Contributed paper list


   (Monday 14th, 10:55-12:25)   In session C2D

Statistical and mathematical self-efficacy of incoming students at a large public university

Authors

Ulrike Genschel, Andee Kaplan, Alicia Carriquiry, Elgin Johnston, Wolfgang Kliemann, Kenneth Koehler, Ian Mouzon

Presenter

Ulrike Genschel (United States)

Abstract

All participants in the ongoing STEM education discussion agree that, in addressing national priorities, a key concern is the critical transition of students from high school (or community college) to a four-year college program in the mathematical sciences in particular. Failure in college-level mathematics and statistics courses may discourage students from pursuing STEM majors or perhaps lead to complete college dropout. In fact, even a mediocre performance in these courses often restricts student career choices to fields outside of STEM disciplines. This presentation is aimed at summarizing a statistical investigation of student self-efficacy and self-confidence in mathematics and statistics, particularly with regard to gender differences. Interestingly, preliminary results indicate much higher levels of self-efficacy/self-confidence in statistics compared to mathematics where differences occur. Additionally, for statistics the self-efficacy results are consistent across gender, which is seemingly not the case for mathematics.