| Self-efficacy beliefs play an important role in students' motivation and learning. Self-efficacy beliefs, as defined by Albert Bandura (1997), are one's beliefs that he can succeed in a specific task. Research shows that students with high self-efficacy beliefs are more motivated to learn, attempt more challenging tasks, and are more persistent in the particular tasks in which their beliefs are high.
Bandura explains that four factors contribute to one's self-efficacy beliefs. The first and most influential factor is past performances. A student who has several past successes on algebra problems, for example, is more likely to have high self-efficacy beliefs on future algebra assignments. While past failures are thought to lower self-efficacy beliefs.
The second factor that Bandura cites is vicarious observation. This means to say that if a student sees his peers who he judges to be on a similar level as himself succeeding on a particular task then this will help strengthen his self-efficacy beliefs regarding the particular task. However, if the student has already experienced several failures on this very task, then viewing others' successes is unlikely to strengthen his own self-efficacy beliefs.
The third factor that influences self-efficacy beliefs is verbal persuasion. Students who are encouraged by their parents and teachers, for example, are more likely to believe in their abilities to succeed on a particular task. As mentioned before however, if there is a history of past failures, then the verbal persuasion is unlikely to strengthen the self-efficacy beliefs.
The final factor, which influences the self-efficacy beliefs according to Bandura, is physiological indexes. In other words, the way one's body reacts to the given task also sends signals, which influence one's belief regarding the likelihood of success on the given task. If one feels "butterflies in his stomach" or sweaty palms, this may be interpreted as a sign of an impending failure which will likely lower the person's self-efficacy beliefs.
Now that we've explained in general the main idea of self-efficacy beliefs, we can see how they affect motivation and learning. A student who has experienced past successes on algebra problems, for example, and receives encouragement from his parents and teachers will most likely have high self-efficacy beliefs for algebra tasks. He will be more motivated to learn algebra and even if presented with challenging problems will persist to try to solve the problems. In this way he also advances his knowledge of algebra and has higher achievements.
The question is, does this model work with students with learning disabilities as well? If we as parents and educators can simply find a way to raise beliefs of our children with learning disabilities, will they be more motivated to learn? Will they have more academic success?
Robert Klassen (2002, 2007) studied how self-efficacy beliefs correspond to academic achievement in adolescents with learning disabilities. He found in a three-part study that adolescents with learning disabilities consistently overestimated their academic performance. This means to say that even though they expressed relatively optimistic beliefs in successfully completing particular tasks, they consistently performed lower than their level of beliefs. In addition, after interviewing these students, they remained adamant that they didn't overestimate their beliefs.
Klassen offers two explanations for this phenomenon. The first is that these adolescents still lack a significant level of meta-cognitive understanding, i.e., knowledge of how to learn and ability to assess one's own learning. These students do not interpret continued failures on a particular task, as a sign that they do not have the requisite skills to successfully complete the task. Studies show that adolescents with learning disabilities do develop these skills eventually, but later than their peers. The second explanation that Klassen offers is that these students are using a defense mechanism to protect their self-esteem. Instead of accepting a position of "I can't" they persist to express at least relatively positive beliefs concerning their ability to successfully complete future tasks.
Based on interviews with these students, Klassen explains that these students maintain their relatively positive beliefs since they attribute their failures to an unstable factor, i.e., effort. They say that they didn't try on the task and if they would have tried then they are confident that they would have succeeded. Attributing failures to an unstable cause such as effort is considered more adaptive than contributing the failure to a stable cause such as a lack of ability in terms of maintaining motivation. Is this a positive phenomenon that the students with learning disabilities are maintaining positive self-efficacy beliefs despite repeated failures?
Bandura (1997) explains that although positive self-efficacy beliefs are related to increased motivation and academic success, these beliefs should be relatively accurate. Inaccurate self-efficacy beliefs, despite being positive, can lead to a lack of preparation for tasks and actually contribute to academic failure. Even though in general it is positive to contribute academic failures to an unstable cause, such as a lack of effort as this maintains positive self-efficacy beliefs, but if the beliefs are overestimated than maintaining them is not a positive outcome.
Researchers suggest that in children with learning disabilities it is important to broaden the range of possible attributions of causes of success and failure. There are more options than effort or ability. These researchers suggest that in students with learning disabilities it is important that they attribute success or failure to strategy use. Students with learning disabilities, in general, have the ability to succeed in school tasks and as the teachers who were interviewed by Klassen report also invest considerable effort, but what is lacking is the acquisition of successful learning and task completion strategies. Attributing success to strategy use helps accurately strengthen self-efficacy beliefs. Further, contributing failure to a lack of appropriate strategy use is an unstable cause that doesn't damage the student's self-esteem and may even motivate the students to acquire the necessary strategies.
Self-efficacy beliefs are important in the learning and motivation of students with learning disabilities. The key is making sure their self-efficacy beliefs are accurate and a bit more. One of the factors that influence self-efficacy beliefs further than the actual failure or success of previous attempts of the task, is to which cause the student attributes the success or failure. Researchers have shown that it is more adaptive for students with learning disabilities to contribute their successes or failures to strategy use rather than a lack of effort or ability. This requires a certain measure of meta-cognitive understanding, but with time and practice this skill can be gained as well. |
