Writing essays: does self-efficacy matter? The relationship between self-efficacy in reading and in writing and undergraduate students’ performance in essay writing

Abstract

Self-efficacy beliefs have been identified as associated with students’ academic performance. The present research assessed the relationship between two new self-efficacy scales (self-efficacy in reading [SER] and self-efficacy in writing [SEW]) and students’ writing performance on a piece of assessed written coursework. Using data from first and second year undergraduate psychology students at a UK university (N = 145), the results showed that both SER and SEW were related to actual writing performance. Overall the results support the importance of the concept of self-efficacy in relation to student performance. We discuss the relevance of self-efficacy on students’ perceptions and self-regulations.

Keywords:

• self-efficacy writing
• self-efficacy reading
• writing performance
• social cognitive theory