Self Efficacy

Originally from C&I 407, 2011


In reflecting about the three topic areas of beliefs in Chapter 6; self-efficacy, attribution theory and autonomy, I found the information on self-efficacy to be the most informative for me. I might feel this way as it was an area the details of which I was least familiar.  As teachers we are often told to praise our students to help raise their self esteem but, as is the case with most professional development, we are rarely given examples of how to best do this let alone the research detailing why it should be done.  I found it interesting that Bruning et al. not only clarify the differences between self-efficacy and self esteem, but also provide research explaining its importance and examples of how to implement those ideas into the classroom.

Bruning et al. pointed out a critical distinction about what I had been told about students "believing in themselves" in the past; that self-efficacy is not to be confused with self esteem. As defined by Bandura (1997) self-efficacy is, “a judgment of one’s ability to perform a task within a specific domain. “ An importance aspect of this for me was the four influences on the level, generality, and strength of student self-efficacy. Learning how student self-efficacy develops through influences described by Bandura (1987) as: 1) information acquired during the performance of a task, 2) observation of others, 3) verbal persuasion and 4) psychological state. I find this fascinating because it gives insight into how students develop the perceptions they have about themselves and their abilities.

When being told to praise and encourage students to bolster their self esteem there was often a problem for me when it came to some students, I felt that they actually needed to do something to get praise for. I wasn’t looking for something grand, just something, anything in some cases, for which I could give them some positive feedback and encouragement. I would remind them about an assignment, the importance of doing their work and vividly demonstrate the effects on their grade of not doing their work. What I didn’t not realize—or had forgotten—is that often the students had decided in advance whether or not they were good at a subject and had already determined the approximate level their grade would be regardless of my insistence on doing their work.

I have now come to realize that I need to find a way to assess student efficacy immediately at the beginning of a school year or semester and begin to guide those students that have low self-efficacy. At my school we are even fighting negative impacts on school efficacy, a general negative attitude started by some parents and nurtured by the students themselves. You hear it every day with comments like, “this school sucks,” or, “this place is so gay.”

As a teacher I plan to try and incorporate the implications for improving self-efficacy on pages 118-19 of Bandura et al. (2004) to help students become more aware of the learning processes. I think it is important that students realize that they have already developed set patterns of actions (and inactions) that have an incredible influence on how they learn. Once they become aware of the concept of self-efficacy and how perhaps we as teachers can (opefully help them to enact changes to the negative learning behaviors that they did not even know that they had. (This is expanded upon in Chapter 7 with ideas about implicit beliefs of both students and teachers.)  

I would like to think that I am not one of those experienced teachers that has moved to the, “custodial view of classroom control,” described on page 115 by Bruning et al. (2004). I was told my student teacher field supervisor not to eat lunch in the teacher’s lounge as all you will hear are complaints and get negative ideas about students before you even have them. I was even luckier that my supervising teacher felt the same way. I have already found a few simple tests I can administer to my classes at the beginning of the year that I can incorporate into the beginning of the year process of setting student expectations and hopefully starting a new learning chapter for my students. Once I have set a baseline for them and made them aware of the concept I can follow through with the modeling ideas listed on pages 116-117 and the implications listed on pages 118-119. This school year isn't even over and I already have new plans for next year!