7.5

I read the chapter by Nel Noddings titled Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach.  The author’s main point is that student need to be taught critical metacognitive skills to help them understand how they learn best, what strategies work well for them, and what their key interests are.  Noddings suggests that students should be given assignments requiring them to engage in introspection, but fears that schools will not opt to provide such assignments for fear of the type of discussions it may elicit.  I can recall such an example in my own schooling history.  When I was a Junior in high school and in an Honors English III class, we were assigned to read Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.  I loved the book and have re-read it many times; however, I remember the heated discussions it elicited in my class and observing the discomfort of my teacher in having to discuss such topics that she herself was highly opinionated about.  This was also the only time in my school career that I felt that I was truly penalized in grading for having a different opinion than my teacher.

I do not believe that the thoughts of this article really fit into a social cognitive framework since much of what Noddings discusses in individualistic.  Instead, I feel that Nodding would fit better with an Information Processing theory or maybe even a Constructivist.  I would say he would agree with Information Processing theory because he talks about the importance of building schema and how to aid retrieval through the use of tricks and mnemonic devices.  In some ways, I could see Noddings as a Constructivist as well because he discusses the importance of building knowledge to maintain interest.

Noddings would describe a failure in learning as a complete lack of interest and a failure to learn important metacognitive skills to develop a system for learning that works for the student.  I think that how other theorists view failure hinges on whether they believe that failure is something that happens to the student or in the student.  A behaviorist might say that a student has been failed by a lack of proper reinforcement procedures to develop good habits.  A constructivist might believe that a student failed because he or she did not build strong enough schemas and associations to make learning meaningful.  Information processing theorists may say that a person fails when they do not have the right equipment to learn at a commensurate rate with peers.  The major difference is who or what controls the failure.

I do not believe that there is a specific recipe for success.  I think that we have discovered some things that may help, but nothing will work every time for everyone.  Goal setting tends to improve motivation and help people be successful as does impulse control.  However, neither of those things can guarantee success.  If goals are too lofty or impulses are controlled so much that there is never any risk, success could be inhibited.

Questions:
Teachers always ask me how to improve motivation.  What types of intervention is suggested for students who are struggling with motivation?
Does a high level of motivation lead to burn-out?
What are some factors that help to explain the vast amount of individual differences in motivation?
Is there a developmental component to motivation?

7.4

So, after observing my own behavior after reading the assignment for this post, I have realized that at least in some areas, I have a fixed view of ability.  Ever since finishing the reading and video watching for this activity (on Monday) I have been actively avoiding the blog post.  Why?  Because I believe that I am not good at creative things.  Any time I see an assignment that asks me to do something creative, I roll my eyes, complain, and avoid.  I lost all motivation when I saw that I was supposed to do something creative.  I can see through self reflection how closely my fixed view of ability is to my motivation.  When I believe that I am very capable and prepared to complete a task, I am motivated to get it done; however, when I feel like I am not capable I seem to able to find every reason to put it off.

7.3

A key point made by Bandura is that there are many processes occurring when a person is learning be observing a model or using the social cognitive theory.  The first process is the attentional process.  Bandura said, "People cannot be much influenced by observed events if they do not remember them" (p. 1).  Bandura touches on two important points that were also thoroughly discussed by James, attention and memory.  These two points are interwoven to such an extent that one cannot exist without the other according to many of the readings we have read throughout the course.  However, is it possible to pay attention but fail to remember or to remember something despite a lack of attention?  Is there a way to measure such actions?

Bandura's second process is the representational process.  This is also tied closely to memory and is how modeling is coded into the memory.  Sensory receptors intake modeling as they would any other information and code it into memory to be utilized, referenced, and connected to later. 

Translational processes are the behavioral component of modeling theory.  Translation occurs when people take something modeled in put it into practice.  For example, my son copies many things we say at this age.  He often uses the same inflection that we use when he repeats us.  This is translation.  He took in something we said in a certain context, committed it to memory, and then carried it out as a behavior.

Motivational processes are the most confusing to me.  Bandura describes them as "processes that regulate whether people act on what they have learned observationally" (p. 2).  I believe that this is related to James discussion of the will.  I believe that Bandura would say that we have a choice about whether or not to translate modeling into behavior.  If we translated everything we observed into behavior, what would we be but copying robots?  I think Bandura is saying that we have a choice about what to use and not to use from what we observe other humans doing.

7.2

I have always had high self-efficacy in math.  I have always felt like I was good at math and it seemed that I could learn new concepts easily.  When I compared my skills to my peers, I felt like I was better at math; therefore, improving my self-efficacy as it was mentioned in the chapter about how students compare themselves to others.  I also always got good grades in math.  However, I remember the phenomenon that the author discussed about how lower grades for high achieving students can damage self-efficacy.  Since I believed that I was good at math and was accustomed to getting high grades in math, so when I received a lower grade, my confidence was bruised.  The greatest test to my self-efficacy in math was during my senior year of high school when I decided to take Calculus.  It was the first time I felt like I was not as good as my peers and that I was falling behind.  My confidence was shattered and I ended up dropping the class half way through the year.  Luckily, some success in undergraduate and graduate statistics classes helped to recover some of the self-efficacy I had in the area of math.

7.1

These areas can influence one another.  For example, if students did not get enough sleep and the lights are low, they may not be able to pay attention well.  Also, a student with above average intelligence may have a teacher who does not challenge him or her and that student loses engagement in class.  It is necessary to have good factors going in all areas to optimize learning.

6.5

I can see where this professor is coming from.  A few years ago, I might have answered differently, but I feel as though I have seen this phenomenon first hand in myself and in others since starting graduate school.  My first semester, I was in a statistics class where we had lab in a computer lab.  It was introduction to statistics and not very exciting, but I remember watching other students in class surfing the internet or messaging each other.  It was very distracting.  But, worse of all, I have seen this phenomenon in myself.  I got an iPad a little over a year ago.  I was so excited to free my life of paper, notebooks, and 3-ring binders.  I started taking class notes on my iPad.  I feel like my attention suffered greatly.  It was very tempting to browse away from my notes and do something else.  The cognitive load of switching and controlling impulses took my mind further away from the content.  I know it did.  But, I saved a lot of paper.

6.4

I believe that self-control or self-regulation plays a large role in learning.  I see everyday at work that the students who are struggling are often described as not having good independent work skills, initiation, or self-control.  Both the article and the Colbert video mentioned attention and how control of attention can aid self-control.  In students with ADHD, we often see deficits in executive functioning.  Executive functioning are the skills like organization, good work habits, and impulse control.  These students are unable to attend to to the most important aspects of school.  They are said to have little self-control.  It is impossible to inhibit responses as James said is necessary for having will when you are unable to direct your attention properly.  The article called the manual shifting of attention cognitive change.  The researcher on Colbert also talked about the necessity of shifting attention away from the marshmallow in the experiment.  The children who could wait for two had to shift their attention away from the fact that they could get one.

I believe that prospection plays a large role in success as well.  The article discussed how people who have strong future goals tend to be able to use better self-regulation skills to achieve those goals.  The same is true of the marshmallow experiment.  Children who were able to set their sights on two marshmallows were more motivated to wait.  I believe that this is why those children who waited were more successful later in life.  That goal setting and achieving tendency probably stuck with them.  I can relate to that.  I have know what I wanted to be and what degrees I wanted to obtain since I was a sophomore in high school.  That clear goal has helped propel me through undergraduate and graduate school with no breaks or wavering.  I had friends who started college more unsure about what they wanted to do in life.  Those friends were more likely to take time off, not finish, or finish but start working in a different field.  I believe that my ability to goal set has helped me to be successful in life and I imagine the same is true for the children from the experiment.