Sources of Personal Efficacy

Bandura identified four sources of Personal Efficacy to clarify how it developed in the early years of teaching:

1. Repeated mastery experiences, such as planning and executing successful lessons.

2. Vicarious experience, such as watching a competent model succeed in a teaching situation.

3. Social persuasion, such as encouraging feedback from supervisors, colleagues, and pupils.

4. The emotional states one experiences while teaching, such as satisfaction with a job well done.

A teacher's beliefs about personal efficacy are formed in the early years of teaching and seem to be resistant to change once established. Teachers completing their first year of teaching who had a high sense of efficacy found greater satisfaction in teaching, had a more positive reaction to teaching, and experienced less stress. Novice teachers feel more confident and efficacious if they receive positive feedback, guidance, and encouragement from their students, other teachers, administrators, parents, and community members. With this kind of support, they are more likely to stay in the teaching profession.

(from Resilience as a Contributor to Novice Teacher Success, Commitment, and Retention by Melanie Tait, 2008)

Although written about teachers specifically, this seems to resonate for other professions like social work and mental health, in general. All relationships (personal and professional) and all systems (family and organizational) need a ratio of 3 positive experiences or interactions for every one negative (including constructive criticism) in order to thrive and stay together. Sometimes achieving the ratio is easy and sometimes it takes being intentional about it (for more about 3:1, read Gottman or Fredrickson). Let's go about thriving intentionally, shall we?