Student Self-Efficacy
The majority of people living in the developed world have experienced, to a certain extent, a degree of formal education which has been defined as “the process of training and developing people in knowledge, skills, mind, and character in a structured and certified program” (sil.org). Along with formal education comes the “No child left behind” NCLB act of 1965, an act which mainly focuses on the improvement of the learning experience for all students, both advantaged and disadvantaged. With these efforts to improve learning comes trying to improve achievement (self, 2009; Fast et al. 2010). Along with this growing concern for children’s achievement and how to enhance it, is Bandura’s proposed theory of self-efficacy. In 2001 Bandura defined the term self-efficacy as “a conception nurtured about his/her own personal power to achieve a given level of performance”. Self-efficacy, although similar to self-concept should be acknowledged as a mental state that is completely different than self-concept or self-esteem (Haddoune, 2008). As Haddoune noted, self-concept involves comparisons to others stimulated by a desire to out preform whereas self-efficacy is a mastery belief focusing on one’s own competencies; a desire to outperform oneself and succeed in a given domain (p.3). So why is this important? Because according to the encyclopedia of social psychology, self-efficacy translates to academic achievement, grade point average, motivation and the persistence through difficult tasks. For these reasons, identifying the key factors that contribute to self-efficacy would be in the best interest of both the teachers and in the best interests of the students (Haddoune, 2008). The research that will be discussed in the following paper all look at only a few of the many steps that teachers can follow to enhance their student’s self-efficacy, enrich their student’s classroom experience and overall improve academic achievement. Mastery beliefs have been one of the
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