Emerging Themes from Early Research on Self-Efficacy Beliefs in School Mathematics

Abstract

Self-efficacy, an individual's belief about his or her ability to engage in a task and accomplish it, has been investigated across multiple domains of human action. Students' perceived efficacy in school mathematics in particular, has been extensively explored by psychologists and educational researchers. We review literature from this field published prior to the year 2000 with the aim of extracting the fundamental themes that have drawn researchers' attention. The topics presented include the relationship between self-efficacy and mathematical performance, the interplay of self-efficacy with self-concept, properties of self-efficacy measurements, the relationship between self-efficacy and goal setting and modeling, the accuracy of self-efficacy judgments, and gender differences and career choice with respect to self-efficacy beliefs. We review the important concepts and notable findings for each theme, and conclude with implications for educational practice and future research.