Relation indirecte entre le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et les performances en français : cas des élèves du Lycée technique bilingue de Bafoussam - Banengo.

Abstract

The literature on the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement is abundant. It has focused more on the direct relationship between these two variables, by analyzing in one side the self-efficacy and in other, participant’s performances. Studies have revealed very mixed relationships. While most of the work, in accordance with self-efficacy as theorized by Bandura, has shown positive links between self-efficacy and school performances, some works have rather revealed no link or negative correlation. Those studies are in accordance with Powers’s perceptual control theory. In fact, individuals with high self-efficacy can perform poorly. For example some, in despite of their high self-efficacy, certain technical education learners in Cameroon have poor performances in French. The present thesis intends to bring light to this controversy relationship on which the literature is almost silent. Thus it aims at studying the effects of situational and personal factors on the relationship between self-efficacy and school performances. The general hypothesis of the study states that between self-efficacy and school performances, there are situational (expectations and classroom’s socio-emotional climate) and personal (school engagement and emotional intelligence) factors that, depending on the case, mediate or modulate the relationship between these two variables. The study is quasi-experimental and involved 369 third-year students, of both sexes, aged between 11 and 18 years from Government Bilingual Technical High School Bafoussam-Banengo in the West Region of Cameroon. French performances tests (designed for this research), french’s self-efficacy scale, school engagement scales (adapted for this research); and the french version of "Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire – Short Form", (TEIQue-SF; Petrides, 2009) were used to collect data. As results, data analysis via the SPSS 2.1 and 3.5 comfort the specifics hypotheses and therefore the general hypothesis too. Thus, as first, expectations (sub-study 1) and the classroom’s socio-emotional climate (sub-study 2) modulate the link between self-efficacy and french performances. Then, school engagement fully mediates the relationship between SEP and french performances (sub-study 3). Finally, emotional intelligence modulates the relationship between self-efficacy and french performances (sub-study 4). The results also showed an improvement in french performances of learners in situations of high expectations, positive classroom’s socio-emotional climate, high engagement and emotional intelligence, regardless of thier self-efficacy. Moreover, the present research proposes an explanatory model of the relationship between self-efficacy and school performances that enriches and reconciles the Bandura’s and Powers’s theories. It also suggests pedagogical implications to improve learners' performances and opens up new perspectives for future researchers.