Fostering Your Students’ Weaker Subjects
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Helping students gain self-efficacy in all subjects is important because doing so can help them rule out fields they know they are not interested in, not because they are “bad” at that topic, but because it simply isn’t their favorite thing in the world to do.
Building Student Self-Confidence.
Does your child absolutely hate math? In addition to hating math, do they feel that they just
aren’t that good at it? For students, disliking a subject and being “bad” at a subject often
overlap, causing them to forsake that topic entirely and stick with the narrative that they (and
maybe even their schools) have created for them, which is that they are simply “bad” at the
topics they dislike.
Student Confidence = Self-Efficacy
Fostering self-efficacy, or a person’s belief in their own capacity to successfully complete a
certain task, can be an unintended side effect of tutoring. If students can overcome the belief
that they are “bad” at a certain string of subjects, they can begin to explore those subjects from
a mindset where they allow themselves to wonder if they really like or dislike this subject,
rather than relying on their previous experiences to tell them this is a frustrating topic and that
they should stay very far away from it in the future.
Helping students gain self-efficacy in all subjects is important because doing so can help them
rule out fields they know they are not interested in, not because they are “bad” at that topic,
but because it simply isn’t their favorite thing in the world to do. When students (and adults!)
choose to go forward in the subject that has always come easiest to them without trying out
other options, they risk entering what developmental psychologist James Marcia refers to as
foreclosure. People who foreclose on their career choices pick the thing that always seemed like
an obvious choice. Of course, if skill and interest align, this is a great thing! Marcia’s Identity
Theory does not denounce doing so; instead, it suggests that people must go through
exploratory phases in which they try different things– including things they may feel they are
“bad” at– in order to be sure about their choice, even if it is the thing they felt they would likely
choose in the first place. Once people experience this exploratory phase, which Marcia refers to
as moratorium, people have a greater likelihood of experiencing achievement in their ultimate
choice, which refers to true satisfaction in the decision made.
Achieving Self-Confidence
We all experience Marcia’s phases at multiple times in our lives, and my hope is that students
will be given chances during their moratorium phase to try as much as they can and to rule
things out, not just based on the fact that those subjects may be hard for them, but also based
on the fact that they know they simply enjoy other subjects more. When students are given the
chance to gain self-efficacy in subjects they find difficult, they are more likely to make decisions
about their future career choices that they will find more satisfying because they know for sure
(in light of their new and improved skills) that despite the fact that math is no longer frustrating,
it just might not be their thing.