For this lesson we had to read a hand out about self-efficacy and self-concept. This lesson was quite interesting and opened my eyes to how important self-efficacy and self-concept really were.
EDUC 2130 – Lesson 11 – Social Cognitive and Constructivist Views of Learning
Evaluation
Describe the characteristics of Self-Efficacy and Self-Concept.
Self-efficacy is all about confidence. Peoples’ behavior is often predicted by the beliefs they hold about their own capabilities, instead of what they are capable of accomplishing. Individuals usually participate in activities in which they feel assured about and avoid the ones in which they do not. Self-concept is how an individual views themselves. Self-esteem can be raised, and also can be lowered. Self-concept is all about a person’s beliefs, hypotheses, and assumptions that are made about oneself.
Explain the difference between self-efficacy and self-concept.
Self-efficacy revolves around the questions that involve the word “can”, while self-concept reflect questions of “being” and “feeling”. Self-efficacy is a judgement confidence of oneself. Self-concept is a description of oneself, and it involves the evaluations of ones self-worth.
Which one is the most important – self-efficacy or self-concept?
Neither one is the most important. They both tie together in a way, so both are just as significant. Self-efficacy and self-concept aren’t the same thing, but I believe both come as a package in a way.
Explain how self-efficacy and self-concept can affect academic achievement.
For good academic achievement a student needs good self-efficacy and self-concept, because without these, grades could possibly suffer. Students need the confidence to get through school. Students need to view themselves as “one of the best” to get through school and to make the good grades that they need. A students’ self-esteem and self-confidence levels need to be high in order to make great grades because without these, they wouldn’t have the motivation and they wouldn’t believe in themselves.
Describe the term “Teacher’s sense of efficacy.” What does this mean to you?
Sense of efficacy in general is about your own beliefs about yourself, and your self-confidence level, so for teacher’s it’s the same thing. It’s about how teachers view themselves and how they can help their students achieve what needs to be achieved.
Who is generally perceived as more confident – girls or boys? Explain why this is the case.
The article states that boys are perceived as more confident than girls after reaching the high school years. In elementary school, they’re about equal, but during high school is whenever that changes. This is because girls are underestimating their academic capabilities and don’t believe in their selves.
Regarding the question above, explain how this perception compares with African Americans and Hispanics.
The self-efficacy perceptions among African Americans and Hispanics tend to be lower than their White peers. The motivation of African American students revealed that no matter the achievement failure they face, they always maintain a positive attitude. The same findings have been found about Hispanics.
Will you become a teacher who promotes self-concept? How will you do this?
I will become a teacher who promotes self-concept because it’s important how students view themselves. All students need a high self-esteem during school, starting at a young age because most likely it will follow them the rest of their lives. Since I will be teaching elementary school, I think it would be a good idea to have students draw portraits of themselves, while looking in a small mirror. This will let me see how they view themselves. I could also put students into small groups. In this group, all the students will start off by focusing on one student at a time naming at least one positive thing about that person. It will continue around the circle. This will help each student’s self-esteem and self-confidence.
The article lists some “educational implications”. Describe at least two (2) of these implications. What made you choose these two implications?
The first implication I chose was the one where it describes the “looking-glass self”. This starts at a really young age. Because children are too young to understand and can’t make accurate self-appraisals, they depend on the ones around them to judge their self-confidence and self-worth. Since this is the case, teachers and future teachers need to be careful of what they say and how they react to young children.
The second implication I chose is how students compare themselves to their peers. Sometimes this can be good, but other times it can hurt the student. When students see that they can do an activity better than a peer, it boosts their self-concept. But when students see that a peer is doing better than them, it’s lowered. I chose this because we need to understand that anything can boost or lower young students’ confidence and self-esteem levels.
Summary
This lesson was interesting and is very helpful. Knowing about self-efficacy and self-concept is very important and we as future teachers need to know how and what we need to do to help boost our students’ confidence and self-esteem as much as we can, so they can perform better academically.
Research Question
How can teachers help boost students’ self-confidence?
Reference(s): http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-build-student-confidence
Research Analysis
Confidence is a trait not everyone has. You either have it, or you don’t. Confident learners tend to speak up more in class, whereas the students who aren’t so confident have trouble speaking up, and are always questioning their abilities. But we as teachers have the opportunity to help our students become more confident about themselves, and we can do this by some simple strategies.
The first strategy is always praise your students for their accomplishments, in front of their classmates and in private. Always start off with everything that was right, then you can add on to what they need to work on. The second is don’t always correct them when what they are saying what is wrong. This won’t help boost their confidence, it will harm it. Thirdly, set goals that the students should accomplish throughout the year, this way students will know how far they have become from the beginning to the end. Another strategy is try to let your students choose what they want to learn today. Give them choices, and then let them pick.
Another strategy that will help boost students’ confidence is your (the teacher) attitude towards your students. Show all your students a positive attitude. This will show them that you are on their side, and they are worth your attention. Second, give your students the opportunity to explain what something is. For example, “I don’t know a whole lot about the new gaming system. Would anyone like to tell me how it works?” This will give your students the opportunity to teach you something, and it will boost their confidence. Encouraging your students to do better on the next assignments will help boost their confidence, also. Lastly, teachers who keep tabs on what each of their students are good at and what they need to work on, it helps monitor them and will help catch problems before they arise.
Research Summary
I thought my research was interesting. It’s always good to know how teachers can help with their students’ confidence levels. As a future teacher, I’m going to try to bring all of these strategies into my classroom because I want my students to be very confident in themselves, as well as their academic work.