Research Articles

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.

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.

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.

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.