Instructors should take care to ensure the equitable and consistent use of practices to support self-efficacy.
If instructor feedback is not carefully provided, and focuses too much on the end-result, students’ fixed mindsets may be reinforced and their self-efficacy will not be enhanced.
If instructors give too much praise, for too trivial of tasks – students will learn to ignore, or be skeptical of the praise.
If an instructor offers verbal praise for correct responses only to students from a particular group – the praise may not have the desired effect. For example: if an instructor offers verbal praise/encouragement only to women students - the class could come to believe either that: a) the faculty member believes only the women can (and possibly should) succeed in the class (i.e. has a bias in favor of women), or b) believes that the women are not as qualified or prepared as the men in the class, and is offering overt, and sometimes unwarranted praise. In the latter, the praise may actually have a negative effect on the recipient’s self-efficacy. In the former, the praise may have a negative effect on the groups that do not receive the praise.