Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Self-Efficacy and Principal Involvement in Character Education 223
(p. 6). The contrasting leadership characteristics between high- and low-efficacy principals
provide convincing rationale for the concerted emphasis on self-efficacy development.
DEVELOPING PRINCIPALS’ SELF- EFFICACY BELIEFS
Reform-minded administrators striving to improve the quality of school leadership
must develop leaders’ self efficacy, particularly if these leaders are to develop and implement
effective character education programs on campus. Discussions on principals’ self-efficacy
should, therefore, address four considerations germane to administrators’ development of
personal efficacy beliefs: (a) How are efficacy beliefs formed in the individual?; (b) How
does one make an efficacy belief determination?; (c) How can principals’ self-efficacy beliefs
be developed?; and, (d) How can principals impact teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs? Descriptive
elaboration is now presented for the four considerations in terms of educator self-efficacy.
Formation of Efficacy Beliefs
How are efficacy beliefs formed in the individual? Developing self-efficacy beliefs is
especially important in lieu of Bandura’s (1977) assertion, “Efficacy beliefs regulate
aspirations, choice of behavioral courses, mobilization and maintenance of effort, and
effective reactions” (p. 4). Labone (2004), however, noted that though principal self-efficacy
observably impacts effective school leadership practices, context factors linked to cultivating
a higher sense of efficacy is less known.
Triadic reciprocal causation is the concept that describes the dynamics of how efficacy
perceptions are formed. The dynamic involves interaction between the leaders’ internal
thoughts and beliefs and their external elements in their environment that includes other
individuals. The social cognitive concept further explains that in this reciprocal relationship,
the leaders’ personal factors (cognitive processing and behaviors) and his or her external
forces (people and circumstances) are both constantly interacting with and exerting
influencing on the other (Bandura, 2001).
Human functioning, according to Bandura (1986), is characterized by five different
human capabilities: symbolizing, forethought, vicarious learning, self-regulation, and selfreflection.
Important to the current study, where respondents were asked to note their own
perceived efficacy beliefs, self-reflection was significantly determinative to one’s behavior.
Bandura’s definition of self-efficacy highlights the important relationship between a person’s
judgment of their abilities and an intended action. However, Bandura (1986) understood selfefficacy
as the most influential arbiter in human functioning in comparison to all cognitive
and personal factors.
The self-efficacy construct has a strong predictive element in terms of future
achievement. Self-efficacy functions as a mediator between past knowledge, skills, and
achievement and future achievement. Self-efficacy, therefore, affects a person’s behavior by
impacting behavioral choices, expended effort, and persistence exhibited even in the face of
failure. Consequently, self-efficacy can often be utilized to predict future success better than
one’s actual skills and abilities (Bandura, 1986). Consideration of the high predictive potential
of the self-efficacy construct could aid school administrators with several components of
character education programming including program selection, implementation strategies, and
staff needs.