Relationships Between the Sources of Self-Efficacy and Changes in Competence Perceptions of Music Students During an All-State Orchestra Event

409 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.Recent advances suggesting that talent is malleable and can be developed through effort have led to a redefining of musical ability, and have stressed the role of teachers in motivating students to persist when setbacks and self-doubts might hinder their progress. Individuals with a high sense of self-efficacy have a strong belief in their own capacity, and are more likely to persist in the face of obstacles as they strive toward higher levels of performance. The potential for self-efficacy research is promising in music education, where a common emphasis on achievement and competition can lead to considerable physical, emotional, and mental demands. This study observes the sources of self-efficacy and other contextual and intrapersonal influences upon changes in music competence perception of high school orchestra students at a statewide music festival in the United States. A concurrent nested, semi-integrated mixed method design was used for simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data. Surveys were developed and adapted from prior self-efficacy research to reflect distinctive features of a music ensemble rehearsal setting. Analyses suggest that students with higher self-efficacy beliefs were influenced by the sources of self-efficacy, with a primary influence from enactive mastery experience. Students with high self-efficacy beliefs were also positively influenced by (a) positive and negative conductor feedback; (b) encouragement from other students; (c) seeing other students succeed; and (d) issues of fatigue. Students with low self-efficacy beliefs felt more capable after seeing that other students were struggling. Variations in self-efficacy perceptions were evident according to gender, orchestra placement, instrument group, and relative number of same-school peers at the festival. Additional findings suggest that self-efficacy perceptions in a socially comparative environment were most associated with the ability to impress others, and least associated with the ability to perform expressively. This research offers implications and strategies to assist music educators in fostering high student self-beliefs, including teaching self-regulation of cognitive processes. Findings demonstrate how the sources of self-efficacy can be used to assist music students in becoming more musically capable, and to act as agents of their own cognition, motivation, and musical development.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD