Students' Self-Efficacy in Learning Science: Predicting Their Success in Science

Introduction

The education environment plays a vital role in students developing a positive attitude toward learning because education environments enable students to increase their interest and motivation towards a class. This recalls that education environments should be designed according to students’ interests and needs. Moreover, self-efficacy, which is one of the most critical aspects that motivate students, should not be disregarded (Ferrell et al., 2016; Zusho & Pintrich, 2003) because self-efficacy is known to play a significant role in students’ success in addition to supplying them with interest and motivation in different conditions. In this sense, self-efficacy can be defined as students' beliefs regarding their capacity to realise an action necessary to achieve their target performance (Bandura, 1986). As the first person to put forth self-efficacy as part of social learning theory, Bandura (1977) argues that students can shape their actions by organising them. Self-efficacy is the will for students to display the behaviors necessary to reach a target successfully. There are various definitions of self-efficacy in the literature. For instance, Tschannen-Moren and Woolfolk (2001) define it as the individual’s expectation of success in a new situation. Açıkgöz (1996), on the other hand, describes it as the confidence individuals have in their performance in specific tasks. Leithwood (2007) argues that one’s self-efficacy is not their natural ability and adds that it is their belief in their power. As can be seen in these definitions, the consensus is that individuals direct their behaviors according to their beliefs and that self-efficacy is not a perceived or observed ability. In this respect, self-efficacy can be considered individuals’ internal belief about what they can do by their powers because self-efficacy puts forth an individual’s capacity to do (Brown et al., 2016).