Abstract:

In the education system around the world, there are some unresolved issues related to the psychological support of students in the classroom. The creation of optimal conditions for the formation of important qualities that ensure the success of learning activities includes, in particular, such essential qualities as confidence in the performance of cognitive tasks. In Russian psychology, Vygotsky (1978) developed a sociogenetic theory of the interiorization of mental functions, the essence of which is a possibility of internalizing externally mediated forms of activity and transforming them into internal, intrapsychological forms. External mediation of the forms of activity is semiotically fixed through signs such as speech, but also through special types of structured images (Galperin, 1969, 2010; Cole, 2018). In order to form confidence in knowledge, it is necessary to orient the child to this aspect of school life, to signify in a materialized form the assessment of confidence in the accuracy of the solution to a problem. We have used such an approach in the present study in the development of diagnostic methods to study the phenomenon of confidence in solving Olympiad mathematical problems. The problem of knowledge-based confidence in solving cognitive problems in childhood is at the heart of psychological and pedagogical research in today's world, affecting the more general problem of making responsible decisions. Situations of uncertainty that cause lack of confidence in schoolchildren often appear in mathematical studies at school, especially in elementary school, during the formation of operational structures of intellect, metacognition, and self-efficacy (Stankov, 2014). Many researchers have noted the impact of cultural and gender differences that affect confidence in reasoning and knowledge in addressing cognitive challenges (Golovina et al., 2009; Churbanova, Martynovsky, 2019). For the research, problems of varying degrees of complexity were selected for students of grades 3-4 and 5-6, according to the percentage of correct answers published each year on the site of the International Olympiad Kangaroo for the Russian region. The Russian sample consisted of 60 children (31 girls and 29 boys), students of 8-12 years old in the city of Moscow. In order to assess cognitive confidence (i.e., confidence in knowledge), testing of subjects was conducted on the basis of the solution of selected math Olympiad problems from the Kangaroo contest with five possible multiple-choice answers. To evaluate the students' confidence in the correctness of each task, a two-category scale was used: “I'm sure” vs. “I doubt it”, introduced by Golovina (2009). The subject had only to choose the correct answer and put a plus sign next to the answer in a special box if he or she was sure of its correctness and a minus sign if he or she was in doubt. Thus, it was possible to materialize the assessment of confidence or doubt in the correctness of the solution to a problem, which oriented the child towards additional rethinking of his or her solution. In the total sample of the Kangaroo Olympiad problem solving for students of 8-12 years old, there was a lack of confidence in girls' choice of correct answers in comparison with boys’. In addition, the girls were more hesitant about the wrong answers. The significant gender differences in confidence obtained can be explained by the differences in girls' educational attitudes compared to boys.

Keywords:

Self-confidence, 8-to-12-year-old students, cognitive tasks, creative thinking, International Mathematical Kangaroo Competition, gender differences.