Students with high self-efficacy beliefs use more varied and conceptual learning strategies, show more persistence in the face of difficult tasks, and have greater academic performance. The expectancy of success more accurately predicts subsequent grades of students than their prior grades. The good news is that competence beliefs are reactive to changes in instruction and the classroom environment.

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Students usually attribute their performance to some type of cause. The four major causal attributions are luck, task difficulty, effort, and ability. Of the four, only attributing one’s performance to effort boosts motivation in both failures and successes. Also, learners with a growth mindset show significantly greater gains in motivation and performance over time.