How college freshmen increase their academic self-efficacy? An indigenous approach

Abstract

To cope with the pressure, freshmen needs to come up with various strategies, such as increasing their academic self-efficacy (Clark, 2005). This study was designed to understand how college freshmen increase their academic self-efficacy. We recruited 206 college freshmen, whom identified themselves as Javanese and we asked them to complete an open-ended questionnaire. We posed them with questions ‘do you believe that you can accomplish college assignment properly?’ and ‘how do you increase that belief?’ This study incorporates indigenous psychology in it’s design to understand the data contextually. Data obtained from the field was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Result showed that 46.60% respondent increase their academic self-efficacy by increasing mastery, 21.36% by increasing motivation, 12.14% by setting up mindset, 10.19% by increasing religiosity, and 5.34% by preparations.It can be concluded that most respondents increase academic self-efficacy by increasing mastery.