• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.214-220
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• 2000

The difference (bias) between self-efficacy and chemistry problem-solving ability was investigated for 96 (male: 48, female: 48) high school students. A self-efficacy instrument was administered, which asked the confidence in solving algorithmic and conceptual problems successfully. Their chemistry problem-solving ability was then assessed with 10 algorithmic and 10 conceptual problems as same in the self-efficacy instrument. Although students had higher scores in the algorithmic problems, no significant difference was found in the self-efficacy to solve the two different forms of problems. Therefore, the bias scores in the conceptual problems were higher than those in the algorithmic problems. Two-way ANOVA results for the bias in the algorithmic problems revealed a significant interaction between gender and the previous achievement level. Analysis of simple effects indicated that the bias scores of high-achieving boys were significantly higher than those of high-achieving girls. While most high-achieving boys were in the overconfident category, high-achieving girls were more likely to be in the underconfident category.