The story starts from the reciprocal determinism, a term coined by Bandura in his theory of social cognition [1,2]. The Bandura's idea was to stress the connection of a person's behaviour, cognition, and environment factors. He argued that they constantly interact with each other and hence the term of reciprocal in determinism, which means that each of these factors influence the other two factors. As it can be seen on the picture.
Bandura’s theory places personal cognitive development in the system of social influences, which basically means that a change in self–beliefs can influence professional choices, motivation and performance. This assumption was tested in many settings, in fact, Bandura's seminal work on self-efficacy was more rooted in the therapy of anxiety and phobias, than in educational theory.
Later self–beliefs were proven to relate to «clinical problems including phobias, addiction, depression, social skills, assertiveness, stress, smoking behavior, pain control, health, and athletic performance» (see the survey paper of Pajares [4] and references within).
Self–efficacy is part of self-beliefs, although it is a rather precise notion. It is a measure of a person’s own perception of their ability to successfully complete a specific task or to reach a certain goal. Being based on self–assessment of a specific ability, self–efficacy appears to be a more useful measure, than general self–beliefs (e.g. self–concept, self-esteem or self-confidence), which can be largely determined by cultural background, ethnicity or current psychological state (for example anxiety) of a person.
2. Why self-efficacyis a useful concept for teaching and learning?
Performance, particularly in academic or professional context, is also specific and measurable, which provides opportunities to apply both qualitative and quantitative research methods to study their connections.[3] By measuring self-efficacy, we can deduce how student feel about their past learning experiences, as well as guess their future career choices[5]. We also can find ways to use set-efficacy to her students to increase their performance. But probably the most important benefit is that self-efficacy is the reflection of view of teaching and learning from student's perspective, which include not only what teachers planned to offer by their sessions, but also the class environment, students previous experience and psychological state.
3. What do we know about self-efficacy?
We know that self-efficacy can be measured through interviews with students [6,7]
We know that self-efficacy influence career choices. [5]
We know that self-efficacy is different from expected outcomes, i.e. it is a more "I can" attitude than "I will get first class marks" perception [1]
We know that self-efficacy is a perception, rather than actual state of student's abilities to succeed in a particular task.
We know that sometimes students might have good performance, but attribute it to luck, rather than personal effort, therefore not having self-efficacy.
We know that having well-developed self-efficacy in a particular domain usually helps to perform better in that domain, at least try harder and be less disappointed by small obstacles and failures in the way to success.
4. How the students can gain self-efficacy?
Bandura states [1] that there are four main sources of self-efficacy, which can act together or separately.
The most powerful one is mastery experience. To put it in a more simple wording, this is "I've done it myself before, so I can do it know" attitude. Mastery experience is so powerful because it is always with student. However, it is important to recognise mastery experience as such, i.e. the task is comparable to the onenot all of us will swim across English Channel just because we've done some paddle pool games in our infancy.
The next source is vicarious experience. To put it in a more simple wording, that means "I've seen someone's doing it and succeeding, so I can do it myself and succeed". This source is particularly difficult to measure, especially in educational context. Normally vicarious experience comes with together with mastery experience in educational context, i.e. you are likely to see someone's doing a task, while you are trying to do to yourself.
The last two sources are social persuasions and psychological state. In terms of social cognition they are most prominent examples of environmental influence on behaviour and vice versa. Social persuasions are the encouragements and statements of others about persons self-efficacy, e.g. teachers', parents, or colleagues opinion. The social persuasions may dramatically decrease self-efficacy, especially in particular economical, gendered[8] or ethnic background [9]. The psychological state is a completely opposite influence, it is a personal sense which determine self-efficacy beliefs. E.g. a person may think they will fail an exam, because when they were nervous last time they failed the exam, thus although probably confusing cause with consequence, their self-efficacy become affected.
5.What teachers can do to improve students' self-efficacy?
foster the formation of mastery experiences
reflect on feedback they give their students: it should be timely, adequate to student's skills and specific
foster good environment in class
help students realise that their achievement are related to their effort, not luck or miracles.
make students aware of the concept of self-efficacy
References
Albert Bandura. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman, 1997.
Albert Bandura. The self system in reciprocal determinism.American psychologist, 33(4):344–358, 1977
R. W. Lent and G. Hackett. Career self–efficacy: Empirical status and future directions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 30:347–382, 1987.
Frank Pajares. Current directions in self–efficacy research. In M. Maehr and P. R. Pintrich, editors, Advances in motivation and achievement 10:1–49. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1997
R. W. Lent and G. Hackett. Career self–efficacy: Empirical status and future directions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 30:347–382, 1987
Ellen L. Usher and Frank Pajares. Sources of self–efficacy in mathematics: A validation study. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1): 89–101, 2009
Trevor Williams and Kitty Williams. Self-efficacy and performance in mathematics: Reciprocal determinism in 33 nations. Journal of Educa- tional Psychology, 102(2):453–466
Pajares, F., & Zeldin, A. L. (1999). Inviting self-efficacy revisited: The role of invitations in the lives of women with mathematics-related careers. Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, 6, 48–68.
Gainor, K. A., & Lent, R. W. (1998). Social cognitive expectations and racial identity attitudes in predicting the math choice intentions of Black college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 403–413.
This introduction for self-efficacy was a good summary of the main points that are important to understand the concept. I thought about how to implement the suggested actions and most of it is of course connected to a mastery experience. For a lot of courses, this experience, especially with feedback is mainly the exam or coursework – so only after the whole course, the feedback, whether the student has mastered the topic or not comes too late and only infrequent and might not actually lead to an appropriate feeling of self-efficacy. More but smaller evaluations during the term would be great for students to build up such a self-belief.
Self-efficacy FAQ.
1. What is self-efficacy?
The story starts from the reciprocal determinism, a term coined by Bandura in his theory of social cognition [1,2]. The Bandura's idea was to stress the connection of a person's behaviour, cognition, and environment factors. He argued that they constantly interact with each other and hence the term of reciprocal in determinism, which means that each of these factors influence the other two factors. As it can be seen on the picture.
Bandura’s theory places personal cognitive development in the system of social influences, which basically means that a change in self–beliefs can influence professional choices, motivation and performance. This assumption was tested in many settings, in fact, Bandura's seminal work on self-efficacy was more rooted in the therapy of anxiety and phobias, than in educational theory.
Later self–beliefs were proven to relate to «clinical problems including phobias, addiction, depression, social skills, assertiveness, stress, smoking behavior, pain control, health, and athletic performance» (see the survey paper of Pajares [4] and references within).
Self–efficacy is part of self-beliefs, although it is a rather precise notion. It is a measure of a person’s own perception of their ability to successfully complete a specific task or to reach a certain goal. Being based on self–assessment of a specific ability, self–efficacy appears to be a more useful measure, than general self–beliefs (e.g. self–concept, self-esteem or self-confidence), which can be largely determined by cultural background, ethnicity or current psychological state (for example anxiety) of a person.
2. Why self-efficacy is a useful concept for teaching and learning?
Performance, particularly in academic or professional context, is also specific and measurable, which provides opportunities to apply both qualitative and quantitative research methods to study their connections.[3] By measuring self-efficacy, we can deduce how student feel about their past learning experiences, as well as guess their future career choices[5]. We also can find ways to use set-efficacy to her students to increase their performance. But probably the most important benefit is that self-efficacy is the reflection of view of teaching and learning from student's perspective, which include not only what teachers planned to offer by their sessions, but also the class environment, students previous experience and psychological state.
3. What do we know about self-efficacy?
4. How the students can gain self-efficacy?
Bandura states [1] that there are four main sources of self-efficacy, which can act together or separately.The most powerful one is mastery experience. To put it in a more simple wording, this is "I've done it myself before, so I can do it know" attitude. Mastery experience is so powerful because it is always with student. However, it is important to recognise mastery experience as such, i.e. the task is comparable to the onenot all of us will swim across English Channel just because we've done some paddle pool games in our infancy.
The next source is vicarious experience. To put it in a more simple wording, that means "I've seen someone's doing it and succeeding, so I can do it myself and succeed". This source is particularly difficult to measure, especially in educational context. Normally vicarious experience comes with together with mastery experience in educational context, i.e. you are likely to see someone's doing a task, while you are trying to do to yourself.
The last two sources are social persuasions and psychological state. In terms of social cognition they are most prominent examples of environmental influence on behaviour and vice versa. Social persuasions are the encouragements and statements of others about persons self-efficacy, e.g. teachers', parents, or colleagues opinion. The social persuasions may dramatically decrease self-efficacy, especially in particular economical, gendered[8] or ethnic background [9]. The psychological state is a completely opposite influence, it is a personal sense which determine self-efficacy beliefs. E.g. a person may think they will fail an exam, because when they were nervous last time they failed the exam, thus although probably confusing cause with consequence, their self-efficacy become affected.
5.What teachers can do to improve students' self-efficacy?
References
This introduction for self-efficacy was a good summary of the main points that are important to understand the concept. I thought about how to implement the suggested actions and most of it is of course connected to a mastery experience. For a lot of courses, this experience, especially with feedback is mainly the exam or coursework – so only after the whole course, the feedback, whether the student has mastered the topic or not comes too late and only infrequent and might not actually lead to an appropriate feeling of self-efficacy. More but smaller evaluations during the term would be great for students to build up such a self-belief.