Forming Optimal Classroom Environments Through Bandura’s Mastery Experiences

Abstract

Higher education faculty members are increasingly being asked to defend their teaching methods with research-based support. This article offers such evidence through a randomized control-group pretest-posttest study that examined whether a newly created andragogy method, Forming Optimal Classroom Environments (FOCE), increased master’s students’ research self-efficacy in comparison to the standard teaching method (STM). The article details the model, based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory, particularly his concept of self-efficacy. The model relies upon both Bandura’s publications and results over the last forty years from researchers who have investigated higher education teaching techniques based on the concept of self-efficacy. Fifteen such research-based techniques form the model. Results found no significant interaction effect when comparing FOCE with the STM. Additionally, both teaching methods demonstrated that knowledge increases were positively correlated with research self-efficacy increases. This indicates that increasing research knowledge is one factor in increasing students’ research self-efficacy. Implications of findings are discussed.