9: self-efficacy and self-regulation

Prompt: How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study.


Identifying with the social cognitive theory, self-efficacy and self-regulation are huge factors of my learning theory.

The article I found defines self-efficacy as "the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome." Obviously when a student's self-efficacy is higher, he or she is more likely to learn better and achieve more. It would be really beneficial to keep that idea in mind when planning interventions with Lisa. I assume that Lisa's self-efficacy is not too high in most areas of school. I would work to build it up by using some of the ideas below:

• Tailor tasks to Lisa's current self-efficacy level. Since students base self-efficacy on past successes and failures, I would want to provide her with a base of confidence, then build from there. This could start with providing some scaffolding earlier on, then gradually removing support as she grows. 
• Give Lisa reason to believe she can be successful. This would help her to gain confidence about her abilities and provide her with the support she needs. I might do this by pointing out her previous successes or just by affirming my confidence in her.
• Provide a way for Lisa to experience collective self-efficacy. Failure to perform well with her group could be damaging Lisa's self-efficacy even more, creating a cycle that continues her bad behavior. I would place her in a new group with a better group dynamic. Hopefully if it works well, Lisa would gain a greater self-efficacy when working with others.

In addition to self-efficacy, self-regulation would be important to keep in mind when dealing with intervention plans for Lisa. I think that this aspect of SCT would be the most effective in changing Lisa's behavior problems if well-implemented. Below I've listed a few strategies that could help turn things around.

• Let Lisa help set her own goals for how she should behave during cooperative learning. The book explains that students tend to be more motivated to work toward goals when they set them for themselves, instead of having goals imposed upon them. Letting Lisa create self-determined standards could give her some ownership over herself and her behavior.
• Provide a way for Lisa to control her emotions that could lead to poor behavior. This is the biggest problem area in the case study. Lisa gets very angry at her classmates when she doesn't get her way. In turn her behavior spirals out of control and she refuses to participate or pay attention. I would help Lisa find a strategy to calm her down before she reacts in such a way. It might also help to have a regular job rotation chart so that Lisa knows what job is hers that week.
• Have Lisa observe and record her behavior. The book explains that this can largely affect students' behavior. To implement this I could have Lisa mark every time she interrupts a classmate or displays a negative behavior. At the end Lisa could write a sentence about how she felt she did during the activity and what she could have done better. This would help by bringing awareness to the frequency of negative behaviors, and encompasses aspects of self-monitoring and self-evaluation.

This is a great page about self-efficacy in the classroom!
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html