Increasing Self-Efficacy by Helping Students Become Self-Regulated Learners in Sophomore- and Junior-Level Meteorology Courses

Self-efficacy is a student’s confidence in their own abilities to complete different tasks (Bandura, 1986). Callahan et al. (2017) identified self-efficacy as a theoretical framework to target in broadening under-represented student participation in programs in the geosciences. Bandura (1986) outlined four ways a student can boost their self-efficacy, one of which is direct experience, when a student encounters an activity and experiences success. This is the strongest influencing factor on self-efficacy, and this study seeks to help students have direct experiences by guiding them in techniques that help them become self-regulated learners. Student self-efficacy is assessed at the beginning and end of the semester, and exercises in self-regulated learning are implemented throughout the semester in thermodynamics and dynamic meteorology courses. Examples of exercises in self-regulated learning and preliminary results demonstrating student changes in self efficacy will be presented. This study explores instructional techniques that may aid in persistence for all students, including historically underrepresented students such as women and minority groups, helping combat the “leaky pipeline.”