The relationships between geometry self-efficacy, gender, grade level, parents? education level and geometry achievement

There are two aims of this research which has been carried out on the secondary school (6th to 8th grade) students. The first aim is to examine whether there is a relationship between self-efficacy beliefs towards geometry, gender, grade level, and parents? education level. The second one is to examine the effect of self-efficacy beliefs on the geometry achievement by controlling gender and parents? education level.The research has been carried out in 14 elementary schools chosen randomly out of 34 elementary schools in the central district of Bolu in 2009-2010. The participants are comprised of 1007 students studying at the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. The data of the research have been obtained with the help of personal information form, geometry achievement test formed by the researcher, and a questionnaire composed of self-efficacy scale which has been developed by Günhan and Başer (2007). The item analysis of achievement tests was done by using ITEMAN, the factor analysis justifying the dimension of the self-efficacy scale towards geometry was done by using LISREL 8.7, and the analyses about the research problems were done by using SPSS 13.The results of the analysis have shown that gender does not have a significant effect on self-efficacy belief towards geometry. Also the effects of grade level and parents? education level on self-efficacy belief towards geometry may not be significant in practice.According to research findings, in all grade levels, gender has been found not to have a significant effect on geometry achievement. Moreover, it has been seen that there is a statistically positive significant relationship between the educational level of parents and geometry achievement.When gender and educational level of parents have been controlled, a statistically significant relationship between geometry achievement and self-efficacy beliefs towards geometry has been seen in all grade levels. In this respect, a positive relationship between achievement and positive self-efficacy beliefs, and a negative relationship between achievement and negative self-efficacy beliefs have been found.Key Words: Geometry self-efficacy, geometry achievement, gender, grade level, educational level of parents