The relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance among engineering students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Abstract

The field of engineering and mathematics are interconnected with each other. Thus, the engineering students need to perform well in their mathematics skill in order to get better grades. However, not everyone has the courage and confident when it comes to mathematics. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the level of self- efficacy and academic performance of the UTM’s engineering students and to know whether there is a relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance among them. This study adopted the set of questionnaire from the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy (SMES) and it was distributed to 107 final year students from Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UTM. The self-efficacy was measured by using the four dimensions, which were mastery, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and emotional and physiological states. The result revealed that self-efficacy had a positive significant but weak relationship with the academic performance among the respondents. Finally, suggestions are offered for the UTM’s curriculum developer to reconsider self-efficacy in designing the academic modules, as well as the recommendations to the future research.