Contributions of Albert Bandura to education

Abstract

Albert Bandura ranks as one of the greatest psychologists of all time, His contributions to psychology are too numerous to list in a short article, Notably, he developed social cognitive theory from its forerunner social learning theory that was heavily behaviorally based, By including cognitive and affective variables in social cognitive theory, Bandura greatly expanded the scope and applicability of social cognitive theory, The expanded theory also incorporated self-regulation, and importantly, introduced the construct self-efficacy, In this article we highlight three of Bandura’s contributions to education: modeling and observational learning, self-efficacy, and self-regulation, Contributions in these areas are especially noteworthy because they have affected theory development, research, and practice, We initially discuss the conceptual framework of social cognitive theory grounded in reciprocal interactions among personal, behavioral, and environmental influences, We then cover modeling and observational learning, self-efficacy, and self-regulation, For each we discuss theory and supporting research evidence, along with some applications, The article concludes with suggestions for future research,