Improving Student Self-Efficacy: The Role of Inclusive and Innovative Out of School Programming for Students with Blindness and Visual Impairments

By Kathleen M. Farrand, Natalie Shaheen, Tiffany Wild, Julia Averil, and Danene Fast

Dr. Kathleen M. Farrand is an assistant professor in Early Childhood Special Education in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

Natalie Shaheen is the project director for the National Center for Blind Youth in Science.

Dr. Tiffany Wild is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Julia Averil is a research associate for the Center for Video Ethnography and Video Analysis at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Danene Fast is the program manager and an instructor for the Programs in Visual Impairments in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University.

Abstract

A subgroup of 10 students participating in a national program in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, based in science museums across the country, participated in self-efficacy research to determine how participation in regional STEM programs, specifically designed for students who are blind or visually impaired, influences a students’ perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs. Data was collected using the Morgan-Jinks Student Efficacy Scale (MJSES) (Jinks & Morgan, 1999) along with additional questions regarding demographics of the students and disability specific questions. Self-efficacy beliefs were consistently high for all of the context items, 13 statements, about participant beliefs about teachers, grades, and the importance of school. The effort items also remained high pre and post participation in the regional programming and consisted of four statements about their individual beliefs about their effort in academics and grades.

Keywords

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), self-efficacy, blindness, visual impairments, school connectedness

Background

Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that they can be successful in performing a particular task or behavior (Bandura, 1977). A student’s motivation, aspirations, and academic accomplishments are determined by a student’s self-efficacy beliefs and academic learning and achievement (Bandura, 1993). Students with visual impairments and blindness have the same cognitive abilities as their sighted peers (Kumar, Ramasamy, & Stefanich, 2001). However, due to the use of visual instruction as the main teaching method for science concepts, students with visual impairments consider science a difficult content area (Jones, Minogue, Oppewal, Cooke, & Broadwell, 2006; Penrod, Haley, & Matheson, 2005; Sahin & Yorek, 2009). An instructor’s overreliance on one form of communication, such as visual methods, can impact a student’s belief that they can succeed in a particular content area. Some examples of visual methods that are often used by teachers in science instruction are visual images in classroom presentations, formulas, textbooks, and multi-media materials, to name a few (Ferk, Vrtacnik, Blejec, & Gril, 2003; Jones et al., 2006). The overreliance on print only materials, such as formulas and textbooks can be problematic in providing students who are blind or visually impaired with access to the learning materials to support content development. Students who are blind or visually impaired need to be encouraged to use other modes of exploration, such as tactile and kinesthetic, to support their acquisition of content area knowledge. Students with blindness and visual impairments can master the same higher-order concepts as their sighted peers when they are provided accommodations and accessible instruction (Jones et al., 2006). Researchers will begin to understand the beliefs that students who are blind or visually impaired have about academic content areas when they begin including them in research studies and analyzing their responses.

Theoretical Framework

A student’s beliefs about his or her ability to complete a task influence his or her behavior. A student’s involvement and perseverance in his or her work is impacted by the student’s belief in his or her ability to complete said work (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003). A person’s beliefs create effects through affective, cognitive, motivational, and selective processes (Bandura, 1993). More specifically, a student’s interest and effort in school related work are influenced by their belief in their own capabilities to be successful. When students have high self-efficacy in a content area their performance may be improved and thus influence the types of careers they consider pursuing related to a particular content area (Pajares, 1997). Literature suggests that the selection of, and attainment in, science and math related careers are affected by a person’s self-efficacy beliefs (Zeldin, Britner, & Pajares, 2008).

Rationale

There is a dearth of literature on students with visual impairments self-efficacy beliefs about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. Farrand, Wild, and Hilson (2016) conducted a pilot study and measured self-efficacy beliefs of students with visual impairments before and after participation in a week long science camp. Their findings suggested that the inquiry-based camp had a positive impact on the self-efficacy beliefs of 16 students in grades 3-6, while the self-efficacy beliefs of five students in grades 8-12 stayed the same. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss how additional researchers have examined the self-efficacy beliefs of students without visual impairments with regard to STEM concepts.

Another related study of 120 middle and high school students with learning disabilities and 160 of their general education peers identified the self-efficacy beliefs in regards to math and history (Lacakaye & Margalit, 2006). They found that even after students with learning disabilities received accommodations for an entire school year, they experienced lower self-efficacy beliefs in history. However, when it came to math, the self-efficacy beliefs of the high school students with learning disabilities remained stable while their general education peers reported reduced self-efficacy. 

Ketelhut (2007) conducted a study to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of students before and during the use of technology, such as a computer gaming system, during a science activity. Within the study only 3% of the students were identified as having a disability, and none were identified as having a visual impairment. Ketelhut suggested that a student’s self-efficacy may change when teaching integrates scientific inquiry concepts.

Research has shown that a student’s actual achievement levels in school are influenced by the individual’s beliefs about his or her ability to be successful in performing academic tasks (Bandura, 1997; Valentine, DuBois, & Cooper, 2004). Thus, this study aims to contribute to the current self-efficacy literature base by including participants, students with blindness and visual impairments, who are often not included in the current literature. This study examines how participation in regional STEM programs, specifically designed for students who are blind or visually impaired, influences a student’s perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs. 

Methods

The purpose of this portion of the study was to determine children’s self-efficacy level of STEM prior to and after participation in a STEM education program specifically designed for students with blindness and visual impairments to determine if the program impacted their self-efficacy beliefs.

Participants

Students in this study applied to participate in a regional STEM program specifically designed for students with blindness and visual impairments. All parents of children selected by application were to provide written permission for their child to participate in the online survey.  

All students participating in the regional program were asked to participate in this research. However, the responses of 10 students who participated in both the pre and post survey assessment are included in the results and discussions of this article. Of these 10 students, 5 were male and 5 were female. All students were of elementary school age.

Eighty percent of the participants stated they read braille. Of those who did not read braille, large print or print with magnification was the medium of choice. All but two of the students were cane users.  

Regional Programming

A large national advocacy organization for persons who are blind or have visual impairments, partnered with six different museums and science centers to facilitate six programs from fall 2014 to spring 2016. The research presented in this manuscript was funded by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1322855. All programs were developed for students in grades 3-6. Though there were commonalities between all six programs with respect to structure and content, each program had unique qualities. The first day and a half of instruction was consistent from one program to the next with only minor adjustments in successive iterations based on data from formative program evaluations. This engineering-focused instruction provided students the opportunity to engage with the iterative engineering design process through engineering challenges. Students identified their goals for the challenges and worked within the provided constraints to steadily move towards the attainment of those goals by designing, testing, and then redesigning. In addition to learning about engineering and the iterative design process used by engineers and other scientists, the first day and a half of activities provided students with the opportunity to develop or learn alternative techniques for accomplishing tasks that sighted students would do visually (e.g., using a hot glue gun, observing a test of their design). These learning opportunities endeavored to foster an understanding among blind students that vision is not a requirement for success in STEM—an important foundation for the remainder of the program’s activities.

Instruction for the second day at each of the six programs was developed collaboratively between the advocacy organization and the partner museum. Two ideas drove the collaborative development of the instructional design for the second day of each program. The first goal was to pull activities and lessons from the museums existing curriculums, thereby bolstering the museum’s capacity to facilitate those activities to be inclusive of diverse learners. The second goal was to capitalize on the unique setting of the science museum to offer students STEM learning opportunities that they likely did not have access to in formal K-12 education, either because such learning opportunities were not covered in the K-12 curriculum or because blind students are often excluded from some of the curriculum that is offered in K-12.

To begin the instructional design process, museum educators identified the activities that they felt offered the most engaging learning experience. Then educators from the advocacy organization identified the subset of activities from that list that they believed, based on their professional experience, afforded students who are blind or have visual impairments with learning opportunities that they likely did not have access to elsewhere. Finally, the two groups of educators collaborated to identify what, if any, changes needed to be made to the activities to ensure they were non-visually accessible (i.e., that students who are blind or have visual impairments had access to all of the information). The final list of activities for day two of each program is below:

• Regional Site 1: Nanoscience activities that included discussions on the size of the nano scale and how the surface area of an atom impacts its behavior in different environments, circuit construction activities using snap circuits, and a physics activity where students constructed catapults
• Regional Site 2: A bobsled engineering design challenge, a fruit DNA extraction activity, an animal biology activity focusing on reptiles, and an exploration of the theater of electricity focused on understanding Van de Graaff generators and Tesla coils
• Regional Site 3: Engineering activity using life-size building materials, an aerospace engineering activity where students created flying contraptions, and an audio described rat basketball game
• Regional Site 4: Marine biology activities including a starfish dissection, a physics of sound activity, and a paleontology activity where students investigate a wide variety of fossils
• Regional Site 5: Several activities related to the physics of sound and how that impacts the construction of various musical instruments
• Regional Site 6: Maker activities including LEGO engineering and circuit building

Instrument

This quantitative data project used the Morgan-Jinks Student Efficacy Scale (MJSES) (Jinks & Morgan, 1999) along with additional questions regarding demographics of the students and disability specific questions. The MJSES is a 30-item validated instrument used to identify the constructs of self-efficacy in relation to academic activities. Jinks and Morgan identified three subscale items within the MJSES: talent items, context items, and effort items.

Data Collection System 

The data collection was conducted online through The Ohio State University’s Qualtrics system. This is a secured online data collection service provided to faculty, staff, and students upon receiving training with the system.

Data Collection

A list of parent names and mailing addresses for all children who applied and were accepted into regional science museum programming were provided to the researchers. Parents received a letter from the organization sponsoring the regional programming, a letter from the researchers, the parental permission form, and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Parents were asked to return the signed permission form to the researchers in the stamped envelope. An email was sent to those whom the researchers had received permission forms approximately two weeks prior to participation in any education program experiences. This email provided the participants with a link to take the survey through a secured online site. A follow-up email was sent approximately one week prior to participation in the program to those with permission to participate in the study who had not filled out the survey.  

Data Analysis

A research team consisting of a principal investigator and co-investigator analyzed the data. Descriptive analysis is being used to report the data due to the number of participants in the study. The quantitative data collected from the MJSES instrument was analyzed using the three subscales: talent items, context items, and effort items (Jinks & Morgan, 1999). The researchers chose to use descriptive analysis of the 13 context items, because these items consisted of statements about getting good grades, importance of school and higher education, and beliefs about teachers and adults (Jinks & Morgan, 1996). The researchers did not focus on the talent and effort item statements because a large amount of the statements were related to a student’s beliefs about their grades in school, which would most likely not be influenced by their participation in the regional programming.

Results

Disability Related Questions

Students indicated how many other people they knew with visual impairments and blindness. Answers ranged from “zero” to “a lot”. However, six of the students indicated knowing less than 10 people who are blind. Similarly, only six students indicated they had a role model who is blind, and only two people knew a person who is blind in a STEM career. Four students felt that people who are blind could have any career. However, some felt careers in driving, some professional sports, the medical field, or the military were not attainable due to their disability. One student indicated he/she was “unsure”.

Context Statements

Results from the MJSES self-efficacy instrument, pre and post results, did not demonstrate statistically significant change in self-efficacy belief after participation in the regional programming. The pre and post data results from the MJSES instrument were analyzed to identify any large changes in response rates for questions before and after participation in the regional programming. The data analysis did demonstrate that the majority of the answers to the self-efficacy questions demonstrated high self-efficacy beliefs prior to participation in the regional programming, which was maintained upon completion of the regional programming.

In this section the authors will explicate the results from the MJSES self-efficacy instrument for one of the subscale items: context (Jinks & Morgan, 1999). Table 1 reports the pre and post survey results of participants on the MJSES for context items, that consisted of 13 statements, which did not demonstrate statistically relevant change but did demonstrate consistently high self-efficacy beliefs. The results of the context items demonstrate that the participant’s self-efficacy beliefs about items, such as graduating high school, going to college, and school being important, were high prior to attending the regional program and remained high after participation in the regional program.

Some of the student responses demonstrated slight increases in their self-efficacy beliefs upon completion of the regional program. The number of students that marked “Really Agree” with regard to their belief that they will attend college when they are old enough increased from 70% pre to 90% post. In addition, students demonstrated a 10% increase in their belief that they “Really Disagree” that what they learn in school is not important and that it does not matter if they do well in school. Students maintained high self-efficacy beliefs on other questions. For example, 100% pre and 90% post, indicated that they “Really Agree” that they will graduate high school. Also, 100% of student respondents reported that they believed it is important to go to high school prior to, and after completion of, the regional program. Self-efficacy beliefs were consistently high for all of the talent items, 13 statements, about participant beliefs about teachers, grades, and the importance of school. The effort items also remained high pre and post participation in the regional program and consisted of four statements about their individual beliefs regarding their effort in academics and grades.

Table 1. Context Item Results for Pre and Post Scores on the MJSES

Statement	Really Agree	Kind of Agree	Kind of Disagree	Really Disagree
Most of my classmates like to do math because it is easy.	Pre 0% - Post 10%	Pre 60% - Post 50%	Pre 10% - Post 0%	Pre 30% - Post 40%
I would get better grades if my teacher liked me better.	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 10%	Pre 20% - Post 0%	Pre 80% - Post 90%
I will graduate from high school.	Pre 100% - Post 90%	Pre 0% - Post 10%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%
I go to a good school.	Pre 80% - Post 70%	Pre 10% - Post 20%	Pre 10% - Post 10%	Pre 0% - Post 0%
When I’m old enough I will go to college.	Pre 70% - Post 90%	Pre 30% - Post 10%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%
No one cares if I do well in school.	Pre 10% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 30%	Pre 90% - Post 70%
It is important to go to high school.	Pre 100% - Post 100%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%
What I learn in school is not important.	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 10% - Post 0%	Pre 90% - Post 100%
It does not matter if I do well in school.	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 10% - Post 0%	Pre 90% - Post 100%
Kids who get better grades than I do get more help from the teacher than I do.	Pre 10% - Post 10%	Pre 10% - Post 0%	Pre 50% - Post 10%	Pre 30% - Post 80%
Teachers like kids even if they do not always make good grades.	Pre 60% - Post 60%	Pre 20% - Post 40%	Pre 20% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%
I will quit school as soon as I can.	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 0% - Post 0%	Pre 20% - Post 10%	Pre 80% - Post 90%

Conclusions

The purpose of this study was to determine how participation in regional programs for students with visual impairments and blindness influences a student’s perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs. The self-efficacy results from the MJSES survey indicated that the student participants had high self-efficacy beliefs prior to participation in the regional programs and that these levels of self-efficacy remained high after completion of the programs. The lack of change in self-efficacy beliefs due to high self-efficacy beliefs of student participants prior to, and upon completion, of an out of school experience for students with visual impairments is in line with previous research on the topic (Farrand, Wild, & Hilson, 2016; Wild, Hilson & Farrand, 2014).

Limitations

There were multiple limitations in the current study. The main purpose of the study was to examine student self-efficacy levels before and after participation in an informal science program. First, the sample size was small. This was due, in part, to visual impairment and blindness being a low incidence disability. Less than 1% of the U.S. school population is identified as having a low incidence disability (Ludlow, Conner, & Schechter, 2005; U.S. Department of Education, 2002). In addition, the student participants self-selected to attend the regional STEM program, so the increased self-efficacy response answers may be due to student interest in science and math. Also, the short nature of the program may have played a role in the lack of change over time in student self-efficacy levels. The small number of participants completing the post-survey also played a factor, which could be addressed in the future by having students complete the post survey instruments before leaving the program as opposed to inviting students to complete the survey after they have returned home. Opportunities for students with blindness and visual impairments to participate in regional programs are beneficial because they can help maintain high self-efficacy beliefs in addition to supporting school connectedness.

Discussions

Examining participation in regional programs for students with blindness and visual impairments influences a student’s perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs while also contributing to research to provide educators, out of school program coordinators, and researchers with more information about the use of the MJSES (Jinks & Morgan, 1999) self-efficacy instrument. More research is needed to examine the factors that contribute to high self-efficacy beliefs of students with blindness and visual impairments with regard to talent, effort, and context items related to academics. Future research should also be done to explore student participation in out of school programs that incorporate the student’s voice about their experiences, as well as research to examine measures that focus on the impact of out of school programs on students with blindness and visual impairments self-efficacy beliefs. While the pre and post survey results for self-efficacy did not indicate statistically significant change, the results do contribute to the literature on fostering school connectedness in students for out of school programming. School connectedness refers to a student’s belief about being connected to their schools and how this impacts their health and academics (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2009) identified four factors that can support school connectedness for students: adult support, belonging to a positive peer group, commitment to education, and a positive school environment. These factors were all incorporated into the regional programs provided. This research is valuable because it provides information that is currently missing in the literature about students with blindness and visual impairments participating in out of school programs that incorporate these four factors. This research also supports findings on the benefits of afterschool programs for school connectedness and the increased special features in areas such as promoting positive relationships, enhancing school activities, and establishing high expectations and standards (Anderson-Butcher, 2010).

Consumer organizations for persons with blindness and visual impairments, along with other disability groups, should continue to partner with museums and researchers to further capitalize on the potential of out of school programs for students with blindness and visual impairments. These innovative programs provide experiences for students to further develop relationships with their peers in safe environments that promote high expectations of academic and career goals through hands-on and novel learning experiences. Another benefit for students with blindness and visual impairments is that these opportunities help sustain high self-efficacy beliefs about academics, as well as positive health and academic achievement to support their school connectedness.

Acknowledgement

This research was made possible through funding provided by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1322855. Sub-award for research from the National Federation of the Blind. 

References

Anderson-Butcher, D. (2010). The promise of afterschool programs for promoting school connectedness. The Prevention Researcher, 17(3), 11-14.

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148. doi: 10.1207/s15326985ep2802_3

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, New York: Freeman.

Farrand, K., Wild, T., & Hilson, M. P. (2016). Self-efficacy of students with visual impairments before and after participation in an inquiry-based camp. Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities, 19(1), 50-60. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.rit.edu/jsesd/vol19/iss1/5

Ferk, V., Vrtacnik, M., Blejec, A., & Gril, A. (2003). Students’ understanding of molecular structure representations. International Journal of Science Education, 25(10), 1227-1245. doi: 10.1080/0950069022000038231

Jinks, J., & Morgan, V. L. (1996). Students’ sense of academic efficacy and achievement in science: A useful new direction for research regarding scientific literacy? Electronic Journal of Science Education, 1(2). Retrieved from ERIC database. (EJ649650)

Jinks, J., & Morgan. V. (1999). Children’s perceived academic self-efficacy: An inventory scale. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 72(4), 224-230. doi: 10.1080/00098659909599398

Jones, M. G., Minogue, J., Oppewal, T., Cook, M. P., & Broadwell, B. (2006). Visualizing without vision at the microscale: Students with visual impairments explore cells with touch. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 15(5/6), 345-351. doi: 10.1007/s10956-006-9022-6

Ketelhut, D. J. (2007). The impact of student self-efficacy on scientific inquiry skills: An exploratory investigation in River City, a multi-user virtual environment. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 99-111. doi: 10.1007/s10956-006-9038-y

Kumar, D., Ramasamy, R., & Stefanich, G. P. (2001). Science for students with visual impairments: Teaching suggestions and policy implication for secondary educators. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 5(3), 1-9.

Lackaye, T. D., & Margalit, M. (2006). Comparisons of achievement, effort, and self-perceptions among students with learning disabilities and their peers from different achievement groups. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39(5), 432-446. doi: 10.1177/00222194060390050501

Linnenbrink, E. A., & Pintrich, P. R. (2003). The role of self-efficacy beliefs in student engagement and learning in the classroom. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19(2), 119-137. doi: 10.1080/10573560308223

Ludlow, B.L., Conner, D., & Schechter, J. (2005). Low incidence disabilities and personnel preparation for rural areas: Current status and future trends. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 24(3), 15-24. doi: 10.1177/875687050502400303

Pajares, F. (1997). Current directions in self-efficacy research. In M. Maehr & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement, (Vol. 110, pp. 1-49), Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press.

Penrod, W. M., Haley, C. D., & Matheson, L. P. (2005). A model for improving science teaching for students with visual impairments. RE:view, 37(2), 53-58. Retrieved from ERIC database. (EJ744458)

Sahin, M., & Yorek, N. (2009). Teaching science to visually impaired students: A small-scale qualitative study. US-China Education Review, 6(4), 19-26. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED505732)

U.S. Department of Education (2002). Twenty-fourth annual report to Congress on Implementation of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2002/index.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2009). Fostering school connectedness: Improving student health and academic achievement. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/protective/pdf/connectedness_administrators.pdf

Valentine, J. C., DuBois, D. L., & Cooper, H. (2004). The relation between self-beliefs and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review. Educational Psychologist, 39(2), 111-133. doi: 10.1207/s15326985ep3902_3

Wild, T., Hilson, M., & Farrand, K. (2014). Preparing for an inquiry-based summer camp experience for students with visual impairments: What do the campers think? Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 4(2). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5241/4-58

Zeldin, A. L., Britner, S. L., & Pajares, F. (2008). A comparative study of the self-efficacy beliefs of successful men and women in mathematics, science, and technology careers. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(9), 1036-1058. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20195

The Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research is copyright (c) 2018 to the National Federation of the Blind.