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Self-efficacy and achievement behaviors

Educational Psychology Review volume 1, pages 173–208 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

In this article self-efficacy research is reviewed in domains relevant to education. Research addressing cognitive skills, social skills, motor skills, and career choices has shown that self-efficacy is an important construct that helps to explain students' learning and performance of achievement-related behaviors. Research also has identified variables that are associated with educational contexts and that signal to students how well they are achieving or making progress in learning. These task-engagement variables include models/social comparative information, goal setting, attributional and performance feedback, strategy instruction, cognitive processing, and reward contingencies. A suggested future self-efficacy research agenda might include maintenance and generalization of changes in self-efficacy, the identification of additional task-engagement variables, instrument development and validation, integration of efficacy information from diverse sources, developmental influences on self-efficacy, and teachers' sense of efficacy.

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  1. University of North Carolina, Peabody Hall CB3500, 27599-3500, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

    Dale H. Schunk

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Schunk, D.H. Self-efficacy and achievement behaviors. Educ Psychol Rev 1, 173–208 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320134

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Key words

  • achievement
  • self-efficacy
  • motivation