Indigenous student achievement in higher education: The influence of cultural factors on self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is a significant variable in student learning because it affects students' motivation and learning. Self efficacy is defined as beliefs about one's own ability to be successful in the performance of a task and includes mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and emotional arousal (Bandura 1977). Self-efficacy is not created by easy success; it requires experience in overcoming obstacles and difficult situations through maintained effort and persistence. Students obtain information about their own capabilities by observing others, especially peers who offer suitable possibilities for comparison. Students often receive information that affirms and persuades them that they are able to perform a task and this is most effective when people who provide this information are viewed by students as knowledgeable and reliable, and the information is realistic. This paper investigates the literature on the relationship between self-efficacy and higher education student participation and achievement, and highlights the significant gap of what is known within the Indigenous context, both nationally and internationally.