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Index: Efficacy
Efficacy OverviewsPage ContentsA Seminal Self-Efficacy Study
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| Symbolizing | students and teachers are able to process abstract experiences into models that guide their learning; e.g. from a storybook or videotape |
| Forethought | students and teachers can foresee success or failure for a given task |
| Vicarious | students and teachers can learn by observing |
| Self-regulatory | students and teachers can determine how much effort to give to a certain task |
| Self-reflective | students and teachers conduct self-evaluations, and sometimes overestimate or underestimate their capabilities |
Brown, I. J. & Inouye, D. K. (1978). Learned helplessness through modeling: The role of perceived similarity in competence, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 900-908.
Sought to test whether learned helplessness — one's expectations of inevitable failure due to lack of control over proposed circumstances — could be induced by vicarious modeling.
Participants observed models demonstrate frustration and failure with an anagram task, and were told they were either of
• superior competency to the model
• similar competency to the model
• nothing, but observed the model
• nothing, and didn't observe the model
Results of the Study
Observers in similar-competency group persisted less than all other groups.
Observers in superior-competency group persisted longer than all other groups.
Lessons Learned
• model similarity may affect one's persistence and expectations for success
• social comparison is an influential and vicarious source of one's perceived self-efficacy, and performance
EDUCATION ISSUE: How can teachers and parents help students to avoid learned helplessness?
| Self-concept | "... a composite view of oneself that is formed through direct experience and evaluations adopted from significant others" (Bandura, 1986, p. 409). |
| Self-esteem | "...pertains to the evaluation of self-worth, which depends on how the culture values the attributes one possesses and how well one's behavior matches personal standards of worthiness" (Bandura, 1986, p. 410) |
| Self-confidence | |
| Anxiety | |
| Personal background | |
| Ability | |
| Gender | |
| Self-efficacy |
| Bandura, 1986 (p. 391) | "Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances. It is concerned not with the skills one has but with judgments of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses." |
| My definition | Self-efficacy is one's judgments of personal capabilities to initiate and successfully perform specified tasks, expend greater effort, and persevere in the face of adversity. |
| Enactive Attainment | Vicarious Experience | Verbal Persuasion | Physiological State |
| direct experience | observing others | feedback from teachers | sweaty palms |
| actual performance | modeling | expectations of peers | rapid heartbeat |
| achievements | media | ||
| authentic mastery experiences |
| Allinder, 1995 | found that teachers with higher levels of personal and teaching efficacy more often help students to achieve their end-of-year goals |
| Fasko & Grubb, 1995 | |
| Weber & Omotani, 1994 | found that teacher self-efficacy ratings are predictive of student achievement |
| Moore and Esselman, 1994 | conducted a study of historical patterns and workplace context, tracking student achievement for five years. Their findings suggest that teaching efficacy is highly influence by contextual factors, such as positive school psychological climate, greater teacher autonomy, and more freedom to concentrate on instructional matters. In historically low-performing schools, teachers reported lower levels of these factors and thus lower levels of teaching efficacy |
| O'Connor & Korr, 1996 | Tested a model designed to improve teacher empowerment and self-efficacy. They found that teachers participating in the model would more often sought and gave advice to each other. They also were more likely to identify problems as system-oriented rather than child oriented. |
| Ramey-Gassert (1996) | Found that teaching efficacy of preservice and inservice teachers was highly influenced by the quality of courses they took, access to resources, time, and supportive colleagues. |
| Rich, et al. (1996) | Found that two teacher efficacy scales used in the U.S.A. were also reliable when translated into Hebrew and used with Israeli teachers. |
| Romano, 1996 | Found that trained teachers were more likely to retain their gains in self-efficacy over time. |
| Ross, 1995 | In reviewing the research on teaching efficacy, he found that teachers with greater efficacy judgments set more challenging goals for themselves and their students, took credit for student outcomes, and persisted longer on challenges to learning. |
| Ross, 1994 | conducted a meta-analysis of 88 teacher efficacy studies and concluded that teachers with higher-levels of reported self-efficacy are more likely to set high goals for students, and themselves as teachers, and believe that they have more responsibility for student achievement |
| Soodak & Podell (1996) | Analyzed responses on the Teacher Efficacy Scale and found that it actually is comprised of three uncorrelated factors: 1) personal efficacy, 2) outcome efficacy, and 3) teaching efficacy |
| Weber & Omotani, 1995 | "Low-efficacy teachers blame failure on students' family background and motivation, deprecate low achievers, and stratify their classrooms according to ability." Authors describe ways of improving teacher efficacy through collegiality, reduced workload and appropriate evaluation. |
| Personal Factors | Behavior/Performance | Environmental Influences |
| cognition | success | adequate resources |
| affect | failure | barriers |
| biological events | lessons learned | facilitators |
| Raises | Lowers |
| Achievement | Repeated failures |
| Successful experiences | Modeling failures |
| High expectations | Low expectations |
| Debunking gender myths | Domain stereotyping |
| Teachers suggestions of adequate capabilities to perform a given task | Teachers suggestions of inadequate capabilities to perform a given task |
| Gender stereotyping |
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Interventions Enhancing Self-Efficacy
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