The Relationship between Students' Contextual Factors Related to Technology and Technology and Engineering Literacy Performance

In this study, using the 2013 NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) pilot assessment data, the relationships between the TEL contextual factors (exposure to technology/engineering in the three TEL areas in and outside of school, as well as interest and self-efficacy in technology/engineering) and student performance on the TEL assessment were examined using multiple regression. Regression results show that self-efficacy was the only significant predictor of TEL performance after controlling for major student demographic characteristics. Although other factors did not show significant direct relationships with TEL performance, path analysis results show that most TEL factors have significant relationships with self-efficacy, suggesting that self-efficacy may mediate the relationship between the TEL factors and TEL performance.