Predictive Value of Sense of Self-efficacy and Attitudes of High School Students for Their Resistance to Mathematics

This study aimed to determine the power of sense of self-efficacy in and attitudes toward math in predicting resistance to mathematics for high school students. In accordance with the aims of the study, a correlational survey model was used to determine covariance between the variables. The data for this study were collected through surveys given to 10 th graders in 2016 spring semester. The students who were administered the surveys were chosen using simple random sampling. 831 students participated in the study (413 females with 49.70% and 418 males with 50.30%). Three surveys were used for data collection: The Resistance Scale for High School Students (RSHSS), Math Self-Efficacy Survey and Math Attitudes Survey. Pearson correlation, means, standard deviation and simple linear regression were performed for data analyses. The significance level was accepted to be .01 for the analyses used in the study. According to the findings, there is a significant correlation at -.24 level between students' sense of self-efficacy in math and their resistant behavior toward math; a significant correlation at -.27 level (p<0.05) between their attitude toward math and resistant behavior toward math. According to the regression analyses, sense of self-efficacy in math accounts for six percent of the variance for resistant behavior toward math and attitudes toward math account for seven percent of the variance for resistant behavior toward math.