Teaching Ourselves Self-Efficacy

Georganna Greene

June 17, 2014

Last class' discussion and lesson on self-efficacy sparked a lot of thought for me on learning and practicing self-efficacy as a teacher. As it is of utmost importance to encourage self-efficacy for our students, we as teachers have equal if not more responsibility in exhibiting self-efficacy ourselves. A good way I think we can do that is to pay close attention to our priorities and the order they assume. For instance, if hurrying through lessons to get through curriculum takes priority over the effectiveness of the teacher's quality of communication, then self-efficacy will be faltering most likely, and learning will suffer. 

         Self-regulation of our routines as teachers will also play a big role in maintaining self-efficacy. We talked about the way that students can self-regulate, and consequently be "good learners," and some of the attributes to a good learner. Some of those attributes were open-mindedness, attentiveness, self-control (self-efficacy), and willingness to be corrected and to improve.  As teachers we carry the same responsibilities in the education system, especially in the classroom with our students. We must be checking ourselves, as our professional days become routine. If something appears to be getting sloppy, its up to us be checking for that, see it, and tighten up the screws. Without self-regulating and really looking at ourselves and our teaching methods/tendencies thoroughly, we won't catch much sloppiness. We must sincerely demonstrate the things that we emphasize and encourage our students to live up to.