Psychometric evidence for a scale of beliefs regarding statistical self-efficacy for undergraduates in mathematics and education

Abstract

This article presents psychometric evidence for a statistical self-efficacy beliefs scale designed for undergraduate students enrolled in Mathematics and Pedagogy teacher education programs. The instrument was developed from statistical tasks associated with the preparation of teachers who will teach Mathematics in Basic Education, considering competencies and skills set out in the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) and theoretical-methodological frameworks related to statistical literacy and registers of semiotic representation. As a continuation of a broader investigation in which the tasks were discussed in terms of their connections with these frameworks, the present text focuses on the analysis of the internal consistency and factorial structure of the scale. The research involved 166 undergraduates, 111 in Mathematics and 55 in Pedagogy, from public universities in Southeastern Brazil. Results indicated satisfactory internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.895. The exploratory factor analysis, preceded by criteria for assessing the adequacy of the data matrix, presented KMO = 0.860 and a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity, χ² = 712.171; p < 0.001. The factor structure proved to be unidimensional, with one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1, accounting for 52.2% of the total explained variance. Factor loadings ranged from 0.562 to 0.792, and communalities ranged from 0.373 to 0.684, indicating that the items are satisfactorily represented by the common factor. The findings suggest that the scale presents initial evidence of validity and reliability for measuring statistical self-efficacy beliefs in teacher education contexts.