Sources of Efficacy, Efficacy, Gender and Performance in the Writing Skills of Government and Private School Students: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The study attempted to investigate the correlation among Sources of Efficacy, Efficacy, Gender and Performance in the Writing Skills of Government and Private School Students in Bahir Dar town. During the study, 138 students (47 from Bahir Dar Academy and 91 from Bahir Dar Preparatory School) of grade 11 were studied. Data were gathered through questionnaires and a test. Three statistical techniques (correlation, t-test and regression) were employed to analyze the data. Accordingly, the correlation between writing efficacy and the corresponding performance of students (whole sample) was found to be a significant one. One compared to the other, private school students significantly surpassed government school students in both writing efficacy and writing performance. The results also indicated that females in the government school had debilitated capability beliefs. Their performance in the writing test, however, was not excelled significantly by males in the school. Males and females in the private school had more or less similar levels of writing efficacy and performance. With regard to sources of self efficacy (Mastery Experience, Vicarious Experience, Social Persuasions, and Physiological States), it was found out that these sources collectively predicted the writing efficacy of the whole sample. When others controlled, Vicarious Experience and Social persuasions each had a non-significant positive influence on students‟ writing self efficacy whereas Mastery Experience had a significant positive influence on the writing efficacy of the whole sample. It was seen in the study that private school students were highly dependent on their Mastery Experience for building up their writing efficacy while this variable had a positive, but non-significant, influence on the writing efficacy of government school students. On the other hand, Physiological States had a significant negative impact on the writing efficacy of students in both schools. I, thus, recommend that parents, teachers, schools and other bodies concerned should be in the lead to help students develop their efficacy beliefs as these students‟ progress through school.