Sense of Self-efficacy in Mathematics of Male and Female Students

Women’s underrepresentation in strictly technical fields of study closely linked to mathematics is a universal phenomenon, registered not only in Poland. Conclusions from numerous educational reports are worldwide as well – it is girls who preponderate over boys in math grades at every stage of education. Furthermore, in Polish conditions, the results of external exams are not significantly diversified by gender. Thus, the consequences of different evaluation systems do not explicate the so-called „women gender gap” in terms of women academic and vocational choices. In Poland, for a few years there has been attempts to counteract the prevailing trend through „The Girls for Engineers” programme or systems of scholarships for female students of technical and scientific studies. Such activities are claimed to be legitimate, though still insufficient, because they focus on diminishing the symptoms of the phenomenon, regardless of its exact causes. The explanation proposed in the article refers to the effects of stereotype that „maths is a domain for males”. It has been assumed that such stereotype has an adverse impact on the perception of one’s competences of stigmatized people – i.e. girls. Such facet of analysis has not been adopted in Polish educational research so far. Theoretical background of own research constitute self-efficacy theory by Albert Bandura, which emphasizes cultural context of its formation process. The obtained results indicate that gender is a significant factor contributing to the sense of efficacy formed on the basis of specific achievements in mathematics. It indicates that a typical female student – in relation to similarly assessed typical male student – registers lower trust to her own mathematical competences. Discussion depicted the way in which unfavourable self-perception corresponds to motivation for learning mathematics and consequently to educational choices. The direction for further research has been indicated.