Multi-dimensional explorations into the relationships between high school students’ science learning self-efficacy and engagement

Promoting student engagement in learning activities and tasks has been a pivotal issue and goal of science education. Relevant literature has not yet addressed the underlying associations among students’ self-efficacy and engagement in science learning from a multi-dimensional perspective. Thus, this study aimed to examine the structural relationships between the two constructs through the structural equation modelling technique to differentiate the predictive powers of multi-faceted self-efficacy on various forms of engagement. A total of 478 Taiwanese senior high school students were invited to answer two survey instruments concerning self-efficacy and engagement in science learning, respectively. The main findings indicate that, first, the ‘Science Learning Engagement Instrument’ was proven to be valid and reliable to assess the students’ five distinct forms of engagement, including Cognitive, Behavioral, Emotional, Social, and Agentic engagement. It seems that the students had less agentic engagement experiences compared to the other forms of learning engagement. Moreover, this study further identified the multifaceted effects of self-efficacy on the manifold aspects of learning engagement in the literature. Overall, the path analysis results provide evidence that, in order to deeply engage learners in science learning, promoting their science learning self-efficacy from various aspects is of great importance.