achievement, and coding achievement predicts computational thinking skills. Another important finding was the strong impact of self-efficacy on coding achievement as well as computational thinking skills. Results are …


Testing The Psychometric Properties Of The Modeling Self-Efficacy Scale, Anu Sharma, Stephen J. Pape, Jonathan Templin Jul 2019

Testing The Psychometric Properties Of The Modeling Self-Efficacy Scale, Anu Sharma, Stephen J. Pape, Jonathan Templin

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The Modeling Self-Efficacy Scale was developed to measure middle and high school students’ confidence in understanding and solving modeling tasks. The scale was administered to 225 eighth- and ninth-grade students. Participants read modeling tasks adapted from Programme for International Student Assessment’s 2003 problem-solving assessment and rated their confidence on a 100-point self-efficacy scale. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that modeling self-efficacy is a unidimensional construct, best elicited by a repeated-measures-style survey design in which participants responded to the same self-efficacy items across multiple modeling problems. The omega reliability coefficient for the scale was .88. The findings suggest that the Modeling Self-Efficacy …


Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali May 2019

Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. …