Resumen: Introduction. Academic Confidence and Gender have emerged as variables that
determine cognitive behavior while learning. At present, research examines their role as
types of motivational-affective variables. The objective of this study was to establish
dependence relationships of academic confidence and gender with Perception of the
teaching-learning process. We hypothesized a dependence relationship and joint effect of
students¿ level of academic confidence and their gender on their perception of the
teaching-learning process.
Method. A total of 494 university students from the Psychology Degree programs at
the University of Almeria (Spain) and Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK) participated
in the study. The Academic Behavioural Confidence Scale, ABC (2009) was used to
measure academic confidence. This questionnaire contains four subscales and has
acceptable reliability and validity values. Perception of the teaching-learning process was
assessed through the Interactive Assessment of Teaching Learning Process Scale, IATLP
(2009), shown to have consistent psychometric properties.
Results. Overall, there was a significant effect of the level of academic confidence on
perception of the teaching-learning process. More specifically, there was a significant
effect of the level of academic confidence on the level of students¿ satisfaction with the
learning process. Likewise, gender had a significant effect on self-regulated learning, in
favor of the female students. As for interactions, greater levels of academic confidence in
the female students were associated with a perception of the teaching as more regulatory.
However, greater academic confidence in male students did not result in the perception of
more regulatory teaching.
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94 Jesús de la Fuente and Paul Sander
Discussion. The most interesting effect¿which re-appears in several later results¿is
the interaction of the level of academic confidence and gender. This effect has been given
the label ¿delta effect¿ by the authors. Its importance for understanding university
teaching and learning is discussed in terms of the variables analyzed.
