Research Conversations: Develop Student Efficacy
Author: Leader in Me
February 13, 2025
Summary
In this episode, Kim Yaris and Jennifer Chevalier delve into the critical role of student self-efficacy—the belief in one’s ability to successfully achieve desired outcomes. Through engaging stories and research-based insights, they illustrate how self-efficacy shapes student motivation, learning, and long-term success. They also share practical strategies to help educators foster self-efficacy in students, highlighting four key factors: creating opportunities for success, providing meaningful encouragement, modeling positive behaviors, and managing stress and anxiety to build resilience.
Key Point 1
Students’ belief in their ability to succeed directly impacts their motivation, effort, and academic outcomes.
Key Point 2
Self-efficacy can be cultivated through deliberate actions, including providing mastery experiences, offering encouragement, modeling success, and normalizing failure.
Action Steps
To foster student self-efficacy, help students set personalized goals, praise students’ efforts and strategies, highlight both individual and collective achievement, and frame failure as an important step in the learning process. Use this staff booster to help faculty members further explore how to empower student success through self-efficacy.
