A Study of Relationships between Academic Self Concepts, Some Selected Variables and Physics Course Achievement

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ academic self concepts and certain variables (type of school, gender, financial state of the family, educational background of the parents, a computer available for use at home and the number of siblings) and the relationship between academic self concepts and students’ achievement in the course of physics. The study was carried out with high school students (n=396). In the study, the data were collected through the Academic Self Concept scale (the reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated by the researchers as 0.92), achievement scores in the course of physics and a questionnaire for the demographic background of the participants. Descriptive statistics, Independent samples t-test, Correlation analysis, Anova and Scheffe tests were used to analyze the data. The analysis of the data revealed that the computational ability sub-dimension mean scores of the students attending the vocational high school were lower than those of the students attending other schools. Moreover, significant relationships and differences were found in students’ academic self concepts with respect to gender, parental education, financial state of the family and availability of a computer at home. In the study, positive relationships were found between students’ achievement in the course of physics and the sub-dimension of interest in science.