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The Effect of Self-efficacy and Motivation in Students’ Performance

Presented to

Prof. Anthony Fiorelli

Dowling College

In Partial Fulfillment for

EDU 5152: Foundations of Teaching and Learning in Inclusive Adolescence Education

Claudia Palmer

April 19, 2010

The Effect of Self-efficacy and Motivation in Students’ Performance

Recently there has been much interest in individual success. “Self-help” books have become

common, and people have shown a general desire to improve their lives, mainly through terms

of financial or professional success. The beliefs that trusting that one can accomplish

educational success improve the chances at accomplishing that success. Yet, most knowledge

concerning these beliefs tends to focus on “the bigger picture,” emphasizing the benefits of

positive thinking throughout a person’s life. Self-efficacy is the belief that one is capable of

performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals.

Albert Bandura coined the theory of self-efficacy and proposed a model in which

“expectations of personal efficacy are derived from four principal sources of information:

performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and psychological

states” (Bandura p.191, 1977). In this study, Bandura explored these four sources for

expectancies along with theories on the actual way self-efficacy functions. He proposed that

discrepancies between expectations and outcomes (cognitive dissonance) motivate individuals

to reduce those discrepancies. This often leads to an individual’s increase in his or her attempts

to achieve their goals (Bandura, 1977). It can be deduced that simply expecting to perform well

will increase that person’s motivations, and therefore actions to perform accordingly.

Bandura (1977) considered a person’s ‘psychological state’ to be one of the factors that

influence expectations regarding performance. For example, if students do not expect to

perform well, they are more likely to attribute their success or failure to the difficulty of the

task, or mere luck instead of their own ability to perform the task. If expectations and outcomes

correlate, students tend to feel more secure confident in their own capabilities, and motivated to

learn, or in the words of Bandura, in their self-efficacy. Self-efficacy perceptions and beliefs are
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communicated by emotional and physiological states such as fatigue, stress, and anxiety. Eccles

et al. (1984) refers to the changes that students experience when they suffer the transition from

elementary to middle school. The main changes in these years are related with ability

comparison, increase in testing and homework and decrease in teacher-student interaction.

Anxiety can mislead a student to interpret his experiences as signs of lack of ability and

furthermore a decrease in self-esteem. However, a good mood and positive perception raise

self-efficacy, beliefs, motivation and consequently, academic achievements. Teachers need to

create a quality classroom environment by encouraging, listening, respecting, accepting and

trusting their students.

Pajares (1997) writes that “self-efficacy provides the foundation for human motivation” (p.

2). By this he means that if you think you can do it, you can. If you don’t think that your actions

will produce the outcome that you want, then you will have little motivation for doing these

actions. Self-efficacy beliefs come from a student’s previous experience; however, students’

self-efficacy beliefs can also be influenced by others. Vicarious experiences, role models, verbal

messages, and social persuasion also influence self-efficacy (Schunk and Pajares, 2005). All

these authors and their theories provide good ideas for helping students develop self-efficacy.

For example, studies have shown that students who develop short term goals, which allow for

them to see their progress, develop stronger self-efficacy than students who set long-term goals.

These students are more capable to monitor their work, more efficient in problem solving and

more persistent than their equally able peers with a lower self-efficacy. We can certainly help

students in this area. Writing assignments where students reflect on their successes help build

self-efficacy. Students who set their own goals develop increased confidence and are more

motivated to achieving their goals. Students, who are given immediate and frequent feedback,
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especially when it is attributed to their effort, are more likely to experience stronger motivation.

Teachers who model coping skills rather than mastery skills help students understand that

mistakes are inevitable and can be overcome. Moreover, a classroom structure that is less

focused on competition and avoids unearned praise also promotes self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy increases as one’s performances repeatedly meet that person’s expectation.

Meanwhile, the disappointment of unexpected results, whether good or bad, will reduce that

person’s self-efficacy. Overall, the benefits of self-efficacy are derived through changes in the

individual’s behavior toward self and environment. Self-efficacy is related with behavior

change as it has been pointed by Lenz and Shortridge-Baggett (2002) when they said that “Self-

efficacy is the most important predictor of change in behavior” (p.63). There are several ways

that a person’s self-efficacy can be influenced, yet, self-efficacy is not a ‘cure-all’ per se, it is an

individual’s active manipulation of not only their own actions, but their decisions on what

aspects of their lives to act upon. As teachers, we need to allow students to find their own way

to decide whether or not they are interested on learning. One way is by reducing stress in the

classroom and by emphasizing “students’ real achievement” rather than test scores. It is

believed that when a person is convinced that he or she will accomplish a task they will exert

themselves until the outcome meets their expectations. On the other hand, if failure is

anticipated, that person will be less fearful of performing poorly, and therefore not produce as

much effort on a task they find difficult. We can apply this idea to the way the standardized and

classroom tests are constructed. When items in the test not only meet the content objectives but

are also arranged in proper order of difficulty we are allowing students to perform at their

normal level, avoiding student’s frustration and the anticipated feeling of failure.

Bandura (1989) proposed another set of distinctions within self-efficacy in regards to goal
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orientation: “… a personal goal setting is influenced by self-appraisal of capabilities” (p.1175). By

this he means that students with low self-efficacy are more prone to seek ‘performance goals,’

while those with high self-efficacy seek ‘mastery goals.’ Those who choose performance goals

tend to focus on demonstrating competence to oneself and others, or in other words, they seek to

improve the illusion of self-efficacy. Mastery oriented individuals are looking to improve their

skills. In both scenarios it is apparent that each individual seeks to improve their self-efficacy, yet

performance oriented people will choose easier tasks out of fear of failure, while mastery oriented

people will continue trying in order to gain skills, not simply to achieve a goal. Teachers that

emphasize mastery over performance help students improve their self-efficacy and strengthen their

intrinsic motivation. Bandura (1997) considered that the most powerful source of self-efficacy is

how students interpret the results of their mastery experience. When students finish an academic

task and they believe that their efforts have been successful, their confidence to accomplish similar

or related tasks is raised. However, when they believe that their efforts failed to produce the effect

desired, confidence to succeed in similar activities is diminished. Experienced mastery in a

domain often has long-term effects on one's self-efficacy. Students' reported mastery experiences

consistently predict their self-efficacy across domains (Britner & Pajares, p.486, 2006).

Students who have earned top marks in science throughout school will typically believe

themselves capable in this area for years to come and choose a professional career accordingly. A

mastery experience is the most influential source of the information that students use to create and

develop their self-efficacy beliefs because this experience contains the most authentic evidence as

to whether students can master subsequent tasks in a related field.

The social model plays a powerful role as a source of self-efficacy and in its development,

especially when students are uncertain about their own abilities or have limited experience with the
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academic task at hand. When compare themselves to particular individuals such as classmates and

adults, as students make judgments about their own academic capabilities, they may change their

beliefs in a positive or negative way. As Bandura (1997) observed, "people are not about to discard

information that makes them more efficacious just because it comes from a dissimilar source" (p.

101). In fact, students will search for a model skilled at tasks to which they aspire, particularly one

with status, power, and prestige (Bandura, 1997). And, although vicarious experiences often occur

between every day acquaintances such as classmates or family members, the role of television and

other media has brought symbolic models to students' fingertips (Bandura, 2004). Such models can

convey attitudinal vicarious information to youngsters about how to approach school, peers, and

parents.

Verbal and social persuasions that students receive from others serve as a third source of self-

efficacy. Encouragement from parents, teachers, and peers whom students trust can boost students'

confidence in their academic capabilities. When they are not yet skilled at making accurate self-

appraisals, students often depend on others to provide evaluative feedback and judgments about

their academic performance. Positive reinforcements and verbal praise are two elements that all

teachers should use to improve self- esteem, self-efficacy and motivation. However, social

persuasions may be limited in their ability to enhance self-efficacy. It may actually be easier to

undermine an individual's self-efficacy through social persuasions than to enhance it, particularly

in the formative years during which youngsters carefully attend to the messages they receive from

those close to them (Bandura, p.193, 1997). When students’ attributions of their mediocre

performance are accepted by the teacher, then low self-efficacy has also been induced. The teacher

in this case is contributing to a negative cycle in which there is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One of the most commonly used forms of advice is for a person to be confident in themselves.
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To have confident expectations in one’s own future performance is the first step to performing

well. If one believes one is capable of doing well, that person will find the way to accomplish that.

In a stress-free environment, it will be easier for students to envision themselves performing well.

However, in a stressful and competitive environment like most of the schools today, it is likely for

some students to assume that he or she would not do well. Our expectations represent what we

believe to be attainable, if someone has confidence that they will do well, they will strive to behave

in ways that will create proper results. If that same person expects to do poorly, then they are more

likely to fail. Here is when verbal persuasion used in a positive way can create the right

environment for the student to success in his or her accomplishments.

Despite consistent correlations with self-efficacy, social persuasions have not proven predictive

of self-efficacy across all contexts. Other researchers found that social persuasions predicted

mathematics self-efficacy for students in advanced algebra but not for those in geometry. Social

persuasions have predicted the academic and self regulatory efficacy beliefs (Usher & Pajares,

2006) but not the writing efficacy beliefs of middle school students (Pajares et al., 2007). Even

though, verbal persuasion seems to be less influential in a student self-efficacy, other researchers’

findings reveal some differences between genders in science and math domains. Zeldin and Pajares

(2000) asked women who excelled at careers in mathematics, science, and technology to describe

the people, events, and situations that influenced their career paths. Vicarious experience and social

persuasions influenced women's confidence in these male-dominated fields. The messages women

received from those whose opinions they held in high regard served as important contributors to

women's personal efficacy beliefs. In a follow-up investigation, Zeldin et al. (in press) investigated

the sources of men's self-efficacy beliefs in the mathematics and science fields and found that men

relied on their personal accomplishments when describing the basis for their confidence. They
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spoke of their natural abilities, inclinations, or talents in mathematics, science, and technology.

Research on stereotype threat suggests that when a student's social identity is tagged with a

negative stereotype the student tends to underperform in a manner consistent with the stereotype

(see Aronson & Steele, 2005). Less research has focused on the processes through which such

stereotypes operate, particularly as regards students' self-efficacy beliefs. Individuals often assume

that characteristics such as educational and socioeconomic level, race, gender and ethnic

designation are accurate indicants of academic capabilities, even when individuals within these

groups vary widely in their performance capabilities (Bandura, 1997). When young people form

such preconceptions, they are likely to pay more attention to vicarious influences or to social

persuasions than to information from other sources. In ESL classrooms I observe firsthand how

these preconceptions can undermine students’ self-esteem and self-efficacy while they compare

themselves with the school general population. In particular, students whose countries of origin are

Mexico and other countries of Central America demonstrate a lower level of self-efficacy and

academic success compared with same academic ability level students from other countries.

Albert Bandura (1977) explored the four basic principle sources of self-efficacy: performance

accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and psychological states. Some studies

proposed that individuals fit into two categories of orientation, goal and mastery. A goal oriented

person will exceed at easy tasks, while mastery oriented individuals will work hard to succeed at

difficult tasks. Teachers, who provide students with tasks that are within their “range of

competence”, use prior knowledge as a stepping stone for new skills, decrease social comparison

(performance goals) and increase understanding, contribute to improve aspects of self-efficacy and

help to build a more positive attitude toward learning.

Although there is certainly a need for additional research on how specific changes in the
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classroom situation influence multiple aspects of students' rnotivation in school, it is demonstrated

from what is known that the learning environment shapes students' motivation, engagement,

strategy use, and achievement. Therefore, teachers and school psychologists are urged to focus on

changes that can be made to the school or classroom environments to help all students to improve

their skills and perceptions about their performance, rather than citing lack of motivation for a

particular student as a reason for lower than expected academic performance.

The aforementioned studies explored differing aspects of self-efficacy and sought to quantify

the long term benefits of high self-efficacy. The rich and often complex relationship among the

sources of self-efficacy and between the sources and other environmental contingencies may create

situations in which any given source is neither most influential nor especially predictive of self-

efficacy in a particular context or with a particular group. Some students may be frequently

verbally persuaded by their teachers. If, however, their perception is that their ability is "preset”,

they are unlikely to bring in the benefits of the persuasions. If Bandura (1997) is correct that self-

efficacy beliefs constitute the key factor of human performance, it is necessary to investigate the

origins of these beliefs and the factors that either nurture or deteriorate them. In the future, more

research on the effects of verbal persuasion in students ‘performance will make substantive

contributions to educational theory, thinking, practice, and policy.

References
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Aronson, J., & Steele, C. M. (2005). Stereotypes and the fragility of academic competence,

motivation, and self-concept. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of

competence and motivation (pp. 436-456). New York: Guilford Press.

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.

Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

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

Bandura, A. (2004). Social cognitive theory for personal and social change by enabling

media. In A. Singhal, M. J. Cody, E. M. Rogers, & M. Sabido (Eds.), Entertainment

education and social change: History, research, and practice (pp. 75-96). Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum.sBritner, S. L., & Pajares, F. (2006). Sources of science self-efficacy

beliefs of middle school students. Journal for Research in Science Teaching, 43, 485-499.

Eccles, J. S., Midgley, C, & Adler, T. (1984). Grade-related changes in the school environment:

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CT: JAI Press.

Lenz, E.R. & Shortridge-Baggett, L.M. (2002) Self-efficacy in nursing. New York. Springer.

Pajares, F. (1997). Current directions in self-efficacy research. In M. Maehr & P. R. Pintrich

(Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement (Vol. 10, pp. 1-49). Greenwich, CT: JAI

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Pajares, F., Johnson, M. J., & Usher, E. L. (2007). Sources of writing self-efficacy beliefs of

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104-120.
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Schunk, D. H., & Pajares, F. (2005). Competence beliefs in academic functioning. In A. J. Elliot

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