If I have the belief that I can do it,
I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
Mahatma Gandhi
| If I have the belief that I can do it, Mahatma Gandhi |
Just existing thought in a new package?
Can you increase your academic performance by believing you can do better? Where do these beliefs originate and can you change them? An individual’s belief in their ability to succeed at a particular task (Bandura, 1986) is known as self-efficacy, and a huge amount of research has been carried out that indicates self-efficacy beliefs are related to actual performance.
A recent review of factors, including self-efficacy, that correlate with students’ academic success has been carried out by Richardson, Abraham & Bond (2012) who found that performance self-efficacy had a large positive correlation with GPA, so the concept of self-efficacy is of key importance in education. By understanding the sources of self-efficacy, this may give the opportunity for interventions aimed at helping students gain better academic outcomes.
A lot of the research on academic self-efficacy has looked at interventions in primary and secondary education, or domains in which problem solving abilities can be tested, such as science, techonology, engineering or maths (STEM). However, it is more useful if interventions are worthwhile across a range of academic domains and also in higher education; for this wiki, I have related the ideas in the literature to psychology. This allows you to make up your own mind about whether these would work for you. Alternatively, is it just tying up common sense, different psychological concepts, and existing good practice into a pretty package and calling it something new?
One paper I would recommend reading is:
Margolis, H. & Mccabe, P. P. (2006). Improving self-efficacy and motivation: what to do, what to say. Intervention in School and Clinic, 41(4), 218-227.
This paper is aimed at interventions in a school setting rather than university; however it gives a clear outline of self-efficacy together with practical guidance to educators that can be adapted to different tasks and disciplines. The key bullet points from the article are shown here.
It is important to understand that self-efficacy is different from a number of other constructs about the self, including self-confidence and self-esteem. Self-efficacy is task and domain specific.
Self-efficacy versus self-esteem: self-esteem refers to a person’s feeling of self-worth in general in contrast to self-efficacy that relates to a specific task.
Self-efficacy versus self-confidence: similarly, self-confidence is a more general belief in one’s own abilities rather than a belief relating to a specific task.
There are four sources of self-efficacy identified by Bandura, and both teachers and students can use strategies to increase self-efficacy by targeting interventions in these areas either individually or combined.
1. Mastery experience: this is the most robust source of self-efficacy, where students’ successful experiences raise beliefs about future performance.
2. Vicarious experience: watching others of a similar level of competence succeed at a task can strengthen belief in your own abilities
3. Social persuasion: increasing self-efficacy can be helped with appropriate praise and feedback
4. Physiological states: positive mental states can boost self-efficacy so minimising stress, anxiety and other negative states is beneficial.
From the point of view of the teacher
Mastery experience. Offer a range of alternative assignments to students so that they can select one which they feel they have the ability to perform well in. Use moderately difficult tasks. If the task is too easy, it will be boring, and may communicate the feeling that the teacher doubts their abilities; a too difficult task will reinforce low self-efficacy. The target for difficulty is slightly above the students' current ability level. A good example of this in psychology is having different research projects to choose from for the mini projects in level 3. A good performance in this assignment might enable students to have a higher level of belief in their ability to then successfully complete the maxi project in level 4.
Vicarious experience. Use peer models, where peers may be drawn from groups as defined by gender, ethnicity, social circles, interests, achievement level, clothing, or age. In an academic setting, encourage students to form study groups with classmates and practise tasks such as going over past exam papers and the intended learning outcomes for different modules. Also encourage students to attend activities such as peer-assisted learning where they are able to interact with students who have successfully completed their course.
Social persuasion. Teach specific learning strategies: give students a concrete plan of attack for working on an assignment, rather than simply letting them get on with it if they are unsure of what to do. This may apply to overall study skills, such as preparing for an exam, or to a specific assignment or project. Give them consistent, credible and specific encouragement, such as, "You can do this. We've set up an outline for how to write a lab report and a schedule for what to do each week - now follow the plan and you will be successful." Encourage accurate attributions; help students understand that they don't perform poorly because they're stupid, but because they didn't follow instructions, they didn't spend enough time on the task, or they didn't follow through on the learning strategy.
Physiological states. Be aware that students get stressed and anxious, particularly around exams, so encourage students to take time out from studying to continue with other activities that they find enjoyable. Make sure students are aware of any appropriate forms of advice.
From the point of view of the learner
Mastery experience.Doing well on a task suggests that there is no reason why you should not do well on a similar task in the future. 
Make sure you have an accurate recollection of previous experience rather than one that is negatively skewed. Try to reframe poorer performances in a positive way, such that you had not done sufficient work, rather than you do not have the ability for the task. Make a list of all the courses and tasks that you have succeeded at to remind yourself of what you have achieved so far.
Vicarious experience. Make the most of opportunities to discuss your studies with other students who have successfully completed the same course as well as classmates. Ask if you can read over their work and look at it from a critical perspective - what could be better? what did they do well? In study groups explain verbally to each other the key points for the topics you are studying as this will benefit both yourself and the listener by identifying areas where your understanding could be improved.
Social persuasion. Take on board any feedback that you are offered and consider carefully any suggestions that could help you with tasks in future. Look upon any critical comments as an opportunity to motivate yourself to improve your performance. How could this feedback apply to other areas, for example increasing critical thinking, or elaborating particular areas.
Physiological states. Be aware of how you are feeling. If you get extremely nervous at exams, try to remember that everyone gets nervous and some nerves are helpful. Practice breathing and relaxation techniques if you feel you are becoming stressed. Spend some time doing activities you enjoy rather than studying non-stop for weeks on end. Having a list of coping strategies already available will ensure that you feel prepared. During an exam, take a few moments to concentrate on your breathing and look up at the ceiling, this seems to help to reduce anxious thoughts.
An interesting example of a study that used a self-efficacy-based intervention was that by Breso, Schaufeli & Salanova (2011). The authors predicted that by improving students' ability to deal with exam anxiety, this would increase their levels of academic self-efficacy. Students were either in one of two control groups (stressed/non-stressed) or allocated to the intervention group which consisted of 4 months of cognitive behavioural therapy aimed at reducing students' anxiety levels. The treatment group did improve in self-efficacy with scores at follow-up above both of the control groups. Performance by the intervention group improved above that of the stressed control group, but not the healthy control group, however, the measure used for performance was the number of exams passed rather than GPA, as this was a Spanish study where there is less focus on GPA. Nonetheless, the results clearly identify that there are alternative ways of increasing self-efficacy rather than the more widely researched area of mastery experience, and that considering all of the sources of self-efficacy is worthwhile.
Not all research in self-efficacy has shown a positive relationship between higher self-efficacy and performance, so there are a number of caveats to bear in mind.
Appropriate level of self-efficacy. Having too high a level of self-efficacy may lead to a sense of complacency and a lack of motivation to engage in the necessary effort required to achieve a task. The ideal level of self-efficacy is to be slightly higher than your current ability, which creates an appropriate level of challenge. Having too low a level of self-efficacy can lead to a fear of failure and giving up at a task too quickly if you believe it is too difficult.
Task specific self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is both task and domain specific, suggesting that although a certain level of competence may translate across a range of tasks in the same domain, this does not necessarily indicate that there will be successful performance in each task. For example, in the domain of statistics, I may believe in my competence to carry out a t-test using SPSS, but this does not necessarily mean I can carry out a repeated measures mixed ANOVA using SPSS. Although, it does suggest that with some additional effort it is likely I may achieve the second task due to my self-efficacy belief related to statistics.
Accuracy of self-efficacy beliefs. It is also important to consider whether self-efficacy beliefs are accurate. If you are engaging in a task that is a novel experience, then you may not have had sufficient knowledge to make an accurate assessment of your self-efficacy relating to this task.
Correlational studies. Many of the studies carried out on self-efficacy are correlational, so what comes first, self-efficacy or improved performance? As feelings of confidence in task performance are reinforced by previous performance on similar tasks, this might suggest that you need to perform well first, however considering the points made in the above interventions, could allow gains in self-efficacy to be made for new tasks.
Other variables. There are numerous other variables (such as stress, anxiety, personality traits, culture, interest in the subject, competing priorities) that can impact on an individuals performance, so it is difficult to pick apart precise causal pathways in real academic situations, but this does not mean that the interventions discussed above should not be tried and modified to whatever works for the individual.
Self-efficacy links in to many other areas of psychology including motivation (e.g. Linnenbrink & Pintrich (2002)) , goal-setting (e.g. Latham & Brown (2006)) and mindsets (e.g. Dweck (2008)).
Setting tasks at a slightly higher level than current abilities - this sounds very like Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.
There also seems to be links in with cognitive therapy that individuals can use themselves, such as making accurate interpretations of events and their potential causes. Catastrophising about poor performance on tasks (I’m stupid, I’ll never be able to do this, I’ll always be a failure) can be a common reaction and more rational attributions would be to think about better ways to approach similar tasks in future. Does believing in doing better - an increase in self-efficacy - just mean changing the way you frame events?
What about people who have high feelings of self-efficacy but poor performance? This fits with the Dunning-Kruger effect of unskilled and unaware of it, and further development of self-awareness and competency is likely to reduce this effect, in other words, developing a realistic sense of self-efficacy. However, individuals who consistently perform well but have low feelings of self-efficacy - where mastery experience does not seem to be of benefit - would make an interesting group to look at in more depth (but is outwith the scope of this wiki!). Is this due to perfectionism? unrealistic expectations? lack of optimism? Clearly, as mentioned above, there are numerous other factors that impact on performance other than self-efficacy.
This site, based at Emory University in Atlanta, has a vast amount of information on self-efficacy. It includes background on Bandura's social cognitive theory, details on recent research in the field and a range of resources including books and what instruments there are that measure self-efficacy. Although it is a huge site, it is worth having a browse if you are interested in this field.
A 1996 paper by one of the main academics in this area is 'Self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings' by Frank Pajares which gives an excellent overview of this topic.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman.
Bandura, A. (2012). On the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy revisited. Journal of Management,38, 9-44.
Breso, E., Schaufeli, W. B. & SalanovaCan, M. (2011). A self-efficacy-based intervention decrease burnout, increase engagement, and enhance performance? A quasi-experimental study. Higher Education, 61(4), 339–355.
Dweck, C. S. (2008) The Perils and Promises of Praise. Best of Educational Leadership, 65, 34-39.
Kruger, J. & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–34.
Latham, G. P., & Brown, T. C. (2006). The effect of learning vs. outcome goals on self-efficacy, satisfaction and performance in an MBA program. Applied Psychology, 55, 606 – 623.
Linnenbrink & Pintrich (2002). Motivation as an Enabler for Academic Success. School Psychology Review, 31(3), 313-327.
Pajares, F. (1996). Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Academic Settings. Review of Educational Research, 66(4), 543-578.
Richardson, M., Abraham, C. & Bond, R. (2012). Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 353-387.
Introduction
Low self-efficacy beliefs cause motivational problems and self-fulfilling prophesies of failure that can damage psychological well-being, and lead to avoidant behaviours such as withdrawal from studying.
It is key to engage with struggling students and get them to believe they can succeed. As outlined in the main wiki page, the sources of self-efficacy are enactive mastery, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological reaction. The authors suggest that by changing what you do and say in a teaching role emphasising the first three of these sources will help to strengthen students’ self-efficacy.
What to do:
What to say:
My view on this? None of the above seems to be groundbreakingly new information, however it is perhaps the combination of all of them together that might make a difference. Although these points are aimed at school children, these can translate to higher education, in particular when dealing with small groups, for example tutorial groups, mini-project groups and lab sessions.