Ford, Calah J.

When students feel successful, they tend to be more confident in their capabilities (i.e., higher self-efficacy), which is associated with improved performance, engagement, and self-regulation. Yet, the way in which learners interpret their experiences is less well-understood. Learners’ views of failure (i.e., failure mindset) are potential lenses through which early adolescent learners perceive and interpret efficacy-relevant information. The relationship between failure mindset and self-efficacy may be particularly important to consider in STEM-related domains like robotics where failure is common. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between young adolescents’ failure mindset and their robotics self-efficacy development. Using mixed methods, we considered how students’ reported failure mindset levels were related to what has made them more or less confident in robotics. We also considered the relationship between failure mindset and robotics self-efficacy. Overall, the findings suggest that early adolescent learners’ failure mindset is related to the efficacy-relevant information they pay attention to in robotics, and, in turn, is associated with their reported robotics self-efficacy. The details of these relationships varied between elementary and middle school students. As there is a social push to normalize failures in educational settings, findings from this study offer an important insight into how students may interpret those failures.

Abstract Background Self‐efficacy, or the beliefs learners hold about what they can do, develops largely from how learners perceive and interpret four main sources of information: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasions and physiological and affective states. Although the relationship between these sources and self‐efficacy is well‐established, less is known about the factors that may influence how early adolescent learners perceive and interpret information from these sources. Aims The purpose of this study was to investigate how the predisposition of perfectionism might predict how learners perceive efficacy‐relevant information in the domain of math. Methods Using a correlational design, this study considered whether perfectionism was associated with how middle school students ( N = 1683) perceive information from the four hypothesized sources of self‐efficacy. Participants completed a paper‐based survey at two time points. Perfectionism was measured at Time 1. Self‐efficacy and its sources were measured at Time 2. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to examine the relationship between factors. Results and Conclusions Students who held themselves to high standards (i.e., greater self‐oriented perfectionism) reported higher levels of mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social messages and self‐efficacy. Conversely, students who felt external pressure to be perfect (i.e., socially prescribed perfectionism) reported lower levels of mastery experiences, vicarious experiences and self‐efficacy, as well as higher levels of negative physiological and affective states. The relationship between perfectionism and self‐efficacy was partially mediated by students' perceptions of mastery. This study extends the current literature on the sources of math self‐efficacy in early adolescence by showing how a predisposition like perfectionism is associated with how adolescent learners perceive and interpret efficacy‐relevant information.