Mediating Effect of Self-Efficacy on the Relationship Between Instruction and Students’ Mathematical Reasoning

Abstract

Literature is well-stocked with studies confirming that an instructional approach, self-efficacy, and mathematical reasoning skills are critical for enhancing students’ conceptual understanding and achievement in mathematics. However, there has been little emphasis on establishing whether being able to reason mathematically depends only on the instructional approach or students’ self-efficacy beliefs about mathematics also play a hidden role. A quasi-experimental study involving 301 grade 11 students from six public secondary schools in one district was carried out to investigate the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between instruction and students’ mathematical reasoning. Participants of the study were selected using the cluster random sampling method. Data were collected before and after the intervention via a mathematical reasoning test and a mathematics self-efficacy beliefs questionnaire. A Parallel Multiple Mediator Model in SPSS using the PROCESS custom dialogue version 3.4 was employed for data analysis. Findings suggest that mathematics self-efficacy and task-specific self-efficacy beliefs collectively and significantly mediate the effect of the instructional approach on students’ mathematical reasoning. The Student Teams-Achievement Division (STAD) was found to be an effective approach for enhancing students’ mathematical reasoning alongside self-efficacy beliefs. These findings provide evidence on the need to select an instructional approach that does not only focus on developing students’ cognitive abilities such as mathematical reasoning but also fosters students’ affective attributes such as maths self-efficacy beliefs.