Self-Efficacy can be described as the individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce a specific performance, or in simpler terms, to believe in one's ability to do a task. The article by Lavelle (2006) does it's best to explain self-efficacy amongst teachers and the research along with it. In this paper, I will briefly summarize the article describing the research of Self-Efficacy and responding to the articles, then use the gained information to analyze my own writing efficacy.
In the article, Lavelle (2006) mentions that believing in your own competency in writing as well as actual skill in writing plays an important role in teaching and the ability to be effective writer. "Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Writing" scores on the volunteering participants who are 64 teachers enrolled in a graduate course on a scale examining their self-efficacy. A high score on the self-efficacy test is bad and a lower score on the Low Self Efficacy Scale is good. The scale overall measures the adults' beliefs regarding writing competence. Results of said test support that a high score on the Low Self-Efficacy scale was related to poor writing quality. The strengths of this "Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Writing" are that it offers a different viewpoint on how professionals look at themselves and their ability to write. The major weakness I found in the article is that it is dense material to get through and its repetitiveness does not benefit the professionalism of the article. I also found the article to be poorly written with several mistakes, and for a published scholarly article, this article should not be the case since.
When I write an essay on a topic I feel comfortable with, I notice I have high self-efficacy and usually produce better scores on the essay or whatever it is I am writing. Analyzing my own writing and efficacy, I have learned to try and fully understand the topics or get comfortable with them before I begin to write.
