Students’ mathematics self-efficacy beliefs in university discrete mathematics

Abstract Mathematics self-efficacy affects students’ perseverance, college major choice, self-regulation and academic performance. For students enrolled in university (tertiary) discrete mathematics, high mathematics self-efficacy can promote their learning by supporting their studying, self-regulation, engagement and ultimate success in the class. However, discrete mathematics is a course that features introduction to proof and axiomatic-formal mathematics and new topics such as graph theory and combinatorics. Researchers have hypothesized that some of these topics (e.g., graph theory) may be more accessible to students than previous mathematics courses such as pre-calculus while other research shows other discrete mathematics topics (e.g., proof) may be less accessible to students. These differences in topics compared to previous mathematics courses could increase or decrease students’ self-efficacy. Nevertheless, little previous research has examined changes to mathematics self-efficacy in collegiate discrete mathematics. We present results of 14 collegiate discrete mathematics students, interviewed across two semesters, examining their global mathematics self-efficacy as well as reported changes to their self-efficacy. We qualitatively describe the cases of two students who reported an increase in global mathematics self-efficacy, four who reported a decrease in self-efficacy, two who reported their self-efficacy remained unchanged but felt lower mathematics self-efficacy for discrete mathematics compared with other mathematics content, and six students who reported no change to their self-efficacy. Results have implications for university instructors as well as for researchers’ knowledge about how mathematics self-efficacy changes.