Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 5, No. 37
April - June 2021. e-ISSN 2550-6862. págs 32-45
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31876/er.v5i37.791
Perceived Self-Efficacy Geared Towards Education:
Systematic Review
La autoeficacia percibida orientada a la educación: revisión sistemática
Roger Patricio-Gamboa
*
, Joel Alanya-Beltrán
**
, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori
***
, Yanet
Poma-Santivañez
****
Received: January 11, 2020.
Approved: September 18, 2020.
Abstract
Self-efficacy is understood as a person’s perception of the
ability to plan and perform specific tasks. This article presents
a systematic review of the literature about related to perceived
self-efficacy in the educational field. Relevant aspects are
identified unknown and controversial relevant aspects, as well
as provide information on perceived self-efficacy in students
and teachers. The methodology is a descriptive and
introspective review. The analysis was carried out in databases
(Scopus, EBSCO, SciELO, Dialnet and Google Scholar)
between 2011 and 2020. A final sample of 26 articles was
obtained, which demonstrated the identification of various
aspects related to perceived self-efficacy applied to both
students and teachers. In conclusion, the studies analyzed
provided insight into the themes and designs used in the
matter.
Key words:
Perceived Self-efficacy, Education, Learning,
Achievement
Cite this:
Patricio-Gamboa, R., Alanya-
Beltrán, J., Acuña-Condori, S.,
Poma-Santivañez, Y. (2021).
Perceived Self-Efficacy Geared
Towards Education: Systematic
Review. Espirales. Revista
Multidisciplinaria de investigación
científica, 5(37), 32-45
* Candidate for a Doctor in Education.
Universidad César Vallejo, Chiclayo, Perú.
E-mail: ppatricioga@ucvvirtual.edu.pe.
ORCID: 0000-0003-4885-4630.
Google Scholar.
** Master in University Teaching. Universidad
César Vallejo, Chiclayo, Perú.
E-mail: jalanyab@ucvvirtual.edu.pe.
ORCID: 0000-0002-8058-6229.
Google Scholar.
*** PhD student in Education. Universidad
César Vallejo, Chiclayo, Perú. E-mail:
sacunac1@ucv.edu.pe. ORCID: 0000-
0001-6212-8841. Google Scholar.
****Candidate for a Doctor in Education.
Universidad César Vallejo, Chiclayo, Perú.
E-mail: ypomas@ucvvirtual.edu.pe.
ORCID: 0000-0002-1213-014X.
Google Scholar.
Roger Patricio-Gamboa, Joel Alanya-Beltrán, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori, Yanet Poma-Santivañez
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Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 5, No. 37
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Introduction
Self-efficacy is understood as a perception of the person about the ability to plan and
perform specific tasks. Perceived self-efficacy, meanwhile, refers to a broad and stable
sense of personal competence on how effective a student can be when facing
challenges and achieving his goals (Segura et al, 2018; Yevilao, 2019; Santabárbara,
2020). Likewise, perceived self-efficacy indicates or reveals how the subject trusts their
abilities and skills to face an academic, personal or professional challenge (Fogg-
Rogers, & Moss, 2019; Kanadlı, 2017) and achieve results successfully. This confidence
is the product of his thoughts, feelings and experiences, which combined with his
actions presented good results and optimal development (Vizcaino, & Ramos, 2020;
Ornelas et al., 2012). On the other hand, when a person had experienced failure
situations (Yevilao, 2019), this would lead to acquiring a negative perceived self-efficacy,
and as a result of it, he would generate negativity, fear and frustration, which is reflected
when he gives up, even, before starting a task in any field. However, it is possible that
a person may feel effective and secure for a certain action at one time, and in turn, may
feel weak or doubtful for another action at another time.
In the field of education, perceived self-efficacy is important because it can generate in
the student the belief that he can trust himself and can face challenges, activities, exams
(Hamann, Pilotti, & Wilson, 2020; Tan et al., 2020) or, inclusive, face various situations
that allow desirable achievements. In this sense, there are many questions from the
point of view of the teacher, who questions the reasons why learning a course does not
have the desirable results, despite applying various methodologies, strategies or use of
various tools. Even, also, from the perspective of the student, who cannot understand
why it is so difficult to learn the topics. In this sense, Llor et al. (2020) mention that if a
student perceives that it will not be possible to achieve or meet his objectives then it
will generate different levels of fear, stress and anxiety (Karakoc, Uctu, & Bekmezci,
Resumen
La autoeficacia es entendida como una percepción de la persona
sobre la capacidad que tiene para planificar y realizar tareas
específicas. En este artículo se presenta una revisión sistemática de
la literatura sobre la autoeficacia percibida en el ámbito educativo.
Se identifican los aspectos relevantes conocidos, desconocidos y
controvertidos, así como información sobre la autoeficacia percibida
en estudiantes y docentes. La metodología es una revisión de
artículos, descriptiva e introspectiva. Se realizó un análisis de bases
de datos (Scopus, EBSCO, SciELO, Dialnet y Google Scholar) entre
2011 y 2020. Se obtuvo una muestra final de 26 artículos, los cuales
evidenciaron la identificación de diversos aspectos relacionados con
la autoeficacia percibida tanto en estudiantes como en docentes. En
conclusión, los estudios analizados facilitaron una visión sobre los
temas y diseños usados en la materia.
Palabras clave:
autoeficacia percibida, educación, aprendizaje,
rendimiento.
Perceived Self-Efficacy Geared Towards Education: Systematic Review
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January - March 2021. e-ISSN 2550-6862. págs 32-45
34
2020; Lines et al., 2020). In this way, perceived self-efficacy is important in both teachers
and students because if they manage to trust their capacities or abilities, which are
already developed, then their academic achievements could be achieved (Flores-Rivas,
& Marquez, 2020; Ramírez-Coronel et al., 2020) and obtain successful results when
facing challenges, which at first it would have been thought that could not be done.
In teaching a course, it is often observed that students do not want to solve a
mathematical problem, a writing exercise, even a physical exercise, a theater
performance, because they perceive it as very complicated or difficult; and this despite
they have the capacities and abilities to be able to carry them out, however, they do
not trust themselves, they have a low attitude (Alanya et al., 2020), since from the
beginning they presented problems of self-confidence, perceived self-efficacy and even
impotence and helplessness (Gürefe, & Bakalım, 2018). Thus, perceived self-efficacy
becomes a factor that the teacher must take into account, who must offer the necessary
tools to cultivate and develop interest and motivation in students (Sellan, 2017;
Oyarzún, & Valdés-León, 2020) in order to generate confidence in their own ability to
learn from the topics of the course, face the challenges (Topbaş, 2018), comply with the
activities of the educational environment and finally obtain a desirable result according
to the standards learning regulated by the institution and improve their academic
performance (Muñoz, 2020). For this, it is important to know the factors that influence
or not the perceived self-efficacy of both the student and the teacher.
Therefore, the present research aims to identify the relevant known, unknown and
controversial aspects, as well as to provide information on perceived self-efficacy in
students and teachers.
Materials and Methods
This review article is a descriptive documentary research, the procedure involves,
search, organization, systematization, and analysis of a grouping of bibliographic
documents.
The methodology took into account the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among the
inclusion criteria, only scientific articles that were related to the issue of perceived self-
efficacy in students were considered; that they are published in the databases of
Scopus, EBSCO, SciELO, Dialnet and Google Scholar; and published between 2011 and
2020 in Spanish and English languages. Among the exclusion criteria that were
considered were those articles that did not refer to the subject and those that were not
in indexed journals.
As search criteria, the following descriptors were included: "autoeficacia percibida",
"aprendizaje", "rendimiento", "autoestima", "enseñanza", "perceived self-efficacy",
"learning", "performance", "self-esteem" and "teaching". These descriptors were
combined in various ways at the time of exploration in order to broaden the search
criteria.
Roger Patricio-Gamboa, Joel Alanya-Beltrán, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori, Yanet Poma-Santivañez
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When scanning the documents, in each of the databases, 105 articles were preselected,
of which 26 potentially relevant articles were chosen, according to the inclusion and
exclusion criteria.
For the organization of bibliographic documents, a database was created in Excel, with
the following fields: database; language; article title; author; year; objectives; type of
research; educational level; population; aspects related to perceived self-efficacy and
research results.
Subsequently, the analysis of each of the 26 potentially relevant documents was carried
out, describing the most common and divergent aspects among the selected
documents, through a constant comparison exercise.
Results
Of the 26 potentially relevant articles for the systematic review, 12 of them were
published in Spanish and 14 in English, and about the database in which it was found,
2 were from Scopus, 14 were from EBSCO, 7 were from SciELO, 2 on Dialnet and 1 on
Google Scholar. All the investigations carried out in this review were characterized by
seeking to find a relationship between perceived self-efficacy and various categories
worked in both students and teachers. In Figure 1, the countries where the researches
of perceived self-efficacy have been carried out are shown, the information of which was
collected between the years 2011 and 2020. It can be noted that in Mexico and Turkey
the largest number of studies on self-efficacy were carried out perceived.
Figure 1.
Number of researches by country where the study was carried out. Source: author’s
own elaboration.
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In Figure 2, the types of studies that were carried out in the researches worked are
shown. The correlational scope studies with the highest number are highlighted,
followed by the descriptive design. On the contrary, the mixed and qualitative study
only presented one research each.
Figure 2.
Number of publications by type of study carried out. Source: author’s own
elaboration.
In Figure 3, the distribution of the number of publications worked by year of
publication is shown. It is highlighted that the number of studies is not constant, but
since 2016, the number of investigations has been higher than in previous years.
Figure 3.
Number of publications per year of publication. Source: author’s own elaboration.
Roger Patricio-Gamboa, Joel Alanya-Beltrán, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori, Yanet Poma-Santivañez
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Table 1 shows the second categories or variables used in the research carried out in this
review, taking into account that the first variable used was perceived self-efficacy.
Table 1.
Second category or variable worked on in each study
AUTOR
SECOND CATEGORY OR VARIABLE
WORKED
Aguirre et al.
The sex of the people
Basili et al.
Cross-cultural perspective
Collado et al.
Teacher attitudes
Criollo et al.
Learning a course
Del Río et al.
The amount of time spent studying
Del Valle et al.
Academic situations
Eun-Jo
Reading comprehension
Fernández-Viciana &
Fernández-Costales
The skills acquired
Fleming & Wated
Academic performance
Fogg-Rogers & Moss
Scope of engineering education
García-Fernández et al.
Academic self attributions
Gürefe & Bakalım
Mediating effect of perceived self-
efficacy
Hernández
Teaching performance
Kanadlı
perceived autonomy, attitudes towards
the teaching profession, level of belief
in professional self-efficacy
Määttä et al.
Social competence
Lee et al.
Teacher attitudes
Mojtahedzadeh & Mohammadi
Dictation of long/short courses
Oliveira et al.
Academic performance
Ornelas et al.
Academic conduct
Pool-Cibrián & Martínez-
Guerrero
Learning goal
Sezgin & Erdogan
Predictive influence of the teacher
Tladi
Academic performance
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Topbaş
Mathematical competence
Trevisol et al.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Vizcaino y Avilés
Learning a course
Xu et al.
Parental control/test anxiety
Source: author’s own elaboration.
Table 2 shows the unit of analysis in which each of the researches was carried out by
year and by category or variable worked. It is observed that the greatest amount of
research is carried out in students than in teachers.
Table 2.
Sample worked on in each of the categories or variables worked on
Second category or variable worked
Sample
Academic conduct
902 students
The amount of time spent studying
69 students
Learning goal
766 students
The sex of the people
282 students
Predictive influence of the teacher
600 teachers
Academic self attributions
874 students
Social competence
24 students
Reading comprehension
95 students
Dictation of long / short courses
39 teachers
Learning a course
1304 students
Academic performance
64 students
Parental control/test anxiety
401 students
Perceived autonomy, attitudes towards the teaching
profession, level of belief in professional self-efficacy.
173 students
Academic performance
313 students
504 students
Teacher attitudes
220 teachers
Mathematical competence
120 students
Teaching performance
30 teachers and 190
students
Roger Patricio-Gamboa, Joel Alanya-Beltrán, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori, Yanet Poma-Santivañez
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Mediating effect of perceived self-efficacy
277 students
Academic situations
297 students
Scope of engineering education
160 students
Learning a course
17 students
The skills acquired
37 students
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
296 students
Teacher attitudes
75 teachers
Cross-cultural perspective
1209 students
Source: author’s own elaboration.
Table 3 shows in detail of the results obtained in each research to evaluate the
relationship or positive effects of perceived self-efficacy, on each of the categories or
variables shown in Table 1. Furthermore, the categories were grouped into groups to
better identify it.
Table 3.
Results of the relationship or positive effect between perceived self-efficacy and the
second category studied
Category group or
variables
Second category or variable worked
Positive relationship or
effect
No
Yes
Teacher attitudes
Teacher attitudes
2
Teaching performance
1
Student attitudes
Academic self-attributions
1
Mediating effect of perceived self-efficacy
1
Perceived autonomy, attitudes towards the
teaching profession, level of belief in
professional self-efficacy
1
Learning goal
1
Predictive influence
of the teacher
Scope of engineering education
1
Predictive influence of the teacher
1
Motivation
Academic conduct
1
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
1
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Others
Social competence
1
Parental control/test anxiety
1
The sex of the people
1
The amount of time spent studying
1
Cross-cultural perspective
1
Academic situations
1
Academic
performance
Mathematical competence
1
Reading comprehension
1
Dictation of long/short courses
1
Learning a course
1
1
The skills acquired
1
Academic performance
3
Source: author’s own elaboration.
From Table 3, the variable called learning a course is the only one that shows that one
research did have a relationship with respect to perceived self-efficacy, while in another
investigation it had no direct relationship. It is also observed that the investigations
worked more on perceived self-efficacy with its relationship to academic performance.
On the contrary, it is important to indicate that four investigations whose variables are
within the group called ‘Others’ had no relationship or direct effect with respect to
perceived self-efficacy.
Table 4 shows in detail of the second categories worked with the perceived self-efficacy
by educational level and identified faculty. It is observed that, in the identified studies,
a greater number of studies are presented at the undergraduate level and that within
it, a greater number of studies were carried out in the School of Education. On the
contrary, at the postgraduate level, in Engineering, only two studies are presented.
Roger Patricio-Gamboa, Joel Alanya-Beltrán, Sandra Patricia Acuña-Condori, Yanet Poma-Santivañez
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Table 4.
Group of categories or variables worked on with perceived self-efficacy analyzed by
educational level or faculty
EDUCATION
LEVEL
LEVEL OR
SCHOOL
CATEGORY GROUP OR VARIABLES
Teacher
attitude
Student
attitude
Predictive
influence of
the teacher
Motivation
Other
Academic
performance
School
Primary
School
1
1
1
Special School
1
Middle School
1
1
1
2
Pregraduate
Engineering
1
1
Postgraduate
Management
1
1
Medicine
1
Education
1
1
1
1
Special
Education
1
Physical
Education
1
English
2
Mathematics
1
1
Psychology
1
1
Source: author’s own elaboration
Discussion
The researchers consulted in this systematic review considered it very important to
analyze the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and various variables, including
teacher attitudes, student attitudes, teacher predictive influence, motivation, academic
performance, among others. For this reason, the results that showed that the
correlational scope was the most predominant is quite logical.
It is relevant to indicate that the largest number of studies were carried out in America
and the Caribbean, closely followed by studies carried out on the European continent.
In addition, the largest amount of research was found in English in the high-impact
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database such as EBSCO, which reveals that this topic is significant for the scientific
community.
It was identified that, initially, between the years 2011 and 2013, the researches carried
out their studies in students to be able to measure their perceived self-efficacy with
respect to academic behavior, in addition, for these first studies it was verified that if
there is a relationship between the mentioned variables and perceived self-efficacy. On
the other hand, since 2015, studies with teachers were started analyzing the relationship
between the teacher’s predictive influence with their perceived self-efficacy, which
resulted in whether there is a relationship between them. Finally, the largest number of
researches worked with academic performance and perceived self-efficacy, which both
for the researchers and presents a permanent question, and which resulted in that in all
cases it was indicated that they were directly related.
The educational level where the least amount of studies was presented was at the
postgraduate level, and the highest number of studies was at the undergraduate level,
however, no study worked on the predictive influence of the teacher and his perceived
self-efficacy. On the other hand, several studies were found that were carried out at the
College level, at its basic, intermediate and special levels.
Regarding the limitations of this research, there is the bias in the descriptors made
during the search for information in the EBSCO, SciELO, Dialnet and Google Scholar,
databases, however, since it is a first approximation, it is considered sufficient since the
current literature and high scientific impact were considered.
Conclusions
After conducting the systematic literature review, it is concluded that few authors
decided to conduct studies in the pursuit of analyzing perceived self-efficacy from the
teachers’ perspective. However, based on the systematic review carried out, important
information could be collected in the 26 studies analyzed, where most studies conclude
that perceived self-efficacy is an important factor compared to each of the variables
studied. This systematic review, from the study of perceived self-efficacy, contributes to
the knowledge of researchers and educational personnel, it is also relevant and useful
for future research, and it is suggested to continue collecting information on this topic.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
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