Promoting Self-efficacy in Children

1. Promoting Self-efficacy in Children Allison Graham, M.S. Amanda Ables, M.S. Cixin Wang, M.A., M.S.

2. Goals for Presentation To learn how self-efficacy, the most critical component of a growth mindset, helps promote change and achievement To discover ways to create opportunities for your child to improve his/her self-efficacy To better understand how to respond to your child’s successes and challenges in a way that promotes self-efficacy To think about ways you can help your child assess progress and problem-solve difficulties

3. Self-Efficacy Quiz

4. What Is Self-Efficacy? Self-perception of one’s ability to perform behaviors to attain goals Domain-specific and ever changing Different from self-esteem Question of “Can I…?” vs. “Who am I?”

5. The Little Engine that Could “Puff, puff, chug, chug, went the Little Blue Engine. “I think I can – I think I can – I think I can…” “Hurray, hurray,” cried the funny little clown and all the dolls and toys… And the little Blue Engine smiled… - W. Piper

6. Why is Self-Efficacy Important? Academic achievement and aspiration Influences student choice and effort Correlated with perceived competency, control, and likelihood of success Lower rates of internalizing and externalizing problems

7. How Does This Effect My Child? Self-Efficacy & Gifted Students • Interpret their experiences as due to their innate ability • Perfectionism, Anxiety, Fear of Failure, & Fragile self-esteem/identity Don’t push themselves when things are easy Avoid trying new or difficult things

8. Promoting self-efficacy helps combat the harm of innate ability explanations……

9. Techniques to Increase Self-Efficacy • Create challenges for your child • Encourage goal setting • Comment on Progress • Praise Success • Respond to Difficulties • Encourage assessment of progress • Problem Solve Road Blocks • Model Self-Efficacy in your own Life

10. The Experience of Success • Create challenging, but appropriate opportunities • To Experience Success • To Practice Overcoming Difficulty • Allow independence with support rather than doing things for them • Instrumental Help vs. Executive Help • Fear of Attempting Activities and Tasks Create & Embrace Challenges

11. Have the child help develop the goals • Develop appropriate goals • Set small short-term goals • Focus on improvement rather than reaching a benchmark • Make goals related to learning for the sake of learning not about protecting his or her ego • Create specific rather than general goals – “Improve my math grade” vs. “Do my best” Setting Goals Goals provide something to strive toward and a way of measuring progress which draws attention to past successes

12. A Comment on Goals “I approach everything step by step....I had always set short-term goals.  As I look back, each one of the steps or successes led to the next one.  When I got cut from the varsity team as a sophomore in high school, I learned something.  I knew I never wanted to feel that bad again....So I set a goal of becoming a starter on the varsity.  That’s what I focused on all summer.  When I worked on my game, that’s what I thought about.  When it happened, I set another goal, a reasonable, manageable goal that I could realistically achieve if I worked hard enough....I guess I approached it with the end in mind.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.  As I reached those goals, they built on one another.  I gained a little confidence every time I came through. ...If [your goal is to become a doctor]...and you’re getting Cs in biology then the first thing you have to do is get Bs in biology and then As.  You have to perfect the first step and then move on to chemistry or physics. Take those small steps. Otherwise you’re opening yourself up to all kinds of frustration.  Where would your confidence come from if the only measure of success was becoming a doctor?  If you tried as hard as you could and didn’t become a doctor, would that mean your whole life was a failure?   Of course not. All those steps are like pieces of a puzzle.  They all come together to form a picture....Not everyone is going to be the greatest....But you can still be considered a success....Step by step, I cant see any other way of accomplishing anything.” ~Michael Jordan

13. Let’s Practice! • What would be some appropriate goals to set with your child? • Write three appropriate goals on the goal setting form. • Discuss with a partner • Are they short-term and easily attainable? • Do they focus on improvement? • Are they specific?

14. How children interpret their experience effects their self-efficacy • Innate ability • “I did well because I’m smart” • “I didn’t do well because I’m dumb” • Skills & effort • “I did well because I’ve learned my math facts” • “I didn’t do well because I didn’t try hard enough” Commenting on Progress Children become the people we view them to be……

15. Praising Success • Compliments must be genuine and earned • Praise sooner, not later • Should be SPECIFIC and recognize success as due to AQUIRED skill (not just effort) • Make your praise specific to the behavior (e.g. the strategy used during the specific task) • Focus on the process of learning not only the outcome

16. Let’s Practice! Which comments are specific, which focus on the process, which have both? You’re really smart. You really know your stuff when it comes to science. I’m really impressed. You’re really a nice person. You’ve worked hard. You’re a great cook. I love the way you put so much attention to detail when making your dessert. It’s that extra distance that you go that makes your cooking so wonderful.

17. Responding to Difficulties • Our natural reactions to children having difficulty often reduce self-efficacy • Smoothing over negative events with a compliment • Providing sympathy for substandard performance • Acknowledge feelings and encourage greater effort • Emphasize existing skills and identify skills to learn

18. Let’s Practice! Watch Video Clip… • http://www.hulu.com/watch/203052/modern-family-our-children-ourselves • Determine whether parents’ responses were appropriate to enhance daughter’s self-efficacy • Why or why not? • What might have been a different way to respond…..better or worse?

19. Let’s Practice! What can be improved in these comments for a child facing difficulty? “I was never very good at math, and you are just like me.” “You’re just not good at writing, but you are great at so many other things.” “No! You did great! A C is still average.”

20. Document progress toward goal • Help reflect on improvement and what still needs work • Compare progress to self, not to the progress of others • Review how progress fits into child’s view of their ability and dispel cognitive distortions with recent successes Assessing Progress

21. Let’s Practice! How will you document and measure your child’s progress on the goals you listed on the Goal Setting Form? List possible forms of measurement and documentation under “How I Did”

22. Address how to improve for next time or what they have learned • Get the child to come up with these ideas and praise that effort of problem solving and adjusting their strategy • Help child implement plan for improvement as they need it by providing supports for better attaining their goals • Identify feelings and discuss impact on performance Problem-Solving Roadblocks “…self-efficacy is not so much about about learning how to succeed as it is about learning how to persevere when one does not succeed.” (Pajares, 2005)

23. Model positive self-efficacy practices in your own life • Set appropriately difficult, but attainable goals • Celebrate your incremental successes with your child • Discuss roadblocks to success and how you will handle them • Admit your own mistakes • “Oops, I was a little careless. Thanks for pointing that out.” • …rather than “I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.” Modeling Positive Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy is contagious!

24. Questions?

25. Self-Efficacy Quiz Answers

26. Resources Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215. Bandura, A., Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Gerbino, M., & Pastorelli, C. (2003). Role of affective self-regulatory efficacy in diverse spheres of psychosocial functioning. Child Development, 74, 769–782. Bandura, A., Pastorelli, C., Barbaranelli, C., & Caprara, G. V. (1999). Self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 258–269. Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Pastorelli, C., & Cervone, D. (2004). The contribution of self efficacy beliefs to psychosocial outcomes in adolescence: Predicting beyond global dispositional tendencies. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 751–763. Jordan, M. (1994). I can’t accept not trying: Michael Jordan on the pursuit of excellence. San Francisco: Harper Publishing Company. Pajares (2002). Self-efficacy beliefs in academic contexts: An outline. Retrieved February 03, 2011, from http://des.emory.edu/mfp/efftalk.html . Pajares (2005). Self –efficacy duing childhood and adolescence: Implications for teachers and parents. Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents, 339 – 367. Reivich, K. (2010). Promoting Self-Efficacy in Youth. Communiqué, 39, #3. Siegle, D. (2000). Self-efficacy intervention. Retrieved from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/SelfEfficacy/section0.html. February 1, 2011.