A comparative study of students` self-efficacy between selected public and religious school

Abstract

This present research was conducted with three main objectives namely (1) to examine the level of self-efficacy among selected secondary students, (2) to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between public and religious school students, and (3) to identify whether there was a statistically significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between lower and upper form students. A total of 242 students (121 from public schools and 121 from religious schools) from four schools in Muar participated in the survey. A 22-items questionnaire was employed to measure General Self-Efficacy (GSE), Learning Self-Efficacy (LSE), and Peer Self-Efficacy (PSE). The items were pilot-tested before being administered to the respondents. The data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and independent t-test. The result showed that the majority of the students showed a moderate level of self-efficacy. Generally, the mean was 2.75 for the public school students while the mean for the religious school students was 2.97. It was found that there were significant differences in terms of students’ GSE and PSE from the two types of school, while there was no significant difference in terms of students’ LSE. Furthermore, this research also found that, there was a significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between lower form students than the upper form students in both public and religious school. There was also a significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between lower and upper form students in public school. However, for religious school students, this research revealed no significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between lower and upper form students. In addition, this study found no significant difference in level of self-efficacy between lower form students in public and religious schools. With respect to the comparison level of self efficacy between upper form students in public and religious schools, this study also found no significant difference.