“How self-efficacy sustains itself”
How a student perceives their self-efficacy, that is “the
anticipation of success based on one’s own competencies” greatly influences their motivation to
learn. Perceptions of self-efficacy are
related to academic performance. Self-efficacy depends on previous experiences of
success in academic tasks. Educational
researchers Sitzmanna and Yeo found that self-efficacy was a product of
performance on previous experiences and not the driving force behind it. If a student perceives himself to have high
self-efficacy it can affect their performance in a positive way. Likewise, if a student’s perceived
self-efficacy is low, it can negatively affect their quality of studying and
thereby affect their academic performance.
This can lead to a cycle which can lead to high or low achievement.
The article mentioned that according to Zimmerman’s
cyclical-interactive theoretical model of self-regulated learning, there are
three phases a student goes through: a forethought phase, a performance phase
and a self-reflection phase. In the
forethought phase, students estimate their self-efficacy on a certain
task. They assess what it will take to
complete the task. It is in this phase
that procrastination occurs as the students assess whether or not they fell
adept to complete the task and they may perceive their goal achievement level
as being pretty low. In the performance phase, students who are highly self-efficacious
will use cognitive learning strategies at their disposal which will help them
to succeed in completing the task successfully.
On the other hand, if the student
doesn’t have many learning strategies, and if he or she anticipates failure,
they may become tempted to avoid this failure to the point of avoiding the task
altogether. Such actions would then lead
to a cycle repeated failure which could leave some students vulnerable and
unable to self-regulate their learning. In
the self-reflection phase students perceptions are then reshaped. Students who have a high degree of goal
achievement due to their high level of perceived self-efficacy and their
experiences of success will become more motivated when it comes to taking on
new challenges.
Allgaier A., Fink S., Lachner A., Nückles M. Wäschle
K., Procrastinating and self-efficacy: Tracing
vicious and virtuous circles in self-regulated learning. Learning and Instruction 29 (2014) 103-
114, Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2013.09.005