Self-efficacy and Cognitive Distortion in the Learning Environment

Abstract

Increasing demands for educational institutions to provide reliable measures of student success and student satisfaction have accelerated the way education systems worldwide have transformed their educational missions and mandates regarding the learning environment. However, guaranteeing such measures of assurance of learning is still a challenge since there is no clear-cut definition that fully articulates the wide range of expected academic outcomes associated with the learning environment. Despite this, various studies have shown that faculty perceptions and beliefs about the learning environment can influence learners extracting meaning from their learning experiences. Although these studies have provided vital information for carving a path to the best possible education for learners, they focus only on faculty and the innate characteristics that affect student learning. They place little emphasis on the ability of students to define and achieve goals based on knowing that their own choice-making, problem-solving, self-advocacy, internal locus of control, self-awareness, and self-knowledge as dispositions to them actively learning. Consequently, this chapter explores, via an analytic literature review, the psychological and psychosocial elements underpinning the Inputs-Environment-Outcomes model of the learning environment. Particularly, it explores character education and academic performance in terms of the concepts of social competence, social perception, self-efficacy, and cognition.