Strategies to promote self-efficacy

Evaluation and Feedback Decriminalising error giving it a formative meaning (formative evaluation) Decriminalise the mistake by giving it a formative meaning. (E.g. - Provide formative evaluation/feedback to participants & Use revised exercises to identify the mistakes and learn how to solve them). Provide formative evaluation/feedback (Pajares, 2006). Providing personal feedback about their performance Provide memorable moments by making private feedback (Pajares, 2006). Providing private feedback in a personal encounter can be a powerful way of engendering attention and making a moment memorable. Persuading students about their own capabilities (praise when deserved) Praise students about their work emphasizing skill development, effort, perseverance and persistence rather than simply self-enhancement (Pajares, 2006). Praising effectively fosters the belief that competence or ability is a changeable, controllable aspect of development, and encourages effort, perseverance, and persistence as ways to overcome obstacles. Praise what is praiseworthy. Praising a young person for a job well done is an important way of showing encouragement and support. Providing praise when it is undeserved, however, in dishones, manipulative and potentially dangerous. Encouraging effort, perseverance and persistence Foster the belief that competence or ability is a changeable, controllable aspect of development, and encourage effort, perseverance, and persistence as ways to overcome obstacles. Praising for “smarts” tells young people that success is a matter of intellectual ability (which one either has or doesn’t have). Praising for effort tells people that the harder you work the more you accomplish and the smarter you get. Traditionally, building self-esteem through praise or self-persuasion methods has been done. Self-efficacy theorists shift the emphasis from self-enhancement to skill development—to raising competence through genuine success experiences with the performance at hand, through authentic mastery experiences.

Promoting self-regulation of their practeces (e.g. goal setting) Train students in self-regulation processes (Zimmermann & Cleary, 2006), Make self-regulatory practices automatic and habitual (Pajares, 2006). (E.g. goal setting, self-monitoring, and strategic planning). These practices can increase their confidence levels to perform specific tasks in school and their chances to succeed resulting in stronger self-efficacy and achievement in various areas. Helping Students interpret their own failures & successes adaptively Accomplishments are interpreted in light of one’s self-regulatory processes, such as self-evaluations, attributions, strategy use, and goal setting. For example, self-efficacy precepts depend on how an individual evaluates the circumstances and factors surrounding the accomplishments (Zimmermann & Cleary, 2006) Ensure that students’ interpretations of their successes are adaptive (Pajares, 2006). Young people invariably interpret their mastery experiences. This can lead to situations in which inappropriate interpretations can diminish the very self-efficacy beliefs required to push on in the face of adversity. Developing Students' interpretation of peers' inputs & skills (adequate comparison) Develop participants’ own internal standards for critically evaluating the inputs of peers (Pajares, 2006). Most children and adolescents will inevitably compare their skills and abilities with those of their friends and peers regardless of what well-meaning adults try to do to minimize or counter these comparisons. Young people should be helped to develop their own internal standards for evaluating their own outcomes.

Fragmenting difficult assignments into proximal challenges  Fragment difficult assignments into attainable challenges & set proximal rather than distal goals (Pajares, 2006). Proximal (short-term) goals are more easily digestible than are distal (long- term) goals.

At family level Engaging the family in STEAM Activities Develop collective efficacy of the family (Pajares, 2006) (e.g. implicate parents/relatives in STEAM activities with participants). Families too have a climate and “feel” generated from the collective action of their individual members. Fostering the collective efficacy of a family pays dividends both for parents and for children Parents and caregivers provide experiences that differentially influence children’s self-efficacy. Parents who provide an environment that stimulates youngsters’ curiosity and allows for mastery experiences help to build children’s self-efficacy (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Moreover, parents' beliefs that they can affect the course of their children's lives is a more influential contributor to beneficial guidance under disadvantaged conditions than under advantaged conditions, where resources, social supports, and neighbourhood controls are more plentiful (Bandura, 1995). However, many times parents do not feel capable of providing such experiences, having lower parental self-efficacy. Promoting partents' self-efficacy Nurture parents/relatives own self-efficacy in STEAM (e.g. conducting STEAM workshops addressed to parents) (Pajares, 2006). Influence between parents and teenagers is bidirectional: teenagers who display more curiosity and exploratory activities promote parental responsiveness and willingness to engage in such activities (Schunk & Pajares, 2002).

Promoting cooperative activities and good work environment Lower the competitive orientation of the activity and ensuring a good work environment (Pajares, 2006) (E.g. Development of cooperative activities, freeing the development of the activity, allowing participants to use a big range of materials... Foster optimism (Pajares, 2006). Non-competitive activities and schools are more likely to increase academic self-efficacy than are traditional and competitive structures (Pajares, 2006) The verbal and nonverbal judgements of others can play a critical role in the development of a young person’s self-confidence (Pajares, 2006). A good environment of work can less students’ stress (Pajares, 2006).

At teachers' level Developing teachers' confidence in affecting students' learning Nurture own teachers’ self-efficacy (Pajares, 2006). The confidence that teachers have in their capability to affect their students’ learning affects their instructional activities and their orientation toward the educational process.

Promoting peer models Promote exchanges between students, considering at least one of them as a peer model (e.g. Promote activities in group, mentoring…). This strategy imply the selection of appropriate peer models (Pajares, 2006), which is important so as to ensure that students view themselves as comparable in learning ability to the models. The verbal and nonverbal judgements of others can play a critical role in the development of a young person’s self-confidence (Pajares, 2006). Discussions between friends influence participants’ choices of activities, since friends often make similar choices. For example, students who begin high school with similar grades but who become affiliated with academically oriented crowds achieve better during high school than do students who become affiliated with less-academically oriented crowds (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Model similarity is potent among children and adolescents because models are similar in many ways and students at these developmental levels are unfamiliar with many tasks. Coping models, who display confidence and adaptation when confronting errors in learning are significantly more effective in sustaining students’ perceptions of self-efficacy than are mastery models who perform without errors (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Peer pressure rises during childhood and peaks around grade 8 or 9 but then declines through high school. A key time of influence is roughly between ages 12 and 16, a time during which parental involvement in children’s activities declines (Schunk & Pajares, 2002).

At classroom's level Promoting collective efficacy of the classroom Develop collective efficacy of the school/classroom/group (Pajares, 2006) (e.g. promote collaborative activities in which there the group has to work together to achieve the same thing). A low classroom’s, school’s or group's sense of collective efficacy in STEAM can undermine or enhance teenagers’ own sense of efficacy in STEAM. Develop collective efficacy of the school/classroom/group. The collective efficacy of a school is also related to the personal teaching efficacy of its teachers, as well as to their satisfaction with the school administration.

Promoting a role of the teacher as a guide

Promotion of emotional education Helping students read their feelings and overcome anxiety Help young people learn to “read” their feelings / emotional education (Pajares, 2006). Help young people read their own emotional feelings and teach them strategies to overcome anxiety. Children interpret their stress reactions and tension as signs of vulnerability to poor performance. In activities involving strength and stamina, people judge their fatigue, aches, and pains as signs of physical debility (Bandura, 1995). If a student gets extremely anxious during math activities, she may interpret her rapid heart rate or sweating palms as indicators of personal ineffectiveness (Zimmermann & Cleary, 2006)

At social level Engaging students in activities with social models that display confidence and adaptation to error Seeing people similar to themselves succeed by perseverant effort raises observers' beliefs that they, too, possess the capabilities to master comparable activities (Bandura, 1995). Conversely, observing others fail can lead students to believe that they lack the competence to succeed and dissuade them from attempting the task (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Model similarity is potent among children and adolescents because models are similar in many ways and students at these developmental levels are unfamiliar with many tasks. Coping models, who display confidence and adaptation when confronting errors in learning are significantly more effective in sustaining students’ perceptions of self-efficacy than are mastery models who perform without errors (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Role models are especially influential when they are perceived as similar to the observer, suggesting that interaction with female faculty members and advanced students in STEM would positively affect the self-efficacy of female STEM students. Indeed, research suggests that vicarious experience is a particularly powerful determinant of girls’ and young women’s STEM self- efficacy (Seymour, 1995; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000). Engage in effective exchange practices with social models (Pajares, 2006) (e.g. exchange with adults who good-naturedly admit their errors when they are pointed out, help teenagers understand that missteps are inevitable, that they can be overcome, and that even authority figures can make them…). Effective exchanges with social models are potent among teenagers, because models are similar in many ways and students at these developmental levels are unfamiliar with many tasks. Coping models, who display confidence and adaptation when confronting errors in learning are significantly more effective in sustaining students’ perceptions of self-efficacy than are mastery models who perform anything without errors.

Use tools that motivate and are proximal to students (ICT)

Challenging students' roles in the classroom Challenge students’ roles in the group by carrying out specific activities challenging it (Pajares, 2006).

Personalising the activity to students' capability (proximal learning objectives)  Personalize the activity to students’ capabilities/ Tailor instruction to the student’s capabilities (Pajares, 2006). Personalised activities and structures are more likely to increase academic self-efficacy than are traditional structures, since enable the student to feel confident about their success. (E.g. Adjusting the pace and/or adjusting the approach of an activity according to the learner's interests)