The Development of Academic Self-Efficacy

This chapter describes the development of academic self-efficacy. This chapter focuses on the development of one type of motivational process: perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to beliefs about one's capabilities to learn or perform behaviors at designated levels. It provides theoretical background information on self-efficacy to show its relation to other similar motivation constructs. According to this chapter, self-efficacy has been shown to play an important role in achievement contexts, and much research supports the idea that it can influence the instigation, direction, persistence, and outcomes of achievement-related actions. In this chapter it traced the purpose of self-efficacy changes with development and has elucidated variables that affect this change. It also suggests profitable areas of future research. This chapter encourages by the rapid increase in self-efficacy research. This chapter concludes that the future should provide greater clarification of the operation of self-efficacy in different domains and highlight ways that self-efficacy can be enhanced in learners across developmental levels.