Self-Efficacy, Persistence & Feedback
Why do people persist on some difficult tasks and withdraw from others?
Retrieval Warm-Up
Without notes, write one idea you already know that might connect to Self-Efficacy, Persistence & Feedback. Then write one question the lesson should help you answer.
Essential Question
Why do people persist on some difficult tasks and withdraw from others?
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- define self-efficacy as a belief about capability in a particular task or situation;
- distinguish self-efficacy from self-esteem, intelligence, and actual skill;
- explain how feedback, prior success, modeling, task difficulty, and context can influence persistence;
- distinguish productive persistence from ineffective repetition;
- explain why persistence alone does not guarantee success.
self-efficacy
Vocabulary in Context
self-efficacy · persistence · feedback · mastery experience · strategy · challenge · effort · performance · opportunity · attribution
Substantial Core Reading
Self-efficacy concerns the expectation that one can organize and carry out actions needed for a particular task. It is domain-specific: a person may have high confidence in drawing, low confidence in public speaking, and moderate confidence in mathematics.
Self-efficacy can influence whether people begin a task, how much effort they invest, and how long they persist. But confidence does not create ability by itself. Performance also depends on knowledge, practice, strategy, resources, opportunity, task difficulty, health, and environmental conditions.
Persistence is valuable when a strategy remains sensible or can be improved. Repeating an ineffective strategy indefinitely is not necessarily adaptive. Good persistence often includes monitoring, feedback, adjustment, and knowing when to seek another approach.
Worked Example / Synthesis
Two students fail the first attempt at a coding challenge.
Student A concludes: “I need a different strategy and more practice.” Student B concludes: “I am incapable of coding.”
The first interpretation may support another attempt, but neither statement alone reveals actual future ability. Evidence would require observing strategy, practice, feedback, and later performance.
Psychological Scientist's Desk
Claim: “Confidence causes success.”
Students separate:
- correlation between confidence and performance;
- possible effects of prior success on confidence;
- possible effects of confidence on persistence;
- third variables such as preparation or prior skill.
Data Lens
Fictional experiment:
| Feedback condition | Mean persistence time | Correct solutions |
|---|---:|---:|
| Specific strategy feedback | 14.8 min | 7.2 |
| General praise only | 10.6 min | 5.8 |
| No feedback | 9.9 min | 5.4 |
Students identify the manipulated variable, dependent variables, strongest supported conclusion, and at least two limits. They must avoid concluding that specific feedback is always superior for every learner and task.
Claims Laboratory
Claim: “If you are motivated enough, you can achieve anything.”
Target judgment: Unsupported as a universal claim. Motivation can influence effort and persistence, but outcomes are also constrained by skill, opportunity, resources, time, biology, social conditions, chance, and task demands.
Guided Investigation
Students evaluate four fictional cases using: Goal → Expectation → Strategy → Feedback → Environmental Support → Persistence → Outcome.
For each, they distinguish:
- evidence of motivation;
- evidence of strategy quality;
- evidence of opportunity or constraint;
- what cannot be inferred.
Independent Assignment
Persistence Is Not a Personality Verdict. Write a 400–550 word case analysis explaining why one fictional student's persistence changes across two situations. Include self-efficacy, feedback, task difficulty, strategy, and context.
Research Notebook Checkpoint
Ask:
- Could expectations of success influence the behavior in my research question?
- Would confidence be measured separately from actual performance?
- Could prior success cause both confidence and later persistence?
Academic Journal Reflection
Why is “worked harder” an incomplete explanation of performance differences?