Investigation On Senior High School Stuents' Perceived Academic Self-efficacy In Physics

The conception'Perceived Self-efficacy'(PSE) was firstly put forward in 1977 by Bandura, the famous American psychologist. The theory is widely applied in clinical psychology. But its application in school education has also been increasing in recent years. PSE is the perception of one's effectiveness or ability in certain areas, it is a manifestation of individual self-perception. PASE in physics is an important variable to students' learning quality. The assessment of the quality of education should not remain in the test scores but attach importance to the variety of the learners' PASE level in view of lifelong education.In order to understand the status and possible problems of students' PASE in physics, resting on the characteristics of physics learning and learners, this paper draws up the scale on PASE in physics for senior high school stuents, according to the three situations and the four main factors of physics learning, which is proved by pre-test with good discriminability, reliability and validity. 412 first-year students from four senior high schools in Guangzhou have been investigated in use of the questionnaire. The results show that: (1) students' PASE in physics in different situations are at different levels, the PASE in extra-curricular situation is at the lowest level, followed by that in test situation; (2) the comprehensive PASE in physics of students with different performance is significantly different, which enhances with the improvement of academic performance; (3) poor performance students' PASE in physics classroom and examination is significantly low, while the difference between different performance students' PASE in extra-curricular situation is not significant; (4) the difference between boy's comprehensive PASE in physics and girls' is significant; (5) boys' PASE in physics classroom is obviously higher than girls', while the difference in physics extra-curricular and examination is not significant; (6) the difference between boy's PASE in motivation and girls' is not significant, while boy's PASE in such aspects as cognitive, emotion and selection is significantly higher than girls'.To overcome the limitations of questionnaire, we also design interview outline to make a detailed understanding of the student's PASE in physics, and their deep feeling of physics learning. The results of interview survey show that: (1) PASE in physics can strengthen or weaken the level of the individual's physics learning motivation, the level of PASE in physics determines students' target selection, how hard they work and their persistence. (2) from the point of the physics learning initiative, students with high PASE are more active in physics learning, have higher ability of autonomous learning.While students with poor PASE in physics put too much emphasis on external conditions, regard their efforts as negative response, and they are willing yet unable. (3) on physics learning emotion, poor PASE often associates with depression, anxiety and helplessness. While students with high PASE in physics often show such positive academic emotions as excitement, pride, hope and relaxation.Finally, the paper summarizes some common strategies to improve student's PASE, which is the overall guidance for physics teaching practice, and also propose some teaching suggestions from the point of situation and learning aspect, such as strengthen the instruction on student's self-management skills in extra-curricular context, optimize and adjust teachers'classroom management methods specifically, cultivate students'experimental interest and spontaneity by perceptual experience, train those students with good habits on learning and thinking, provide them with more sense of happiness and achievement on learning. By this way, a good attitude to learning is shaped step by step.