Self-Efficacy and Learning Achievement in Students with Different Cognitive Styles in a Video Game

Abstract

This research article accounts for the effects of a self-efficacy scaffolding on learning achievement and academic self-efficacy in students with different cognitive styles in the Field Dependency-Independence (fdi) dimension when they learn mathematical content through a video game. In this process, 52 sixth-grade students from a public school in the municipality of Cundinamarca, Colombia, participated. The research followed a quasi-experimental design where two groups of students interacted with a video game: (a) one course interacted with a video game, which included a self-efficacy scaffolding within its structure; and (b) another group interacted with a video game without scaffolding. The cognitive style of the students was determined by a masked figure test. Similarly, pre-test and post-test of academic self-efficacy were applied, along with the performance of amultivariate factor analysis of variance (Mancova). The scaffolding favored learning achievement in students with different cognitive styles in the fdi dimension and no significant differences were found in self-efficacy. The data show that the students reached equivalent learning due to the effect of the scaffolding that was included in the video game.