The Role of Integration in Understanding Self-Efficacy: A Mixed Methods Approach

Research on self-efficacy (SE) has shown to be a predictor of academic achievement and persistent in the sciences [1-3]. This talk continues to present the mixed methods approach we have been designing to explore the interaction between students' in-the-moment experiences and their SE [4]. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, we combine the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) via survey data with daily journal reflections to gain a holistic understanding of how students' real-time experiences influence their sense of SE. Here, we will examine how the integration of these data sources shape the claims we can make about SE. Integration is a process and product, in which the quantitative and qualitative elements are connected [5]. This process of integration impacts the insights we can derive about how real-time experiences influence a student's SE. By highlighting this process, we will demonstrate how the integration process informs the conclusions drawn about students' SE in relation to specific experiences.