I keep seeing statements in published articles about enabling students, or equity group students, students that belong to some form of “disadvantaged” background, etc where they state (as if it was just a fact) that these students have low self-efficacy or LOWER than other student groups. Some of them have a reference to back this up, and no doubt there have been some studies that used self-efficacy scales and did some comparisons… but not that many!

I wonder if it is just our perception? For example, I have taught a LOT of mature-aged students over the years, most of them regional/rural students and a large chunck of them them would be low-socioeconomic. I could easily say they had lower self-efficacy than other students… . I COULD say that if I didn’t think about it too deeply. But what characteristics are they displaying that makes me think that?

Well, they ask a lot of questions. They want reassurance sometimes. They will say things like “I’m scared I’m going to fail this assignment”. They seem to dedicate as much time as possible to studying and would easily be described as “highly committed”. But does all that even equal low self-efficacy? If I actually asked one of them “are you going to suceed at university” I think I would be highly likely to get a “hell yes” or similar. I might get some form of “I’m not sure” and I might get “No I think I’m going to fail” but the results would certainly be varied on an individual level.

If we got more specific about the task (as we shold according to Bandura). Perhaps asking them if they think they have the referencing correct in their first essay… again I think the results would be varied. Some would say “yes, I have checked that referencing guide ten times!” and others would say “I don’t know” and so on.

Rather than wittnessing low levels of self-efficacy I think it is highly likely that we are actually seeing high levels of help-seeking behaviour or something else. We are “feeling” like they need a lot of our support/time/attention and translating that into low self-efficacy. Is it possible that a student can be “high needs” and still have high self-efficacy? I think maybe it is! I really think the actual levels of self-efficacy would be far more varied than we would estimate for these so called “disadvantaged” students.

Someone remind me to publish on this in 4 years when I have finished my PhD!!!!