Purpose of Measure: "To have participants assess their ability to function as a scientist in a variety of tasks."
Lay-Person Terms: Student's confidence in their abilities to function as scientists.
Measure:
This section assesses your confidence in your abilities to function as a scientist in your area. Indicate the extent to which you are confidence you can successfully complete the following tasks. Please select the best answer on the scale from 1 (not at all confident) to 5 (absolutely confident).
| 1. Not at all confident | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. Absolutely confident | |
| Use of technical science skills (use of tools, instruments, and/or techniques). | |||||
| Generate a research question to answer. | |||||
| Figure out what data/observations to collect and how to collect them. | |||||
| Create explanations for the results of a study. | |||||
| Use scientific literature and/or reports to guide research. | |||||
| Develop theories (integrate and coordinate results from multiple studies). |
Type of Validity: Cronbach's alpha = 0.91
Citation of Publication: Estrada, M., Woodcock, A., Hernandez, P. R., & Schultz, P. W. (2011). Toward a model of social influence that explains minority student integration into the scientific community. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(1), 206–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020743 The instrument is found within the paper itself, in the "measures" subsection of the Methods section.
Instructions to analyze and interpret: Six item scale. Calculate the mean scale score (mathematical average) of all items within the scale for a particular respondent. Higher scores represent higher self-reported scientific self-efficacy for that respondent. Use with postdoc populations would require revalidation
Other citations: Chemers M. Unpublished Manuscript. University of California; Santa Cruz: 2006. Science Identity and Self-Efficacy