Using Verbal Feedback To Craft Self-Efficacy Among Students

The performance of a pupil in classroom setting depends greatly on the teaching methodology followed in that institute. We know that almost every educator makes use of feedbacks in order to encourage or discourage students regarding their activities. Specifically focusing on academics, verbal feedbacks seem to have a farfetched impact on the student’s participation in an educational environment. For teachers the biggest challenge lies in motivating students and convincing them of their own abilities in order to encourage them. Too often pupils are embarrassed by their failures and become a victim of personal frustration that leads to reduced performance and lower tests scores.  Research suggests that the best way to deal with such individuals is to take a chance with their self-esteem and allow them to try new projects and tasks. This form of teaching pedagogy forms a personal schema where students are able to maintain their motivation and develop their skills.

According to educational theories, motivation is a key factor in framing the behavior and attitude of pupils towards their education and also in helping teachers understand their participation level in the same domain. According to these theories, if learners believe that they have the necessary skill set for a particular task, then the chances of them succeeding are improved. This is termed as perceived self-efficacy and is often defined as an individual’s judgment of his own skill to execute a task or to organize their life and action plans accordingly thus serving as predictor of their performance.

It is however worth mentioning here that self efficacy is a relative concept and may vary for different tasks for the same individual. For examples, learners may have a high efficacy for literature but lower efficacy for the subject of statistics. Studies have proven that the link between self-efficacy and a person’s performance are strong. For learners that are unable to respond positively to verbal feedback, the development of self-efficacy is critically important as it helps them to develop essential indicators of progress. When teachers give students feedback regarding their performance or a particular task, they become aware of their progress or advancement in that area. In the absence of these progress indicators, they will not be able to ascertain their own progress. This is important for sustaining a good learning behavior in a classroom setting and verbal feedback that encourages the development of such indicators may include hints, reminders, clues or even cues. Self-efficacy develops over a long period of time and educators must reaming patient in their instructional procedures in order to encourage adequate literacy development.