3 Things I learned
1) In past readings and classes, I learned about self-esteem and self-concept. In this reading, I learned about self-efficacy. More specifically, the self-efficacy of teachers and how to develop and maintain higher efficacy. Self-efficacy is involved in self-concept, but rather than judgements of self-worth, it is made up of judgements of personal capabilities. The self-efficacy of teachers is their belief of whether or not they can reach all students and help them learn, no matter who the student is. It is believed that teachers with higher senses of efficacy tend to work harder, persist longer, and are less likely to experience burnout. Some ways to develop higher efficacy is by having healthy relationships and partnering with coworkers, be open to receiving help from the principal, and pursue professional development opportunities.
2) In one of my previous blog posts, I discussed private speech as a way of focusing. In this reading, they look at private speech as a way of self-instruction by repeating words of a parent or teacher, which can be done to regulate behaviour. The term they use to describe this is cognitive behaviour modification. Cognitive behaviour modification follows a set of steps. First, the adult performs a task while talking to themselves, also known as cognitive modelling. The child then performs the same tasks while being instructed and directed by the model, in this case the parent; this step demonstrates overt, external guidance. The third step is when the child performs the task while instructing themselves while speaking aloud, this is known as overt, self-guidance. Then, the child whispers to them self to demonstrate faded, overt self-guidance. Finally, the child will be able to perform the task while guiding their performance using private speech, known as covert self-instruction.
3) In this reading, I also learned that there is no such thing as the “best approach” because they all work together. They refer to these approaches as the four pillars of learning. The first pillar is the constructivist theory, which is where the understanding and making sense of the material occurs. The second pillar is the cognitive theory, which is where they remember what they understood. The third is the behavioural theory, which is when they apply and practice what they learned. The fourth is the social cognitive theory in which they make their new skills and understandings and make them fluid and learn to take charge of their own learning. The reading states that all four pillars are important as failure to attend any part of the process results in lower-quality learning.
2 Connections
1) The triarchic reciprocal causality refers to how the environment and the individual affect each other. In addition, there are three types of influences – personal, environmental, and behavioural. A connection I made to this is an experience I had in middle school when my eighth grade teacher shared my creative writing story with the class and explained how creative and well-written it was (environmental). After this, my confidence and interest in English classes and creative writing increased (personal) and I began to put more effort into these classes (behaviour).
2) I never really thought of setting goals as a way of teaching self-regulation, but after the reading I learned that it is. Through setting goals, students are encouraged to look at the long term and go through reflective processes. A connection I made to this was the three-way conferences that I had with my teachers and parents in elementary school. We were always asked to reflect on what we did well, what we need to improve on, and how we can make these improvements. Through this, we did learn how to self-regulate which helped us in academic success.
1 Question
Page 373 of the reading mentions vicarious reinforcement, which is the process of increasing the chances that we will repeat a behaviour by observing another person being reinforced for that behaviour. For example, a teacher may reinforce or praise a student in front of another student to encourage others to work harder.
With that, a question I had in regard to it is if it ever does the opposite of what it’s intended to do? For example, does praising other students’ work make other students feel down or feel as though their work is not good enough? Or will they end up always comparing themselves or their work to other students?