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Unfortunately the converse is also true. If a student believes that he or she is in capable of math, then the student is less likely to attempt the math homework (perhaps telling himself, “What’s the use of trying?”), regardless of thestudent’s actual ability in math.
Since self-efficacy is self-constructed, furthermore, it is also possible for students to miscalculate or misperceive their true skill, and themisperceptions themselves can have complex effects on students’ motivations. From a teacher’s point of view, all is well even if studentsoverestimate their capacity but actually do succeed at a relevant task anyway, or if they underestimate their capacity, yet discover that they can succeed and raise their self-efficacy beliefs as a result. All may not be well, though, if students do not believe that they can succeed and therefore do noteven try, or if students overestimate their capacity by a wide margin, but are disappointed unexpectedly by failure and lower their self-efficacy beliefs.
A second effect of high self-efficacy is to increase persistence at relevant tasks. If you believe that you can solve crossword puzzles, but encounter onethat takes longer than usual, then you are more likely to work longer at the puzzle until you (hopefully) really do solve it. This is probably a desirablebehavior in many situations, unless the persistence happens to interfere with other, more important tasks (what if you should be doing homework instead of working on crossword puzzles?). If you happen to have low self-efficacy forcrosswords, on the other hand, then you are more likely to give up early on a difficult puzzle. Giving up early may often be undesirable because it deprivesyou of a chance to improve your skill by persisting. Then again, the consequent lack of success because of giving up may provide a useful incentive to improve your crossword skills. And again, misperceptions ofcapacity make a difference. Overestimating your capacity by a lot (excessively high self-efficacy) might lead you not to prepare for or focus on a taskproperly, and thereby impair your performance. So as with choosing tasks, the effects of self-efficacy vary from one individual to another and one situationto another. The teacher’s task is therefore two-fold: first, to discern the variations, and second, to encourage the positive self-efficacy beliefs.The following table offers some additional advice about how to do this.
| Strategy | Example of what the teacher might say |
| 1. Set goals with students, and get a commitment from them to reach the goals. | “By the end of the week, I want you to know be able to define these 5 terms. Can I count on you to do that?” |
| 2. Encourage students to compare their performance with their own previous performance, not with other students. | “Compare that drawing against the one that you made last semester. I think you’ll find improvements!” |
| 3. Point out links between effort and improvement. | “I saw you studying for this test more this week. No wonder you did better this time!” |
| 4. In giving feedback about performance, focus on information, not evaluative judgments. | “Part 1 of the lab write-up was very detailed, just as the assignment asked. Part 2 has a lot of good ideas in it, but it needs to be more detailedand stated more explicitly.” |
| 5. Point out that increases in knowledge or skill happen gradually by sustained effort, not because of inborn ability. | “Every time I read another one of your essays, I see more good ideas than the last time. They are so much more complete than when you started theyear.” |
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