Self-efficacious beliefs and students' self-esteem : the case of private English-Medium school in Al-Koura

النوع : Mémoire

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship and effect of self-efficacious beliefs in mathematics, English, Arabic and history on students’ self-esteem in the context of private schools in North Lebanon and to explore how this relationship varies between genders. One hundred and fifty-one students completed the questionnaires which assessed their efficacious beliefs in math, English, Arabic and history as well as their self-esteem. The results drawn from the questionnaires revealed that students have moderately high self-esteem and that there is no gender difference in the means of self-esteem among the participants of the study (p=.595). With regards to efficacious beliefs, ANOVA analysis showed that there was no significant differences between male and female students’ efficacious beliefs in math (p=.898), history (p=.735) and Arabic (p=.081). Nevertheless, ANOVA showed significant gender differences in students’ efficacious beliefs in English (p=.011). These results induced that gender stereotyping could not be highly thought of by the participants in this study. In addressing the correlation between students’ self-esteem and their efficacious beliefs in the academic disciplines pertinent to this study, findings evinced that both male and female students linked their self-esteem to their efficacious beliefs in math, Arabic and English but did not link their self-esteem to their efficacious beliefs in history. Moreover, the correlation between self-esteem and self-efficacy was stronger for females than it was for males in math (r=.451- r=.440 respectively) and English (r=.302 – r=.291 respectively), while it was stronger for males (r=.333) rather than for females (r=.238) in Arabic. Stepwise analysis revealed that students’ efficacious beliefs in math, English and Arabic are significant (at .05 level of significance) in predicting students’ self-esteem.