Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Their Sources in Undergraduate Computing Disciplines: An Examination of Gender and Persistence

This study has two central purposes: First, it examines not only the roles of gender and persistence in undergraduate computing majors' learning self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy, and programming self-efficacy but also Bandura's hypothesized sources of self-efficacy; second, it examines the influence of sources of efficacy on the three aforementioned self-efficacy beliefs as a whole and as functions of gender and persistence levels. The results indicate that persistence levels had a significant effect on all the self-efficacy beliefs and sources of efficacy except computer self-efficacy and physiological state. However, these students' self-efficacy beliefs and sources of efficacy did not vary by gender. Moreover, the sources of efficacy differently influenced the three self-efficacy beliefs not only as a whole but also as functions of gender and persistence levels.