Index: Efficacy

Interventions Enhancing Self-Efficacy

Page Contents

Interventions Enhancing Self-Efficacy Social Comparative Modeling Multiple Sources Modeling Peer Modeling Same-Gender Modeling Vicarious Modeling

Interventions Enhancing Self-Efficacy

Many personal determinants interact to influence the motivation, cognition, and performance in a mathematics learning environment. A seemingly endless array would include self-concept, self-esteem, self-confidence, anxiety, background, socio-economic status, ability, gender, and self-efficacy. However, according to Bandura (1986), "any gigantic attempt to study all these reciprocal actions at once would produce investigatory paralysis. It is the subsystems and their various interrelations, rather than the entirety, that are analyzed" (p.�25).

Self-efficacy for academic tasks is integral to this research for several reasons. Self-efficacy is shown to hold greater explanatory and predictive power for academic outcomes than many other determinants (Pajares & Miller, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c; Zimmerman, Bandura, & Martinez-Pons, 1992). Students who foster faulty self-knowledge about their abilities pertaining to academic tasks can be helped by personalized models who demonstrate improvement in self-efficacy during skill acquisition.

Interventions that demonstrate success in raising academic self-efficacy, include various forms of modeling. The forms of modeling that pertain most to personalization of instructional context are social comparative modeling, multiple sources modeling, peer modeling, same-gender modeling, and vicarious modeling. In many cases, these interventions overlap where the use of multiple models also serves the purpose of the others.

Social Comparative Modeling

In an early examination of the power of social comparison, Brown and Inouye (1978) 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. The researchers set up live models of differing levels of perceived similarity of competence to the observer. Observers were either told that they were of similar competency or superior competency to the model. A third group did not receive any feedback and a fourth (control) group did not observe a model. Using performance with anagrams as the performance task, participants in all groups witnessed a model demonstrate frustration and failure with the task. Observers in the superior competency group persisted longer than all other groups, volunteering to spend more time trying to solve the anagrams. Observers in the similar-competency group persisted less than all other groups. The implication of the Brown and Inouye (1978) study is not only that model similarity can adversely affect one's persistence and expectations of success, but also that social comparison among peers is an influential and vicarious source of one's perceived self-efficacy, which was demonstrated by the greater success of those who expected to perform better than the model.

The effects of social comparison on self-efficacy and performance was also tested in mathematics learning. Schunk (1983) provided 40 low-achieving fourth and fifth graders with instruction in performing division calculations. Four conditions were established in this experiment: 1) social comparative feedback on the number of calculations previously solved by peers, 2) a stated goal for solving a number of calculations, 3) both treatments (multiple sources of efficacy information), and 4) a control group. Participants receiving multiple sources of efficacy information demonstrated greater skill as evidenced by the number of calculations worked and solved correctly, as well as higher judgments of self-efficacy. Further analysis also showed that social-comparative-only feedback positively influenced skill use, and the goal-only condition was significantly related to higher reports of mathematics self-efficacy.

The combined results of the Schunk (1983) study imply that the efficacy-performance relationship is influenced by information about both goals and social comparison. Self-efficacy models should therefore be comparable in age and development to the observer and exhibit goals of successful performance. Personalization allows for this instructional strategy.

Multiple Sources Modeling

Schunk and Rice (1987) conducted a pair of experiments to test the effects of strategy value and use-feedback information on self-efficacy and reading comprehension of low-achieving, elementary school children. In experiment one, participants received one of four conditions: 1) specific strategy value information, 2) general strategy value information, 3) specific and general combined, or 4) no value information. In the second experiment, participants received one of three conditions: 1) strategy effectiveness feedback, 2) specific strategy value information, or 3) or combined effectiveness-specific value information. Strategy value was conveyed by pointing out how strategy use improves other children's performances, a source of social comparison and self-efficacy information. Strategy effectiveness feedback was operationalized as verbal feedback from the trainer to participant on how strategy use improves performance. Results from experiment one showed that both self-efficacy and skill (as indicated by performance) were significantly and positively altered in both the specific strategy value and general strategy value conditions; moreover, the specific-general strategy value group yielded an interaction across all other conditions. Experiment two tested how effectiveness feedback might build upon the first set of results. Results of this experiment showed that combined effectiveness-specific value information was more effective for improving self-efficacy and skill than either the strategy value only or strategy effectiveness feedback only conditions. One interpretation of these results is that multiple sources of information are more effective than a singular treatment for changing percepts of efficacy and corresponding performance. Using multiple sources of strategy effectiveness-value information in an instructional story increases the likelihood that learners will be able to see the effectiveness and value of using strategies.

Peer Modeling

Peer modeling, that is modeling among observers based on similarity of attributes between the model and observer, is examined extensively (see Schunk, 1987 for a review). Perceived similarity is shown to be an effective source of self-efficacy information for children's learning and performance. Researchers believe that learners are affected by greater attention, retention, production (enactment of behaviors) and motivation for learning strategies modeled by peers.

One of the early modeling studies that focused on background similarity was conducted by Rosekrans (1967). In that study, children watched films in which they were led to believe that the film model was either similar or dissimilar to themselves. Children in the similarity group demonstrated the modeled behaviors more accurately and were able to recall more of the model behaviors.

Schunk and Hanson (1985) investigated whether they could positively influence the self-efficacy and mathematics achievement (with subtractions) of 72 eight-, nine-, or ten-year old children through peer modeling on videotape. The participants had previously experienced difficulty learning fractions. The researchers also investigated whether mastery or coping behaviors were of significant benefit. There were no significant differences on either the coping or mastery condition, however, same-gender peer modeling resulted in significantly higher mathematics self-efficacy and performance than the other conditions. Observers of the teacher model also reported significantly higher posttest self-efficacy and performed significantly higher than controls.

Schunk, Hanson, and Cox (1987) conducted two experiments to see whether peer model gender attributes affected the mathematics (fractions) achievement of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade school children struggling with mathematics learning. In the first experiment, the researchers investigated whether model gender combined with either mastery or coping behaviors would affect the achievement behaviors of the observers. (Mastery behaviors are those where the model performs faultlessly. Coping behaviors include those where the model demonstrates overcoming difficulty, fear, or anxiety for the task.) In the second experiment, they investigated whether mastery or coping models combined with either a single same-gender model or multiple same-gender models promoted achievement behaviors. Participants watched videotaped sessions of female teachers working with the model(s). Results from the first experiment indicated that observing a coping model had a significant effect on children's self-efficacy and posttest performance, regardless of gender. Results of this experiment significantly favor the coping condition with multiple models. Implications of these results are that using coping and multiple models are appropriate instructional strategies for raising mathematics self-efficacy and performance. It seems that modeling coping behavior is more effective for struggling students than modeling mastery behavior. Multiple models, it is postulated, enables greater opportunity for the observer to identify with at least one of the models. The study, however, showed no effect on model-observer gender for elementary school children, which is consistent with research indicating that gender differences in mathematics do not emerge until junior high or middle school (Meece, Parsons, Kaczala, Goff, & Futterman, 1982). Therefore, it seems that self-efficacy and mathematics performance of young children can be improved through modeling, in particular by using multiple, coping models. The present study includes character models who demonstrate varying levels of coping behavior, thus allowing for greater opportunity for learners to identify with at least one level of coping.

Same-Gender Modeling

The effects of model gender on the mathematics self-efficacy of children is of particular interest because computer-based personalization enables gender-based character changes. Unfortunately, this has not been adequately investigated to date. Schunk and Hanson (1985), for example, found that same-gender peer modeling is an effective method of raising children's self-efficacy and improving mathematics performance. That study, however, was not designed to investigate possible cross-gender effects, such as using opposite-gender models for observers.

In another study, Schunk, Hanson, and Cox (1987) found that model gender had no effect on the mathematics (adding and subtracting of fractions) self-efficacy of mathematics low-achieving, elementary school children, consistent with other findings for this age group (Meece, Parsons, Kaczala, Goff, & Futterman, 1982).

Murphy and Ross (1990) investigated whether gender may be a factor in student preferences and in solving mathematics story problems. Each of the eight story problems contributed to a larger, thematic story line. The study allowed participants to select from two gender-oriented stories: "Angie's Travels" and "Mack's Trip;" however, participants were then further assigned, without choosing, to one of three conditions within the selected story: 1) preferred-gender, 2)�nonpreferred gender, and 3) mixed gender. Names of characters, as well as pronouns "he" and "she" enabled a specific gender orientation. Two "mixed protagonist" treatment versions, "Angie-Mack" and "Mack-Angie," were also devised. Significant variations on the problem-solving and attitude posttests generally favored the preferredgender treatment over the mixed-protagonist group, but neither of these groups significantly differed from the nonpreferred gender group. Posttest results of problem-solving scores also revealed a gender effect in favor of girls, regardless of protagonist gender. Implications of that study to the present study are that personalization which allows for gender-based referents may benefit girls, but this is certainly not a foregone conclusion.

Vicarious Modeling

Schunk and Hanson (1989) conducted three experiments of peer modeling versus self-modeling on the cognitive skill learning of children nine to twelve years old. In experiment one, children classified by the school as low math-achievers were assigned to one of three conditions: 1) observing multiple peer models of the same gender solve fraction calculations (peer-modeling), 2) watching themselves solve calculations on videotape (self-modeling), and 3) a videotape control group. Results showed that both treatment conditions were significantly more effective than the control condition. In experiment two, the children either watched themselves on videotape work easier or more difficult problems. In this case, both conditions were significantly more effective than control conditions. In experiment three, children either watched tapes of the process of learning to perform calculations of fractions versus their performance after they had learned to perform the calculations. Significant results of the three experiments demonstrate that self-modeling is a significant method of modeling skill acquisition and in raising percepts of mathematics selfefficacy. In the present study, vicarious modeling is achieved by adapting the referents of the story protagonist to reflect several personal attributes of the learner.