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Believing in your ability

http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/self-efficacy.html

Zimmerman (2000) summarised that twenty years of research have clearly established self-efficacy as a construct that can predict motivation and learning. Zimmerman restated and confirmed Bandura's (1977) early definition: 'self-efficacy refers to, "personal judgments of one's capabilities to organise and execute courses of action to attain designated goals" ' (Zimmerman, 2000, p. 83).

Schunk (1989; 1991), Schunk and Zimmerman (1997) and Bandura (1993; 1997; 2001), placed self-efficacy firmly within the ideas in social-cognitive theory. People's self-efficacy beliefs affect their choice of tasks at work or at home, their persistence, the amount of effort they make and how they acquire skills. In a reciprocal fashion, these factors all affect self-efficacy (Schunk, 1989). A person's self-efficacy beliefs may be different for different tasks (eg your confidence to deal with language or numbers); vary with contexts (eg learning by doing or by reading); depend upon perceived task difficulty; and will be assessed by the person before attempting the task, thus impacting upon motivation for the task (Zimmerman, 2000).

Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) have undertaken considerable work in the field of teachers' self-efficacy. They summarise that teachers' efficacy has been related to

student outcomes such as achievement (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Ross, 1992), motivation (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989), and students' own sense of efficacy (Anderson, Greene, & Loewen, 1988). In addition, teachers' efficacy beliefs also relate to their behaviour in the classroom … including the effort teachers invest in teaching, the goals they set, and their levels of aspiration. Teachers with a strong sense of efficacy also tend to exhibit greater levels of planning, organisation and enthusiasm (Allinder, 1994). Additionally they are open to new ideas and are more willing to experiment with new methods to better meet the needs of their students (Guskey, 1988; Stein & Wang, 1988). Further, efficacy beliefs influence teachers' persistence when things do not go smoothly and their resilience in the face of setbacks. Greater efficacy also enables teachers to be less critical of students when they make errors (Ashton & Webb, 1986), to work longer with a student who is struggling (Gibson & Dembo, 1984) and to be less inclined to refer a difficult student to special education (Meijer & Foster, 1988; Soodak & Podell, 1993). (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001, p. 2)

If self-efficacy impacts so many transactions in teaching, working and learning contexts, then building each teacher's and education worker's sense of positive self-efficacy seems vital. Bandura (1986) proposed that information about one's efficacy comes from four principal sources:

Performance achievements based on authentic mastery experiences
Observing the performances of others
Verbal feedback and allied types of social influences that one possesses certain capabilities
Physiological states from which people partly judge their capableness, strength, and vulnerability to dysfunction

Key points to be taken from the four sources of efficacy information are that:

Success raises efficacy appraisals
Repeated failures, especially early in a course of events, lower efficacy appraisals
Seeing the success of other people who are considered to be similar to oneself can raise efficacy (If they can do it, so can I!)
Seeing the failure of other people who are considered to be similar to oneself can lower self-efficacy
Verbal persuasion can contribute to people attempting a task and, if the task is within reasonable bounds and the person succeeds, efficacy can be enhanced.
Unrealistic persuasion/feedback that invites failure will undermine a person's efficacy

(condensed from Bandura, 1986, pp. 399-400)

As Bandura (1993) said:

There is a marked difference between possessing knowledge and skills and being able to use them well under taxing conditions. Personal accomplishments require not only skills but self-beliefs of efficacy to use them well. Hence, a person with the same knowledge and skills may perform poorly, adequately, or extraordinarily depending on fluctuations in self-efficacy thinking. (p. 119)

References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behaviour change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28, 117-148.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1-26.

Schunk, D. H. (1989). Social-cognitive theory and self-regulated learning. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research and practice (pp. 83-110). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26, 207-231.

Schunk, D. H. & Zimmerman, B. J. (1997). Social origins of self-regulatory competence. Educational Psychologist, 32(4), 195-208.

Tschannen-Moran, M. & Hoy, A. W. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 783-805.

Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Self-efficacy: An essential motive to learn. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 82-91.