Why Self-Efficacy Matters | Mamie Morrow | TEDxFSCJ

Summary

The speaker shares her journey from aspiring teacher to successful coach, highlighting the power of self-efficacy. Despite initial setbacks, she persevered, drawing strength from her mother's encouragement and the impact she made on children's lives. She emphasizes Albert Bandura's four sources of efficacy beliefs: experiencing success, observing others' success, receiving encouragement, and managing emotions. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, she inspires listeners to build self-efficacy and embrace change.

Takeaways

• 🌱 **Early Influence**: The speaker's desire to become a teacher was deeply influenced by their upbringing in a family of educators.
• 🚫 **Challenges Faced**: Despite a clear vision and application for a coaching role, the speaker faced rejection and doubt from a supervisor.
• 💔 **Impact of Criticism**: Initial discouragement led to a momentary loss of confidence, highlighting the fragility of self-belief.
• 🔄 **Rediscovering Resilience**: Positive reinforcement from family and community helped the speaker regain confidence and pursue their goal.
• 🎯 **Self-Efficacy Defined**: The speaker explains self-efficacy as the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific tasks, which is crucial for motivation and persistence.
• 📈 **Building Self-Efficacy**: Four sources to build self-efficacy are identified: experiencing success, observing others' success, receiving encouragement, and managing emotions.
• 🏆 **Success Through Small Wins**: Breaking down tasks into manageable steps allows for a series of small successes, building confidence and self-efficacy.
• 👫 **Social Proof**: Witnessing peers overcome similar challenges can inspire and motivate individuals to believe in their own capabilities.
• 🗣️ **Power of Encouragement**: Regular affirmation and encouragement are essential for bolstering self-efficacy and should not be undersupplied.
• 😤 **Managing Negative Emotions**: Learning to manage fear and anxiety is key to maintaining a clear mind and focusing on achieving goals.
• 🌐 **Global Impact**: The speaker's journey and insights have had a broad impact, coaching educators both nationally and internationally.

Q & A

What was the speaker's childhood aspiration influenced by her family background?

The speaker aspired to be a teacher like her mother, who ran a kindergarten, and she spent much of her childhood in her mother's classroom.

Why did the speaker initially fail to get promoted to a coaching role?

The speaker's supervisor did not share her vision and threw her application into the trashcan, telling her she didn't have what it took to be a coach.

How did the speaker's confidence recover after the initial setback in her career?

Over time, the speaker remembered her mother's belief in her unique ability to connect with learners and the positive feedback from parents, which helped her regain her confidence.

What is the term for the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific tasks or challenges?

The term is 'self-efficacy', which is a key factor in how individuals approach goals, tasks, and challenges.

How does self-efficacy influence a person's motivation and persistence?

Higher levels of self-efficacy motivate individuals to attempt tasks and persist even when challenges arise, whereas lower levels can lead to avoidance or quick abandonment of tasks.

According to the speaker, what are the four sources of efficacy beliefs as identified by Albert Bandura?

The four sources are: experiencing success, seeing others like oneself succeed, receiving specific encouragement, and managing negative emotions.

Why is breaking down tasks into small steps important for building self-efficacy?

Breaking down tasks allows individuals to achieve immediate success with each step, building confidence and a sense of mastery that contributes to higher self-efficacy.

How does observing others succeed influence one's self-efficacy?

Seeing others succeed can inspire individuals to believe in their own potential for success, especially when those others are perceived as similar to oneself.

What role does specific encouragement play in enhancing self-efficacy?

Specific encouragement affirms efforts and provides a powerful motivator that can help individuals focus on progress and overcome challenges.

Why is managing negative emotions crucial for self-efficacy?

Managing negative emotions allows individuals to maintain a clear mind and focus on tasks, which is essential for building self-efficacy and achieving success.

Can you provide an example from the speaker's life that illustrates the development of self-efficacy?

The speaker's experience with beginner scuba diving in Thailand, where she overcame her fears through step-by-step instruction, observing others, receiving encouragement, and managing her emotions, is an example of developing self-efficacy.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Overcoming Doubt and Building Self-Efficacy

The speaker shares a personal journey of growing up in an educational family and aspiring to be a teacher like her mother. After years of teaching, she desired to become a coach but faced rejection from her supervisor. Despite this setback, she found resilience through remembering her mother's encouragement and the impact she made on students' lives. This led her to realize her potential to be a successful coach, which she eventually became. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific tasks, and how it is crucial for motivation and overcoming challenges. The speaker introduces Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy and hints at the four sources of efficacy beliefs.

05:00

🏊‍♂️ Building Self-Efficacy Through Success and Social Modeling

The speaker discusses the first two sources of self-efficacy as identified by psychologist Albert Bandura: experiencing success and vicarious learning through observing others' success. She uses the example of swim instructors breaking down the learning process into small steps to help learners feel successful. Similarly, she coaches teachers by starting with their current skills and gradually building up, allowing them to experience success early on. The second source is illustrated by her own experience running a 5K, where seeing others succeed inspired her to continue. She also mentions the power of a support group in coaching, where teachers are more likely to try new strategies after seeing their peers succeed.

10:02

📝 Encouragement and Managing Emotions for Self-Efficacy

The third source of self-efficacy is receiving encouragement, which the speaker argues is a powerful yet underutilized motivator. She shares how leaving positive notes for teachers can significantly impact their motivation and self-belief. The fourth source is managing negative emotions, which is crucial for maintaining focus and success. The speaker recounts helping her daughter manage test anxiety, emphasizing the importance of emotional regulation. She also discusses preparing teachers for potential challenges and stress when implementing new strategies, ensuring they can independently practice and build habits. The speaker concludes with a personal anecdote of overcoming fear to scuba dive, highlighting how the four sources of self-efficacy can collectively empower individuals to face and overcome challenges.

Keywords

💡Educator

An educator is a professional who engages in the practice of education, typically in a formal setting like a school. In the context of the video, the speaker grew up around educators and aspired to become one, eventually transitioning from a classroom teacher to an educator coach. The term underscores the video's theme of personal and professional growth within the field of education.

💡Coach

A coach in a professional setting is someone who provides guidance, training, and development to others. The speaker's initial goal was to become a coach, leading professional development trainings for teachers. This role is central to the narrative of overcoming obstacles and achieving personal aspirations.

💡Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in their own abilities to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. The video emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy in driving motivation and perseverance. It is a key concept that the speaker uses to illustrate how one can overcome self-doubt and achieve goals.

💡Resiliency

Resiliency is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or to thrive despite challenges. The speaker recounts their experience of having a promotion application rejected, yet they exhibit resiliency by not giving up on their goal to become a coach, which is a central theme in the video.

💡Mastery

Mastery is the state of having complete control or command over something. In the video, the speaker mentions breaking down new teaching strategies into small steps to help teachers feel a sense of mastery and success, which builds self-efficacy.

💡Encouragement

Encouragement is the act of giving support, confidence, or hope to someone. The video discusses the power of specific encouragement, such as leaving positive notes for teachers, to build self-efficacy and foster a sense of success.

💡Negative Emotions

Negative emotions refer to feelings that are unpleasant or detrimental to one's well-being. The speaker shares a personal story about helping their daughter manage her anxiety before a test, illustrating how overcoming negative emotions is crucial for maintaining self-efficacy and achieving goals.

💡Success

Success, as discussed in the video, is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. It is one of the primary sources of self-efficacy, as experiencing success, even in small increments, can significantly boost one's belief in their abilities.

💡Challenges

Challenges are new or difficult tasks that test one's abilities. Throughout the video, the speaker discusses how facing and overcoming challenges can strengthen self-efficacy, as it demonstrates one's capability to succeed despite obstacles.

💡Change

Change, in the context of the video, refers to the process of making or undergoing a transformation. The speaker encourages the audience to embrace change and build self-efficacy to successfully implement new strategies or behaviors.

💡Belief

Belief is the state or quality of accepting something as true or feeling certain about the truth of something. The video emphasizes the role of belief in one's abilities as a driving force for taking action and achieving success, which is a central message of the speaker.

Highlights

The speaker grew up in a family of educators and aspired to be a teacher like her mother.

After years in the classroom, the speaker aimed to become a coach for professional development trainings.

An early career setback involved a supervisor rejecting the speaker's application to become a coach.

The speaker's resilience was fueled by positive feedback from parents and her own belief in her teaching abilities.

Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific endeavors, is crucial for motivation and perseverance.

People with low self-efficacy tend to avoid tasks or give up quickly, whereas high self-efficacy encourages action and persistence.

Albert Bandura identified four sources of efficacy beliefs: experiencing success, seeing others succeed, receiving encouragement, and managing negative emotions.

Success builds upon success, and direct experiences of mastery are key to building self-efficacy.

Seeing others like ourselves succeed can inspire us to believe in our own potential for success.

Specific encouragement and affirmation can be powerful motivators and are essential for building self-efficacy.

Managing negative emotions is vital for maintaining focus and success in the face of challenges.

The speaker's personal scuba diving experience illustrates how the four sources of efficacy beliefs can work together.

The importance of breaking down tasks into small, manageable steps to facilitate success and build self-efficacy.

The role of a supportive community in enhancing self-efficacy through shared experiences and encouragement.

The impact of daily affirmations and encouragement on boosting self-efficacy and motivation.

Strategies for managing anxiety and negative emotions to maintain a clear mind and enhance self-efficacy.

The transformative power of self-efficacy in enabling individuals to overcome fears and achieve their goals.

A call to action for listeners to identify areas where they can build self-efficacy and make positive changes in their lives.

Henry Ford's quote emphasizing the importance of self-belief in determining one's ability to succeed.

Transcripts

you

I grew up in a family of educators I

spent so much of my childhood in my

mother's kindergarten classroom and I

wanted to be a teacher just like her

I've been an educator for over 20 years

and after several years in the classroom

I set my sights on wanting to be a coach

I envisioned myself leading professional

development trainings and supporting

teachers in the classroom and I believe

that I could be really good at that so I

applied for a promotion

unfortunately my supervisor at the time

did not share that same vision and I

watched my application get thrown into

the trashcan and I was told that I would

never be a coach I just didn't have what

it took and I walked out of that office

that day devastated yet a green and

saying you're right I don't know how to

be a coach what was I thinking it's

surprising how easily our confidence can

be broken isn't it how truly fragile it

is but you know what after some time

those words held less and less power

over me as I started to remember instead

my mother telling me for years that I

had a unique ability to connect with

learner's and I remembered all my

parents who went out of their way to

tell me what a difference I was making

in the lives of their children and I

decided that maybe I don't know how to

be a coach yet but I do know how to

teach and I can transfer those skills

and that's when I realized I had the

resiliency to pick

self up and persevere toward my goal

because I genuinely believed I could do

it I knew I could be a successful coach

so with that I applied for a different

job and the rest is history

I have been an educator coach for five

and a half years and I am so privileged

to even coach other coaches of teachers

around the nation and even some

internationally so how about you what I

bet you could all think of that moment

in your lives when your belief in your

ability to do something outweighed what

anyone else told you you could or could

not do that's because our genuine belief

in our abilities plays a key role in how

we approach certain goals tasks and

challenges this essential belief in our

ability to succeed in specific endeavors

is called self-efficacy

people with low levels of self-efficacy

for a certain task tend to avoid doing

it all together no no no or if they do

try they usually give up fairly quickly

because they do not believe that they

will ultimately be successful whereas

higher levels of self-efficacy

influences our motivation to give it a

try and take that action and even to

persevere when challenges are

encountered that is the power of

self-efficacy it is the fuel that drives

change and that's why it matters to all

of us

no matter our age or profession so how

do we get more of this how do we build

self-efficacy that is how do we empower

ourselves and others to believe in our

ability to do a certain thing so we can

lean in begin taking that action and

make change happen in our lives Albert

bandura the psychologist who developed

the theory identified four sources of

efficacy beliefs the first and foremost

source is experiencing success we all

know that success builds upon success

and nothing creates more self-efficacy

than having a direct experience of

mastery with that task swim instructors

know this to be true

when my daughter's first learned how to

swim their instructors supported them in

feeling successful as they mastered each

small step towards swimming

independently I do the same with my

teachers when I'm trying to help them

learn a new instructional strategy or

teaching behavior I break it down into

small achievable steps and I even

individualize the beginning point I

match the strategy with the teachers

current skills and we start there so

that the teachers can feel that

immediate sense of success with this new

strategy and also have that feeling of

ah I'm already doing this a little and

we build the skill from there in this

way teachers have a positive experience

in implementing the new strategy and

also with the change process itself the

second source of efficacy is seen others

like ourselves succeed when I first ran

a 5k I didn't know if I would ever make

it to the finish line

but I was inspired to keep going by

those around me many of whom were also

still clearly struggling I wasn't the

only one but they kept putting one foot

in front of the other and I decided if

they could do it I could do it too

this source is most pronounced when I

support group coaching when teachers are

able to see other teachers like

themselves trying something new in their

classroom and they're able to hear about

the positive response they're getting

from their students they are much more

likely and willing to try something

similar themselves in their own

classrooms having a support group in a

community like this helps teachers

believe that their success is also

possible the third source of

encouragement is receiving specific

encouragement now how many of us have

our efforts affirmed on a daily basis

up there no no what right we don't even

do that for ourselves our society treats

encouragement and affirmation as if it's

a very expensive commodity and you just

can't afford to do it too often but

that's absolutely false it's free and it

is such a powerful motivator that it

doesn't even make sense not to tap into

it regularly

I believe in there's so much that I

encourage my coaches that whenever they

go into a teacher's classroom to leave a

little sticky note saying something they

saw or heard the teacher do that had a

positive impact on the students I wasn't

sure exactly what effect this had on the

teachers until several of my coaches

told me how their teachers excitedly

showed them where in the classroom they

kept all of those inspiring notes you

see when we're trying something new and

making change in the middle of that

change process knowing that our

decisions our efforts our choices are

being seen and heard and appreciated

helps us to focus more on the progress

that we are making toward that goal than

on the challenges that we are currently

facing because there's always challenges

the fourth source of efficacy is

managing negative emotions when my

oldest daughter was eight years old she

was getting ready to take her first

high-stakes standardized test as you can

imagine her anxiety was through the roof

and she was sure that those feelings

meant she was destined to fail I helped

her realize that it's totally natural

and normal to feel the way she was

feeling but that when we let our

emotions get this big our brains get

small and it becomes really difficult to

think and she needed to find a way to

manage her emotions so she could keep

her brain big because she was gonna need

it we practiced many strategies and I'm

pleased to say that she did really well

on that test but much more importantly

she learned a really valuable lesson

that she has the power to manage her

emotions and calm them we all do when I

work with teachers to create an action

plan for them to go into their classroom

and independently practice these new

strategies were working on and teaching

behaviors we always talk about what

could go wrong and then help them to

develop some ways to overcome those

barriers so that they can keep

practicing on their own we also talked

about those stressful feelings that

they're likely to feel when they're

doing new things in front of their

students in their classrooms in this way

I helped set my teachers up for success

so they can keep practicing because

we're trying to build habits and I need

them to be able to do that on their own

when I'm not there so how do all four of

these steps work together to develop

self-efficacy years ago when I was

vacationing in Thailand I somehow let my

Floridian ocean loving husband talk me

into going on a beginner scuba diving

adventure now you need to know I'm from

New Mexico of born and raised in the

desert and so the idea of going on this

and drowning

or being attacked by a sea creature was

very real and it scared me to death

but I overcame my fears that day because

several very important things happened

first my amazingly patient instructor

was totally zen-like broke down the

terrifying process of all the the

mandatory safety procedures I had to go

through into small little chunks so I

could focus on that chunk and feel

comfortable and successful and then we

went to the next one also I was able to

see others other newbies like myself

succeeding and not dying and I know many

of them were just as nervous as I was

because we talked about it on the boat

right over and here they were being

brave and literally taking the plunge

and they inspired me to want to be brave

too my husband constantly encouraged me

and told me that I could do this and

somehow he kept me from panicking no

small task because that panic attack was

this close okay and all of these things

work together that day to help me to do

that the unimaginable to breathe

underwater and survive

so I asked you what is that thing that

you've been wanting to try and you

haven't yet what does that change that

you've been waiting to make in your life

what is it going to take for you to

believe in your ability to successfully

do that so you can lean in make that

change start to happen and make a

positive change in your life

visionary innovator Henry Ford summed it

up perfectly when he said whether you

believe you can or you believe you

cannot you are right you're right so I

encourage you today to be kind to

yourself and build your self-efficacy so

you can prove to yourself that you can

thank you

[Applause]

[Music]

you