Motivational
dynamics of children's academic help-seeking and concealment.
This
article was quite relatable to me, particularly in the past few
months. I have been working with a student who has been having
difficulty maintaining his composure in the classroom when he becomes
frustrated with work or situations in which he is at fault. We have
been working on his coping skills in hopes that he can use the
various methods to make choices which would be more beneficial to
him.
The
idea of help seeking seems to be a strategy that he would benefit
from using when he encounters situations or work that my be too
difficult to deal with on his own. The article mentions that help
seeking can be viewed as a family of coping.. Help seeking is an
adaptive strategy that can be used in many situations, particularly
when a students situation exceeds their personal resources, going to
others for help, advice and support is an area that is very important
when dealing with frustration or difficult problems.
Social
partners, especially teachers play a vital role in help seeking, they
along with motivational factors can shape whether or not students
seek help in situations where coping is necessary. The article
mentions that teachers can communicate a sense of relatedness to
children through their nurturing personality, they can also provide
structure and exploration in learning in a way that students can feel
successful, and teachers can help students discover who they are and
provide them with opportunities to express themselves.
The
same goes for negative impacts on help-seeking strategies, a teacher
can undermine a students ability to deal with difficult situations
which require coping and the motivation to deal as well. When
teachers display hostility and become distant with students they may
feel as though school is not a welcoming place. When teachers are
unorganized and they can cause students to feel as though they have
no routine, and may not be able to deal with unforeseen circumstances
which they have no indication of.
In
regards to my student I feel as though I have been giving him the
opportunities as well as support to ensure that he is developing
these coping strategies to seek help when needed, as well as deal
with situations in a manner that is healthy and allows him to grow
both mentally and socially. This article has helped me understand my
student as well as reassured me that I have been providing him with
the support and opportunities that will improve his ability to seek
help and self motivate.
Marchand, G., & Skinner, E. A. (February 01, 2007). Motivational Dynamics of Children's Academic
Help-Seeking and Concealment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 1, 65-82.
Marchand, G., & Skinner, E. A. (February 01, 2007). Motivational Dynamics of Children's Academic
Help-Seeking and Concealment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 1, 65-82.
Children's beliefs about intelligence and school performance.
As
a primary teacher I work with students who are new to the school
system, they usually come to school eager to learn and take pride in
their accomplishments. Some students are ready to take on the
challenges that come along with school and embrace the challenges and
as mentioned in the article, “seek opportunities to challenge their
current skill levels because it will enable them to develop their
skills or increase their knowledge.” With this age level students I
don't usually see students who are worried about “looking smart”,
which I'm thankful for, however I do realize that some students do
feel the need to show what they know.
I
found it to be very interesting when the article mentioned that
performance goals fostered and avoidance of challenging tasks. This
is an area that I can relate to in my classroom. I have a student who
when given a task that challenges them, they shut down when it
becomes challenging or when they feel frustration. After reading
this article it made me think about ways that I can help them to
become problem solvers and use active strategies. Helping students to
use their prior knowledge and connect it to their current learnings
can increase their understanding, which can eventually lead to
mastery.
Stipek, D., & Gralinski, J. H. (January 01, 1996). Children's Beliefs About Intelligence and School Performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 3, 397.
Peer
Assisted learning strategies in reading: Extensions for kindergarten,
first grade, and high school.
Reading
programs can be very tricky to choose from, there are so many
different choices, ranging from teacher lead to student lead, small
group, large group, to individual activities. Reading is such an
important part of learning, and as mentioned in the article students
who have reading difficulties do appear to have lower self esteem and
do pose greater discipline problems. I have witnessed students who
have difficulties with reading, the level of difficulty varies their
level of interest and behaviour.
It
can be very disheartening watching a student become frustrated and
lose their motivation to try and succeed. I do my best to catch them
before this happens, unfortunately it can happen so fast that you're
left there wondering what happened? How did I miss that? Many of my
students let me know when they are having difficulty, a few I need to
coach and encourage to open up and let me know, and there seems to
always be the couple that refuse to seek assistance, no matter how
much I remind them that I am there to help them.
The
reading program in this article sounds very interesting. The PALS
program in corporates structured activities, lots of verbal
interaction amongst students as well as feedback between the teacher
and students. I have always believed that students learn best from
each other and this program does just that, students are given the
opportunities to learn from each other as well as help others to be
successful.
Stipek, D., & Gralinski, J. H. (January 01, 1996). Children's Beliefs About Intelligence and School Performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 3, 397.
Stipek, D., & Gralinski, J. H. (January 01, 1996). Children's Beliefs About Intelligence and School Performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 3, 397.
Controlling
Teaching strategies: Undermining children's self determination and
performance.
As
a primary teacher I have a very important role to play in my students
educational experience. I find that majority of the time I am very
support and nurturing, however at times I need to stern and
assertive, and provide my students with expectations and knowledge of
what is acceptable behaviour and which is not. A child's first year
of schooling is a very delicate time, their accomplishments and
struggles will determine their outlook on school in the years to
follow.
With
today's required testing and assessments teaching has become a very
delicate route to take. Teachers are continuously pressured to
improve student's performance levels and their ability to perform
well in and outside the classroom. I never really put much thought
into the idea of controlling strategies as they are seen in the
article. The idea that students may view a teachers behaviour as “an
attempt to control and regulate their performance level or simply as
methods of providing guidance or directives.” was something that I
didn't really view in this way until I read this article.
It
made me think of a student of mine who sometimes becomes defiant when
I try to provide guidance and support, particularly in the area of
behaviour and work ethics. This student has been of lately quite
defiant in the classroom. At times she excels the expectations of the
program, however when I encourage her to go one step further she
shuts down and becomes very negative. I do my best to promote
independence and this student along with a few other just seem to not
want to be as independent as I think they are capable of being. The
article has helped me gain a better understanding of why this may be
and what steps can I take to help these students to become
successful.
Flink, C., Boggiano, A. K., & Barrett, M. (January 01, 1990). Controlling teaching strategies: Undermining children's self-determination and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 5, 916-924.
The
efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's
emergent story understanding.
Technology
is moving so quickly and is such an excellent tool to utilize.
Children are quickly becoming familiar with all the newest devices
and many times gain mastery over them before their
teachers. The
electronic books can be a very resourceful tool for students, however
as the article mentioned there can be issues. As with any reading
programs they can be beneficial to some but not all students. The
article stated that with the recent research none had made a
distinction between a child's level of development regrading stories.
Depending
on their development “visual
effects may distract children from the story, and, because they may
encourage children to think of the story as a game, they may in turn
interfere with comprehending the story.” (cf. Bolter, 1998;
Greenfield et al., 1996; Labbo & Reinking, 1999; Leu, 2000;
Smith, 2001). Other
research by Ricci
and Beal (2002) did not find that visual and sound effects disrupted
comprehension among a group of first-grade students. As
children develop reading skills and strategies they are able to use
these in the various reading opportunities they encounter.
If
they have been developing their comprehension skills they may find it
easier to ignore the distractions that electronic books have, or they
may use these animations to further their knowledge of the book and
make connections to their prior knowledge. Although
electronic books are a great resource they can not replace adult read
stories, these interactions are an integral part of reading
comprehensions. As mentioned one the student's have acquired these
skills they can then utilize the electronic books as a useful
resource.
de, J. M. T., & Bus, A. G. (October 01, 2004). The Efficacy of Electronic Books in Fostering Kindergarten Children's Emergent Story Understanding. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 4, 378-393.
de, J. M. T., & Bus, A. G. (October 01, 2004). The Efficacy of Electronic Books in Fostering Kindergarten Children's Emergent Story Understanding. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 4, 378-393.
Motivation
through conscious goal setting
Working
in a primary classroom gives me lots of opportunities to help
students to set goals for themselves. There are many opportunities
where they are to new to the strategies learned, as well as
activities being done and they set goals for improvement and
commitment. The article stated that self-set goals can be highly
effective in gaining commitment and when people are likely to believe
they can attain a goal when they believe that it is within their
capacity.
I
do my best to encourage my students to set goals, they can do
anything they set their mind to by committing themselves to it and
with effort can work towards success. The article states that there
are 3 paths to commitment: adjust the goal to the persons present
capacity, raise the persons capacity through providing training and
experience; or change the persons perspective on their capacity
through expressions of confidence and role modelling. These paths can
be very trying when working with younger students, as they become
comfortable in the classroom, their commitments and ability to stay
on task change change.
A
student's self efficacy plays a major role in their ability to choose
goals and commit to them, as well as respond to negative feed back.
Students need feed back to pursue goals effectively, a means of
checking or tracking their progress towards their goal.
Students
make use this feedback to beat their previous best, set goals to beat
the performance of others of to challenge themselves. Negative feed
back can cause students to have doubt in their abilities. Students
who have high self-efficacy may take this negative feedback and use
it to improve themselves. I've seen students take feed back and run
with it, use to improve their best and keep going, and sometimes I've
seen student take it as something negative and shut down on me. When
this happens we need to think about what is it that we want to
achieve, where do we want to be within the assignment or activity.
Locke, E. A. (March 01, 1996). Motivation through conscious goal setting. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 5, 2, 117-124.
