Why Self-Efficacy Matters | Mamie Morrow | TEDxFSCJ

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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]

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