EXAMINING MEASUREMENT PROPERTIES OF MATHEMATICS SELF-EFFICACY SCALE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Dr. Joseph Olusola Fehintola

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement properties of Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES) among senior secondary school students in Oyo State, Nigeria. The instrument is meant for assessing mathematics self-efficacy of senior secondary school student as the target population and 515 students were used for the study. The distribution of the participants are as followed 53.2% boys and 46.8% girls and the age ranged is between 14 to 17 years (M = 15.3 years, SD=1.13) that are attending the senior secondary school classes. These students were from 33 public senior secondary schools in the thirty local government area of Oyo state. 16 students were selected from twenty local government area and 15 students from the rest thirteen local government areas. Three research questions were raised to guide the study. The results of the MSES analysis reveal that the mathematics self-efficacy scale among senior secondary school students in Oyo state comprises of four dimensions namely: (a) Ability to remember and to use formulae correctly (b) Possession of mathematical ability (c) Mathematics area/topics of focus and (d) Student’s mathematics resilient. The researcher further tested whether the MSES is tenable using confirmatory factor analysis. The result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis provides a good fit of the data within the hypothesized four-factor model, implying that the MSES can be subsumed into four domains. Discriminant and Convergence validities were moderate ranging from .33 to .67. Alpha coefficients for four MSES subscales ranged from .61 to .86, and .89 for the whole scale. The study recommends the MSES for other researchers to assess mathematics self-efficacy among senior secondary school students in the schools in their locality in Nigeria and elsewhere.