Zubeyde Demet KIRBULUT
Harran University, TURKEY.
10.14689/ejer.2019.81.3

Purpose: Self-efficacy plays a crucial role in achievement; and thus, it is important to determine the factors affecting self-efficacy. It has been known that one’s reflections and evaluations of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are of paramount importance in the development of self-efficacy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between metavariables and self-efficacy in the context of chemistry.

Method: A total of 369 high school students participated in this study. Meta-Affective Trait Scale, Metaconceptual Awareness and Regulation Scale, and High School Chemistry Self-Efficacy Scale were administered to the students. Canonical correlation analysis was employed to examine the relationship between metavariables and self-efficacy.

Findings: The results of this study showed that there was a positive relationship between metavariables and self-efficacy variables except for the variable of affective awareness. Precisely, students who had high scores on the metavariables were likely to believe in their ability to use cognitive skills in chemistry and to accomplish chemistry laboratory tasks.

Implications for Research and Practice: A number of implications and recommendations for future research are given. Chemistry teachers could use instructional innovations to integrate metavariables and self-efficacy into their teaching. Teacher education programs could give importance to meta-level and self-efficacy constructs in educating teachers. Researchers could conduct studies to investigate the relations among metavariables, self-efficacy, and academic achievement.

Keywords: Metacognition, meta-affect, self-efficacy, canonical correlation analysis.