We report on a study of the effects of laboratory activities that model fictitious laws of physics in a virtual reality environment on (i) students' epistemology about the role of experimental physics in class and in the world; (ii) students' self-efficacy; and (iii) the quality of student engagement with the lab activities. We create…

This study examined changes in middle school teachers' beliefs about inquiry, implementation of inquiry practices, and self-efficacy to teach science through inquiry after participating in a year-long professional development program. The professional development model design was based on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory of learning and…

The main purpose of the current study is to examine the construct, convergent and discriminant validity of the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (Usher & Pajares, 2009) in a Turkish sample. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986) served as the theoretical framework for the current study. According to Bandura (1986), people's…

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of Bandura's (1997) theorized sources of self-efficacy on the academic and self-regulatory efficacy beliefs of 3rd-grade elementary school students (N = 395) in France, to examine whether classroom context might explain a significant portion of the variation in self-efficacy, and to assess…

Review of social cognitive theory constructs of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning is applied to academic advising for the purposes of assessing student learning. A brief overview of the history of student learning outcomes in higher education is followed by an explanation of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning constructs and how they…

For information systems development project student teams, learning how to improve software development processes is an important training. Software process improvement is an outcome of a number of creative behaviours. Social cognitive theory states that the efficacy of judgment influences behaviours. This study explores the impact of three types…

Adolescent Iranian girls are at high risk for physical inactivity due to cultural barriers such as restrictions regarding exercising in public and research is needed to explore ethnic and gender-related factors associated with physical activity (PA) participation. Using social cognitive theory as the guiding model, the purpose of this study was to…

In this article, I examine developments in research on achievement motivation and comment on how those developments are reflected in Wittrock's generative model of learning. Specifically, I focus on the roles of prior knowledge, the generation of knowledge, and beliefs about ability. Examples from Wittrock's theory and from current motivational…

The authors developed and delivered a brief patient activation intervention (PAI) that sought to facilitate physician-patient communication. The intervention was designed to assist low-income, racial/ethnic minority users of community health centers in building skills and confidence asking questions. The PAI takes 8 to 10 minutes to deliver and…

In "Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control" (1997), Albert Bandura writes, "Teachers operate collectively within an interactive social system rather than as isolates" (p. 243). Bandura's attention to the existence of the communal systems that exist in schools is an appreciation shared by many educational reformers, especially those who advocate…

This article describes a research project into the self-efficacy and anxiety of college English students at four universities in China. A total of 738 participants completed a questionnaire measuring self-efficacy and anxiety in writing in English. This was immediately followed by a writing task. The questionnaire used a seven point Likert type…

Two theories guide two very different ideas about learning. Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977, 1989) places the greater emphasis on observational learning, or learning by watching a model produce a behavior before doing it oneself. Other researchers purport that experiential learning, or learning by doing, results in stronger learning (Kolb,…

Social cognitive theory emphasizes a dynamic interactive process to explain human functioning. This theory ascribes a central role to cognitive processes in which the individual can observe others and the environment, reflect on that in combination with his or her own thoughts and behaviors, and alter his or her own self-regulatory functions…

According to Bandura's social cognitive theory, self-efficacy and self-regulation are key processes that affect students' learning and achievement. This article discusses students' reading and writing performances using Zimmerman's four-phase social cognitive model of the development of self-regulatory competence. Modeling is an effective means of…

We examined the nature of the temporal relations among the core person variables in the social cognitive model of academic and career choice [Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance [Monograph]. "Journal of Vocational Behavior," 45,…