Self-efficacy is an individual’s judgment of the relative probability of her or his likely success in attaining desired outcomes (Bandura, 1977). For teachers, efficacy beliefs serve as an assessment of their own abilities to promote student learning. Efficacy beliefs are content-specific and are believed to form early in teachers’ professional careers. While studies on teachers’ sense of efficacy have examined content areas such as math and science (Mulholland & Wallace, 2001; Riggs & Enochs, 1990), very little research has been conducted to explore the perceived efficacy beliefs of beginning foreign language (FL) teachers. Using a mixed methods approach, this investigation explored factors influencing the teaching efficacy beliefs of FL teachers in a major urban school district in north Texas, as well as the potential relationship between their perceptions of efficacy and professional support. Quantitative data included surveys of FL teachers’ efficacy beliefs and perceptions of support. Qualitative data was comprised of case studies, including interviews, observations, and documents collected from four novice FL teachers, all of whom entered the classroom via alternative routes to certification. Cross-case analyses suggest that FL teachers often felt their content area was devalued by administrators, colleagues, and students as a result of its status as a non-tested content area. The efficacy beliefs of the novice FL teachers were influenced in part by contextual factors of their respective schools, including professional isolation as a result of being the only FL teacher on campus, support of colleagues, and the availability of time and resources. Because the four case study participants lacked the benefit of traditional university-based certification, they demonstrated tendencies to rely on their “selected memories,” making sense of their role(s) as teacher via the perspective acquired when they were students. Findings of the study suggest that FL teachers often experience “Stepchild Syndrome,” marked by professional isolation, a lack of relevant professional development opportunities, and a shortage of pertinent resources for FL teaching. The speculative nature of alternatively certified FL teachers’ efficacy beliefs is also examined. The study draws implications for supporting beginning FL teachers, particularly those who enter the profession through alternative routes. / text

Walking for active transportation (AT) has been associated with individuals meeting the recommended physical activity levels. Global and local (i.e., Saskatoon) reported walking rates are low. Barriers perceived as a challenge (i.e., frequent and limiting) may influence walking. Individual differences, such as self-regulatory efficacy (SRE), may help people persist in overcoming challenging barriers, with those being more efficacious having greater persistence than their lower efficacy counterparts. The overall purpose of the present self-efficacy theory-based study was to examine whether individuals with higher and lower SRE differed in their persistence to overcome barriers to walking to/from a university campus under two experimental conditions (i.e., higher versus lower challenge). The experimental study design was a two (between: higher versus lower SRE to overcome barriers) by two (within: higher versus lower challenge vignette) mixed factorial, with three measures of persistence as the dependent variables (i.e., number of written solutions to overcoming barriers, time taken to record the solutions, and anticipatory perseverance to overcome barriers to walking in the near future). Based on self-efficacy theory and past research, individuals who had higher SRE were expected to have significantly higher persistence than their lower SRE counterparts after reading the higher challenge vignette. Participants were young adults who walked to/from a university campus. Higher and lower SRE groups were identified via a median split (nhigher = 22; nlower = 23). Each participant read a higher and lower challenge vignette (i.e., order counterbalanced across participants) in a lab-based setting, followed by completion of persistence measures after each vignette reading. Findings from a series of two by two ANOVAS provided partial support of the study hypothesis. A significant interaction between SRE groups and challenge vignettes was found with the persistence measure of time spent reporting coping solutions, F(1,43) = 4.64, p = .037. As expected, results from simple main effects showed the higher SRE group significantly differed from the lower SRE group under the higher challenge vignette condition, F (1,43) = 5.27, p = .027, by spending significantly more time reporting solutions. No other significant interactions were found between SRE groups x vignettes with the remaining measures of persistence: (1) number of reported solutions F (1,43) = 3.15, p = .083, and (2) anticipatory perseverance F (1,43) = 0.05, p = .82. The present study contributed new information on challenging barriers to walking for AT. Findings from the experiment partially supported contentions from self-efficacy theory about the importance of SRE beliefs to persistence when individuals are challenged. Future research should continue to examine the potential role that SRE beliefs play in whether individuals walk for AT.

This study sought to examine the relations between sports participation, academic achievement, and self-efficacy in high school students. Self-efficacy has been linked to both sports participation and academic achievement, but no study has examined these three variables together. One hundred eleven students from two schools filled out surveys examining their levels of sports participation, academic and athletic self-efficacy, and demographic information. Participating schools provided student GPA information. Results supported the study's first, second, and third hypotheses. Athletes had higher GPAs and academic self-efficacy scores than non-athletes. Additionally, there was evidence for an indirect effect of sports participation on GPA through the mediating variable of academic self-efficacy. Results did not support the study's fourth hypothesis, as there was no significant relation between academic self-efficacy and athletic self-efficacy among athletes in the present study. Results are discussed in relation to the student population and school environment.

While much research exists on self-efficacy in music programs, few research studies have qualitatively examined the impact of vocal performance settings on music education majors' self-efficacies and career goals. This collective case study examines the self-efficacy perceptions of four undergraduate vocal music education students in five vocal performance and rehearsal settings: (a) voice lessons, (b) studio classes, (c) choral rehearsals, (d) choral performances, and (e) juries. During a spring semester at a major university in the southwestern United States, I examined how participants' perceptions of their family backgrounds, career goals, lifestyles, peers, and student-teacher relationships influenced their vocal self-efficacy perceptions and music career goals. Data collection included observations, individual interviews with participants, and one focus group interview. Coding methods were used to analyze the interview transcripts and observation field notes. Triangulation, peer review, and member checks of transcriptions were used to ensure accuracy. Findings are documented case-by-case and as cross-case themes. I found that mastery experiences and family support during adolescence influenced participants' initial decisions to major in music but had little influence on vocal self-efficacy during the study. Secondly, self-efficacy changes noted throughout the study influenced participants' career goals. Other emergent themes included the role of memory, teacher feedback, concept comprehension and socialization. I conclude with cross-case themes and offer ideas for future self-efficacy research.

Parenting self-efficacy is an important construct in understanding parents' choices about their child-rearing. Associations between marital and coparenting relationships have been established in prior research. Most of these studies used global assessments of marital quality, marital satisfaction, or measures of conflict to predict to the quality of the coparenting relationship. The present study is unique in that it utilizes multiple dimensions of marital quality, including satisfaction, maintenance strategies, and conflict, to examine the associations between marriage, coparenting, and parenting self-efficacy. These associations were explored using the Family Systems framework, comparing the explanatory power of the additive and compensatory processes. Of the marital quality indices, maintenance was the strongest, most consistent predictor of parenting cognitions for mothers and fathers, predicting to both parenting self-efficacy and meta-parenting. Mothers' reports of marital satisfaction were negatively associated with their, and their partner's, parenting self-efficacy. Undermining coparenting was predictive of parenting self-efficacy for mothers and fathers, but only predictive of meta-parenting for mothers. There was evidence supporting positive additive effects of marriage and coparenting on parenting self-efficacy. Maintenance for mothers, and marital satisfaction for fathers, combined with supportive coparenting to predict to even greater parenting self-efficacy. There was also support for the compensatory effect of marital quality on parenting self-efficacy for fathers. Fathers reporting higher levels of maintenance in combination with higher levels of undermining coparenting maintained their levels of parenting self-efficacy while fathers reporting lower levels of maintenance also reported less parenting self-efficacy in the face of higher undermining coparenting.

The purpose of this study is to test a theory-based intervention program to reverse excess disability of nursing homes elders in Taiwan. The program called the Self-Care Self-Efficacy Enhancement Program (SCSEEP) was derived from Social Cognitive Theory and Theory of Conformity with Nature. The program was tested by an experimental, two-group, pre-post design with forty-two qualified subjects, recruited from the two nursing homes located in the southern Taiwan. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: the experimental group (n = 21) and the comparison group (n = 21). Subjects in the experimental group, who were aged from 73.8 to 94.7, received the SCSEEP. Subjects in the comparison group, who were aged from 71.2 to 95.6, received six-week social visits. Statistical data analysis showed that the following pair-variables were positively correlated: 1) life satisfaction and self-esteem, 2) life satisfaction and motivation, 3) self-esteem and motivation in health behavior, 4) self-esteem and levels of BADL performance, and 5) motivation in health behavior and levels of BADL performance. It also was found that elders receiving the SCSEEP significantly improved in most self-care abilities, after controlling for baseline BADL performance. However, the SCSEEP did not significantly affect elders' life satisfaction, self-esteem, and motivation in health behavior. This study provides a theory-based caring model for Chinese nursing home elders in improving their BADL performance if SCSEEP is provided.

Forskning har visat att arbetssökandes motivation till att söka arbete påverkar deras hälsa och sociala liv. Tre motivationsteorier som utvecklats inom området och som ligger till grund i studien är Förväntning- och värdeteorin, Målsättningsteorin och Självbestämmandeteorin. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur positivt psykologiskt kapital, inskrivningstid på arbetsförmedling samt tillgång till jobbcoach eller inte inverkar på arbetssökandes inre motivation. En enkätstudie genomfördes där 154 arbetssökande, 83 män och 70 kvinnor deltog. De fick ta ställning till 50 påståenden gällande tron på den egna förmågan, hopp, hantering av motgång och inre motivation. Resultatet visade att den främsta variabeln som förklarar inre motivation hos arbetssökande är hopp, som innebär hopp om framtiden. Det visade sig att tiden som individen är arbetssökande och tillgång till jobbcoach, inte hade någon betydelse för inre motivationen. Slutsatsen är att trots att det råder lågkonjunktur så finns hopp om framtiden. Key words: length of unemployment, hope, intrinsic motivation

The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) how mathematics instructors develop their students’ metacognitive abilities concretely within mathematics instruction and (2) whether these teachers feel adequately prepared to develop their students’ metacognitive abilities. Qualitative email interviews with credentialed secondary school mathematics teachers in Sweden were used. Analysis of the participants’ interview responses indicate that the participants reported a limited use of the metacognitive teaching strategies described in the research. Although teacher responses indicated stress, frustration, and irritation and their responses indicated limited proficiency in their intuitive declarative metacognitive knowledge of thinking skills, whether or not teachers feel adequately prepared to develop their students’ metacognitive abilities cannot be completely answered by this study.

This dissertation introduces a social cognitive model of bystander behavior and examines the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationship between bullying victimization and negative outcomes. Based on Bandura’s (1986; 2001) social cognitive theory, this model utilizes two frameworks for understanding bystander behavior in bullying: group process framework (Salmivalli, 2010) and the bystander motivation framework (Thornberg et al., 2012). A research agenda is presented based on the key elements of the proposed model, including bystander agency, bystander self-efficacy, bystander moral disengagement, and bystander collective efficacy. The research study investigated self-efficacy for coping with bullying victimization and its mediating role on the relationship between bullying victimization and the outcomes of depression, anxiety, and perceptions of school safety. The Bullying Victimization Self-Efficacy Scale (BVSES; Kim et al., 2010), the Student Survey of Bullying Behaviors – Revised 2 (SSBB-R2; Varjas et al., 2008) and the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC-2; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2004) were administered to 551 elementary and middle school students in a southeastern urban school district. Using structural equation modeling, a measurement model was used to confirm the factor structure of the latent variables used in the study (i.e., victimization, the BVSES scales, depression, anxiety, and school safety). Then, the hypothesized structure model was used to determine the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationships of bullying victimization with depression, anxiety, and school safety. An alternative model was tested where depression, anxiety, and school safety were mediators of the relationship between victimization and the BVSES scales as a comparison for the hypothesized model. The measurement model yielded a good model fit, deeming it acceptable for the structure model analysis. The hypothesized and alternative models yielded a good model fit, and significant mediation effects were found in both models. However, the low magnitude suggests that self-efficacy had a relatively weak mediation effect, which may be due to the strength of the relationship between victimization and the outcome variables. This strong direct effect suggests that self-efficacy may not be a substantial mediator influencing the relationship between victimization and the outcome variables. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti pasitenkinimo darbu sąsajas su kūrybiškumu ir saviveiksmingumu, apžvelgti pasitenkinimo darbu skirtumus sociodemografinių veiksnių grupėse bei atskleisti veiksnius geriausiai prognozuojančius darbuotojų pasitenkinimą darbu. Tyrime dalyvavo 180 Kauno mieste dirbančių ir įvairias pareigas užimančių, bei turinčių skirtingas profesijas asmenų. Iš jų 38 (21,3%) buvo vyrai ir 140 (78,7%) moterų. 31 (17,2%) darbuotojas užėmė vadovaujančias pareigas ir 145 (80,5%) darbuotojai užėmė nevadovaujančias pareigas. Aukštąjį išsilavinimą turėjo 96 (53,3%) darbuotojai, o žemesnį nei aukštasis išsilavinimą turėjo 80 (44,4%) darbuotojų. Tiriamųjų amžiaus vidurkis buvo 48,62 metų. Pasitenkinimui darbu įvertinti buvo naudojama P. E. Spector pasitenkinimu darbu skalė (Job satisfaction survey), sudaryta iš 36 teiginių. Kūrybiškumas buvo vertinamas remiantis J. Zhou ir J. M. George kūrybiškumo skale (Creativity scale), kurią sudaro 13 teiginių. Saviveiksmingumo įvertinimui buvo naudojama M. Jerusalem ir R. Schwarzer saviveiksmingumo skalė (The General Self-Efficacy Scale), kuri sudaryta iš 10 teiginių. Tyrimo duomenų analizė parodė, kad vyrai yra labiau patenkinti savo darbu lyginant su moterimis. Taip pat nustatyta, kad užimantys vadovaujančias pareigas darbuotojai ir darbuotojai, turintys aukštąjį išsilavinimą yra labiau patenkinti savo darbu nei užimantys ne vadovaujančias pareigas ar žemesnį nei aukštasis išsilavinimą turintys darbuotojai. Amžius, šeimyninė padėtis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this study was to assess workers job satisfaction relations with creativity and self – efficacy; to overlook job satisfaction differences in sociodemographical groups and to identify factors that best forecast job satisfaction. The subjects of the study were 180 persons working in Kaunas. They had different professions and occupations. 38 (21,3%) of them were men and 142 (78,7%) women. 31 (17,2%) participant took the leading positions and 145 (80,5%) had non-leading position. 96 (53,3%) worker had higher education and 80 (44,4%) had lower than higher education. Mean age of the participants were 48,62 years. Job satisfaction was measured with P. E. Spector Job satisfaction survey which is composed of 36 statements. Creativity was measured with J. Zhou and J. M. George Creativity scale, composed of 13 statements. Self – efficacy was measured with M. Jerusalem and R. Schwarzer self – efficacy questionnaire - The General Self-Efficacy Scale, which is composed of 10 statements. The study results revealed that men are more satisfied with their jobs than women. Moreover, workers who took leading positions and those who had higher education were more satisfied with their jobs than non-leading position workers and workers who had lower education. Age, family status and work experience were not significant variables for job satisfaction. It was found that higher worker creativity is related to higher job satisfaction. However, this relation was not observed when... [to full text]