Effects of Self-Correction Strategy Training on Middle School Students' Self-Efficacy, Self-Evaluation, and Mathematics Division Learning

Teachers need to monitor students' self-efficacy judgments, as well as their mathematics learning, to provide optimal instruction. First, inaccuracies in self-judgments appear to be a major liability for elementary and middle school children. Classroom practice must cultivate the knowledge to succeed and should nurture the belief that one can succeed. Second, accuracy training can be incorporated in a curriculum. After students solve the problems, teachers can show them how well they judged their capability to solve the problems. Students who can assess what they know and do not know will become better self-regulated learners. Third, strategy training in mathematics is very important. Students learn various strategies in school to solve mathematics problems, but they may not apply the strategies if they do not see their value. Teachers need to show the connection between strategy training and self-efficacy judgments and how these psychological variables relate to better mathematics performance. Students who utilize strategies in problem solving will develop higher efficacy compared to those who do not utilize them. Fourth, accurate self-reflection is important to students' success in math. Teachers can help students to hone this invaluable self-regulatory skill by giving them frequent opportunities to evaluate what they have learned or where they erred after completing a task. Students' self-efficacy is strengthened with tangible indicators of progress. Finally, unrealistically low self-efficacy beliefs and not lack of ability or skill may be responsible for avoidance of challenging academic courses such as math. Teachers will have to identify these inaccurate judgments and design and implement appropriate interventions to change them.