Opinion Blog

Ask a Psychologist

Helping Students Thrive Now

Angela Duckworth and other behavioral-science experts offer advice to teachers based on scientific research. Read more from this blog.

Student Well-Being Opinion

How to Cultivate Confidence in Students

By Angela Duckworth — January 20, 2021 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
How do I help students recover from failure?

This is the second in a four-part series on self-efficacy. Read the first piece on why students persist or quit here.

After students fail a test, how do I help them believe in themselves again?

When students get knocked down, they need small wins to help them regain their confidence. Here’s something I wrote recently on the topic for Character Lab as a Tip of the Week:
Where does the conviction that I can do this if I try come from?
In 1977, the psychologist Albert Bandura asserted that the most important determinant of self-efficacy is what he calls mastery experiences. After a lifetime of study, he hasn’t changed his mind.
The main idea is simple: If you attempt hard things, again and again, and eventually succeed, you come to believe in your capabilities. In contrast, if you fail repeatedly, you come to believe that you can’t succeed, even if you try.
The logic of mastery leading to confidence is undeniable. But it’s easy to forget.
When my daughter Amanda was in 7th grade, she opted into an accelerated-math class. That fall, our little house shook with her weeping and wailing as she struggled to keep up. I’m the psychologist in the family, but in this instance, everything I knew about motivation and emotion went out the window as I, like Amanda, began to believe that this math class was just too hard for her.
Instead, it was my husband, the real estate developer, who would sit next to Amanda, take out the umpteenth sheet of scrap paper, and help her. They would work through the easiest problems in the homework set, then the next easiest ones, and finally—sometimes after I’d gone to bed—the trickiest and most complex problems at the very end.
Gradually, Amanda caught up with her classmates. With each milestone, her confidence grew. By her sophomore year of high school, she was doing math problems with friends for fun. In her senior year, to my utter amazement, she wondered aloud whether she’d major in math in college.
What Jason had engineered for Amanda is what Bandura recommends for all young people: a series of challenges, each incrementally more difficult than the next, but none so far a stretch that success is impossible. In other words, without fighting her battles for her, Jason made possible a series of small wins.
Carefully designed mastery experiences are, I think, at the core of many transformative experiences. Consider this study of Outward Bound. When asked to rate the impact of more than two-dozen factors on their self-concept and motivation, graduates of this outdoor-adventure program gave the highest score to “achieving individual success” and the lowest to “failing to achieve success.” As one female graduate later elaborated: “Trying and then succeeding made me realize it’s all about mental attitude. We can do so much if we believe we can or even if we just try anyway.”
Don’t assume that the young people in your life can calibrate their learning to be just-hard-enough. As Bandura points out, “subdividing complex skills into subskills produces better learning than trying to teach everything at once.” Rare is the student who can do this subdividing on their own, particularly at the beginning of a learning journey.
Do let your students earn their confidence. If Outward Bound weren’t hard, it wouldn’t work. “If people experience only easy successes,” Bandura says, “they come to expect quick results and are easily discouraged by failure.”
Angela Duckworth, the founder and CEO of the education nonprofit Character Lab, is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. You can sign up to receive Tip of the Week here or follow Character Lab on Twitter @TheCharacterLab.

The opinions expressed in Ask a Psychologist: Helping Students Thrive Now are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by Boys Town
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Opinion 3 Things You Need to Know About Absenteeism
We studied the data from more than 1.5 million students. Here’s are some overlooked insights to boost attendance.
Todd Rogers, Emily Bailard & Mikia Manley
4 min read
Scattered school desks seen from above, some with red x's on them signifying absences.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and iStock/Getty Images
Student Well-Being SEL Has Become Politicized. Schools Are Embracing It Anyway
Eighty-three percent of principals report that their schools use an SEL curriculum or program.
5 min read
Image of positive movement when attending to a student's well-being is a component.
Dmitrii_Guzhanin/iStock/Getty and Laura Baker/Education Week
Student Well-Being Students Don't Want to Talk About Politics, Either
The election is occurring at a time when many schools are discouraged from having tough conversations in class.
6 min read
Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio.
Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio. Researchers say students are more reluctant to talk politics this election cycle.
Eric Gay/AP
Student Well-Being Opinion Can Athletic Coaches Help Students Learn More in the Classroom?
School sports can provide an opportunity for mentorship.
8 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty