The relationship between students' self-esteem, difficulty with course and rating of instruction

Abstract

The relationship ·between the student's level of self-esteem, having difficulty with a course and the ratings of instruction was investigated in this study. Participants included three faculty members and 78 baccalaureate nursing students from one university. Three hypotheses were tested with t-tests. An alpha level q~ E < .05 was used to determine statistical significance. The first hypothesis, which stated students with high self-esteem and experiencing difficulty in a course would rate instruction lower than students with high self-esteem and not experiencing difficulty with the course, was supported. The second hypothesis, which stated th~re would be no difference between the mean ratings of instruction by students with low self-esteem experiencing difficulty in a course and students with low self-esteem not experiencing difficulty in the course, was also supported. The third hypothesis, which stated students with high self-esteem and experiencing difficulty in a course would rate instruction lower than those students with low_self-esteem, was not supported.