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Self-efficacy beliefs are evaluations people make about their capability to handle specific, future challenges. Self-efficacy belief levels predict actual success. Public school principals face ever-changing challenges. Understanding school principal self-efficacy beliefs and supporting the development of these beliefs is one way supervisors can help the future effectiveness of school principals. There are four main sources of information used to develop self-efficacy beliefs. These four sources of information are: mastery learning, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. This multiple case study research examined the factors that influenced self-efficacy beliefs of elementary school principals prior to facing a personally meaningful challenge. The overall research question was: What Factors Attend to the Domains of Self-Efficacy Belief Formation in School Principals? The purpose of the research was to understand what information influenced the mindsets of principals as they formed their initial self-efficacy beliefs prior to facing a personally meaningful challenge. / Ed. D.

The purpose of the study is to describe the current status of and the relationships between teacher self-efficacy and in-service teachers’ perceptions and/or attitudes of (a) the quantity and quality of feedback from formative evaluation, (b) toward feedback from formative evaluation, and (c) the impact of feedback from formative evaluation on teacher self-efficacy. In addition to calculating correlation coefficients, 6 teachers were interviewed – 2 each from high, medium, and low efficacy schools. The quantitative data reported low, positive correlations between all of the factors. Statistically significant correlations were found between 8 of the 12 factors including teacher attitudes toward feedback from formative evaluation and: overall Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (r = .302), student engagement (r = .309), instructional strategies (r = .237) and classroom management (r =.266). Other statistically significant correlations were found between teacher perceptions of the impact of feedback from formative evaluation and its relationship to self-efficacy and: overall Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (r = .295), Student Engagement (r = .300), Instructional Strategies (r = .209), and Classroom Management (r = .282). The face-to-face interviews and online focus group supported the quantitative findings as the participants reported that they value formative evaluation and feedback and deem it a necessary component of professional growth. Participants felt that they would benefit from an increased number of formative evaluations followed by specific, frequent and positive feedback. The participants indicated that their self-efficacy was not negatively impacted by infrequent observations and/or feedback that lacks detail.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att kartlägga källor till self-efficacy hos individuella idrottare med hjälp av self-efficacy teorin och pyramid för prestation. Följande frågeställningar har besvarats: (A) vilka källor använder individuella idrottare vid hög self-efficacy (B) Vilka källor använder individuella idrottare vid låg self-efficacy? och (C) Vilken är relationen mellan self-efficacy och prestation? Tio semistrukturerande intervjuer genomfördes på tio individuella idrottare (5 manliga och 5 kvinnliga) i ålder 18-27 år. Resultaten visade att tidigare erfarenheter var den största källan till ökat self-efficacy. Uttryck som "tränat bra innan" och "bra förberedelse" använder intervjupersonerna för att beskriva denna källa. "Prestationsångest" och "press på mig själv" utryckdes bland intervjupersonerna i det känslomässiga tillståndet som var den största källan vid lågt self-efficacy. I sambandet mellan self-efficacy och prestation kan ett mönster presenteras, högt self-efficacy ger framgångsrik prestation och lågt self-efficacy ger misslyckad prestation. / The purpose of this study was to examine the sources to self-efficacy among individual sportathletes based on self-efficacy theory and the high performance pyramid.  The objectives were to examine: (A) sources individual sportathletes uses in high self-efficacy (B) sources of individual athletes in low self-efficacy (C)  the relationship between self-efficacy and performance. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten individual athletes (five men and five women) in age 18 - 27. The results showed that past experience was the major source of high self-efficacy with expressions such as "trained well before" and "good preparation" used the most by the participants. "Performance anxiety" and "external pressure” were the largest source of low self-efficacy. Examining the relationship between self-efficacy and performance revealed two pattern, high self-efficacy in 90 % cases is associated with successful performance and low self-efficacy in 80% cases is associated with poor performance.

Minorities are underrepresented in the science workforce yet adequately represented as players of computer games. Findings in career development research suggest that a decision to pursue a science career is directly impacted by a person’s investigative self-efficacy. Because minority students choose to spend a significant amount of time playing computer games this study examines the effects of computer games on investigative self-efficacy. The dissertation is composed of a systematic literature review, the development of a theoretical framework, and an application of the theoretical framework in a quasiexperimental study. In the systematic literature review, the small-to-moderate effect sizes of the 6 systematically identified studies suggest that elements in computer games can potentially affect self-efficacy. Unfortunately, the similarities across the small number of studies makes it difficult to generalize the results to other settings and content areas while variability across the studies makes it difficult to pinpoint which computer game elements or type of computer games affect self-efficacy. An exploration of theories and empirical research in cognitive psychology, career development, and performance in complex environments led to a theoretical framework. The theoretical framework integrates attention, flow, and self-efficacy theories as well as the results of Berry and Broadbent’s (1988) study that compared the effects of implicit and explicit instructions on performance. Using the theoretical framework developed in this dissertation, stealth educational games are proposed as an option for building the investigative self-efficacy of unmotivated or academically struggling learners. The effect of stealth educational games on minority students’ investigative selfefficacy was explored. Based on the statistical results in this study and the differences across each of the schools, the potential value of stealth educational games is still unknown. Future research should employ theory to systematically document and define the context in which the game is delivered, incorporate assessments built into the game instead of using surveys, include incentives for student participation and obedience, and compare the effects of a stealth educational game to an explicitly educational game.

Background: Health Canada recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months postpartum with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond. While 88% of Canadian mothers initiate breastfeeding, only 70% of mothers continue to do so at 4 weeks postpartum and only 14% are exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months. Breastfeeding self-efficacy is a potentially modifiable variable that has been associated with mothers’ breastfeeding practices. The Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (Short-Form) is an instrument that could potentially identify women with low breastfeeding self-efficacy during the in hospital period. Purpose: To describe the breastfeeding practices of new mothers in the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington area and to assess the association between in-hospital scores on the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (Short-Form) and duration of breastfeeding. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of a dataset from the 2008 Infant Feeding Survey, a prospective study of 463 mothers with 12-month longitudinal follow-up. Data were weighted according to the maternal age distribution of the general population of new mothers. Breastfeeding practices were described using Kaplan-Meier survival distributions. Four outcomes were described: ‘exclusive breastfeeding from birth’, ‘exclusive breastfeeding from discharge’, ‘high breastfeeding’, and ‘any breastfeeding’. Using logistic regression, scores from the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (Short-Form) were assessed for association with duration of ‘exclusive breastfeeding from birth’ and duration of ‘any breastfeeding’ (dichotomized as ‘less than 6 weeks’ and ‘6 weeks or beyond’). Results: The sample was highly educated (75% had post-secondary education) and reported high levels of household income (37% reported >$80,000/year). Six percent of mothers exclusively breastfed to 6 months. Close to one quarter (24%) of women sustained some extent of breastfeeding for 12 months. The relationship between scores on the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (Short-Form) and duration of ‘exclusive breastfeeding from birth’ and the relationship between self-efficacy scores and duration of ‘any breastfeeding’ were identical (OR = 1.05) and non-significant (95% CI 1.0-1.1). Conclusion: This study did not show a significant relationship between in-hospital scores on the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (Short-Form) and duration of breastfeeding. Given the high socioeconomic status of women in this study, further studies are warranted to confirm these results. / Thesis (Master, Community Health & Epidemiology) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-06 14:46:41.103

Ability grouping has been prevalent in American schools for over a century (Burris & Welner, 2005; Museus, Palmer, Davis & Maramba, 2011; Slavin, 1990). Although ability grouping has been studied in terms of student performance, little research has examined the relationship between this practice and student motivation. The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ (N = 2,279) mathematics self-efficacy and its sources in ability grouped mathematics courses in the Southeastern U.S. The study also examined whether students in each ability group were represented proportionately by gender, ethnicity, and SES when compared to the full sample. Students responded to Likert scaled items assessing self-efficacy and its four sources (Bandura, 1997). Tests of mean differences in self-efficacy and its sources revealed that students in above-level courses reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy than students in on- and below-level courses. Regression analysis revealed that mastery experiences, social persuasions, and negative physiological state predicted self-efficacy for above- and on-level students. Only mastery experiences and vicarious experiences predicted mathematics self-efficacy for below-level students. Results imply that teachers who work with students who are struggling in mathematics may find it beneficial to provide ample opportunity to expose students to models in mathematics.

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Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 87 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995. / Chairperson: E. Scott Geller. Includes bibliographical references.