1. El primer Ihering y la jurisprudencia de conceptos.
1.1. Antecedentes Los pandectistas.
Self-belief informs actions to accomplish a task or succeed in specific situations, while self-efficacy plays a major role in how an individual meets these challenges or tasks (Bandura, 1997a). Motivation, behaviour and performance are all affected by a person’s self- belief in their own capabilities (Bandura, 1986). Bandura (1997a) identifies three important factors that influence teacher self-efficacy: 1) vicarious experiences; 2) mastery experiences; and 3) collective efficacy. Vicarious experiences incorporate activities such as modelling, and are influential in learning by observing another’s proficient use of skills and strategies,
thereby acquiring effective ideas for raising one’s own efficacy and motivation to succeed. By contrast, mastery experiences are more concerned with success in past actions, leading to optimism for success in similar future tasks. Collective efficacy includes aspects such as educational leadership, the supportive nature of the education system, working conditions, and ongoing training and support. Collective efficacy creates a circular effect, in that the positive self-efficacy displayed by instructors can enhance student learning, who in turn, may become teachers themselves. Bandura (1997a) summarises this as follows:
There are three main ways in which efficacy beliefs operate as important contributors to the development of cognitive competencies that govern academic achievement: student beliefs in their efficacy to master different academic subjects; teachers’ beliefs in their personal efficacy to motivate and promote learning in their students; and faculties’ collective sense that their schools can accomplish significant academic progress (p. 214).
According to Bandura (1997a), self-efficacy beliefs have a direct influence on persistence and effort. Given that music is largely a skill-based subject involving high levels of performance, participation in musical activities requires motivation to expend effort meaningfully. In short, positive engagement with music can build a positive attitude to music
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(Garvis, 2008). Feeling a sense of joy or success in learning a skill is likely to motivate an individual to repeat the skill and build upon it in the future (de Vries, 2017).
Pre-service teachers’ lack of musical confidence is a common hurdle in teacher training courses (Sinclair et al., 2012). Their attitudes towards music have usually been acquired over their lifetimes (Russell-Bowie, 2002), and in some cases, providing positive learning experiences in a minimal timeframe is a major challenge for tertiary institutions (Russell-Bowie, 2010). The undisputed link between confidence and competence could potentially reduce incidences of pre-service teachers coming to teacher training with little musical experience from school, and therefore fewer skills (Lowe et al., 2017). Wiggins and Wiggins (2008) note that: “Much attention has been paid to generalist teachers’ confidence to teach music (Jeanneret, 1997; Russell, 1996) and factors that contribute to that confidence (Hennessy, 2000)”. Wiggins and Wiggins go on to state: ‘However, Bartel, Cameron, Wiggins and Wiggins (2004) drew on Bandura’s (1977, 1986, 1997) work on self-efficacy to make the point that confidence alone is meaningless if it is not accompanied by competence” (p. 3).
Bandura (1997a) states categorically that an individual who does not believe they can achieve a task is unlikely to attempt it:
Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act. Efficacy belief, therefore, is a major basis of action. People guide their lives by their beliefs in personal efficacy. Perceived self- efficacy refers to beliefs in one’s capabilities to organise and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments (p. 3).
Gu and Day (2007) describe the particular challenges and demands of the teaching profession. To teach music (or any other subject) competently requires not only the requisite skills, but also the self-belief to use those skills effectively (Bandura, 1986). Bandura argues that operating effectively requires an ability to continuously call on “subskills to manage ever-changing circumstances, most of which contain
ambiguous, unpredictable and often stressful elements” (1986, p. 381). Le Cornu (2009) asserts that pre-service teachers need to be resilient and able to persevere under stressful conditions. One’s self-belief influences one’s decisions to pursue any course of action, in this case, to teach music (Bandura, 1997a). Furthermore, self-influence is determined
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by the freedom of individuals to make their own choices (Bandura, 1997a). Bandura (1997a) describes self-influences as: 1) participants feel they have a professional choice to engage in activities or not; 2) participants’ beliefs in whether an activity is “worth the effort”; and 3) participants’ beliefs that something is worth pursuing. These three
influences can also be applied to pre-service music teachers as shown in Figure 1, where examples of belief statements revolve around the central premise: Will I teach music?
Figure 1: Self-Influences on Pre-Service Teachers’ Decisions to Teach Music
A decision to teach music is partly self-determined, since pre-service teachers have the capacity to learn how to do so through their own efforts (Bandura, 1989). The prospect of failure or the belief that music is too hard to learn can undermine a teacher’s efficacy to teach music successfully. Bandura (1989) elaborates:
People’s perceptions of their efficacy influence the types of anticipatory scenarios they construct and reiterate. Those who have a high sense of efficacy visualize success scenarios that provide positive guides for performance. Those who judge themselves as inefficacious are more inclined to visualize failure scenarios that undermine performance by dwelling on how things will go wrong (p. 3).
The acquisition of knowledge and skills requires resilient self-belief (Bandura, 1989); that is, the self-belief to continue striving for success despite difficulties and setbacks. Pre-
Will I
teach
music?
Persistence. Can I overcome obstacles? Professional choice. Can I avoid teaching music? Effort. Is it worth the effort?19
service teachers with low self-efficacy to teach music often have increased anxiety and may avoid teaching music wherever possible (Bandura, 1989). Bandura (1994) proposes four major processes effect performance:
1. Affective – the emotional state of mind; 2. Cognitive – the acquisition of knowledge; 3. Motivation – persistence of effort; and
4. Self- Regulation – self-control over self-motivation, inner thoughts, emotional outlook and behaviour patterns.
Pre-service teacher education directly assists with building cognitive processes and potentially influences motivation and affective states. Bandura (1994) maintains that mastery of experiences is the most effective way of developing a strong sense of self-efficacy.
Teacher training institutions have the capacity to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to master associated subjects and build self-efficacy. Bandura (2011) argues self- belief can be developed in four ways:
1. Providing opportunities to build mastery - overcoming obstacles through persistence; 2. Social modelling - observation of peers overcoming challenges;
3. Social persuasion - encouragement to believe in oneself; and 4. Resolve - encouragement to measure success by self-improvement.
By their very nature, capabilities take time to develop. “Self-efficacy is concerned with perceived capability” within a specific domain or area of interest (Bandura, 2006, p. 2). In music education, specific skills need to be understood and/or mastered, and this requires time and persistence through gradations of challenges (Bandura, 2006). Mastering music skills is one aspect or causality that can lead to a self-belief in teaching music. Music
education requires adequate development of both music and teaching skills, for example, the ability to perform music and having the requisite skills will affect the perceived self-efficacy of one’s ability to teach music skills (Bandura, 2006). Perceived collective efficacy is a collective view that one can and should be able to succeed in a given area. For example, an educational viewpoint influencing generalist teachers could be a collective belief that it is important for generalists to teach music effectively in their classrooms (Bandura, 2006). Figure 2 depicts the environmental conditions that can impact on pre-service teachers’ self- efficacy to teach music in the context of music education, where there is a collective belief
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that generalist teachers can and should teach music and develop adequate music skills to enhance their ability to do so effectively.
Figure 2: Institutional Expectations and Training that Influence Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy
to Teach Music
Importantly, as Figure 2 demonstrates, once an individual has developed self-efficacy in a given skill or domain it can be difficult to change, and therefore teacher training
institutions play a vital role in forming positive dispositions towards music and teaching (Bandura, 1997a; Garvis, 2013). However, as previously noted, the time allocated for
developing musical skills has been considerably reduced in primary teacher training over the last ten years, and it may be the case that the limited time is inadequate for pre-service teachers to develop the self-efficacy required to competently teach music, despite it being a mandated curriculum subject.