Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation

How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

I think that self-efficacy and self-regulation will contribute greatly to the intervention plans I use in my case study. 

Self-efficacy is important because it factors into a student's behavior. Lisa may have low self-efficacy, which could explain some of her behaviors. If a student doesn't feel that they are intelligent or have anything to contribute to classroom discussion, they won't try to do well, especially in group situations.  Addressing Lisa's potentially low self-efficacy may make all the difference in this case study. If Lisa begins to realize that her contributions to her cooperative learning group are meaningful and valued, a lot of her behavioral issues and lack of group involvement will probably decrease. 

Self-regulation can be effective in that it is an opportunity for the students to solve their own problems. In my previous PLE post, I mentioned that Lisa should set her own goals and that the cooperative group members can as well. In this way, the students take ownership of their learning and will be able to use self-regulation strategies to complete their assignments and meet their goals.

Behaviorism Applied

Consider your CSEL intervention case study.  Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case?  What are they?

In my CSEL intervention case study, there are tools from a behaviorist view that can be applied to the case. In order to encourage productive behaviors, the educator could model good behavior for Lisa or have the other students serve as models for Lisa to imitate. This way, Lisa is introduced to alternative behaviors that can help her group stay on task and complete their assignments. The teacher could also reinforce Lisa’s behavior with praise, but also give praise to the whole group. Another way to encourage productive behavior would be to sit down with Lisa and help her come up with her own goals for the cooperative group activities. Setting her own goals may help Lisa because she then becomes personally invested in her behavior. Hopefully, this can motivate her to stop being a catalyst for the problems that arise in her cooperative learning group.

Now, compare the interventions that you have identified above with what you think might work from a cognitive or constructivist viewpoint (you may need to Google for ideas but it's okay to just speculate based on your prior knowledge).  How do they compare to behaviorist tools?  What are the benefits of each theory, and what are the deficits? Which theory might play a larger role in how you determine classroom management?

From a cognitive viewpoint, I think that it may be beneficial to make the cooperative learning activities more meaningful to Lisa and to the class as a whole. If Lisa can relate more to the activities and understands that her group is dependent on her to succeed, her behavior might improve. Also, with more meaningfulness, the group will be more likely to hold each other accountable in order to accomplish their assignments and tasks.

From a constructivist viewpoint, it may be beneficial to allow the students in the cooperative learning group to come up with their own solution to solve the issues they are having working together with Lisa. The students could explore various options, such as assigning specific tasks to group members or checking each other’s work. This intervention would be more student-centered with less teacher involvement.

In comparison to the behaviorist tools, I think that all of these interventions involve some type of action from the student. There is no way that a teacher can fix this issue, the students all have to be willing to cooperate in order to achieve their goals. I think that the benefits of behaviorism, cognitive learning, and constructivism are that the strategies are all motivating for the student in some form or fashion. The deficits are that one theory may work best for some students but not so well for others so the teacher might have difficulty finding a common ground or trying to pick the best technique for the situation.

Personally, I think that behaviorism will play a larger role in how I determine classroom management. I have seen behaviorism in action and the results were always positive. I also can see myself using more behaviorist techniques than any other learning theory.

Metacognition

This picture is a great way for elementary students to learn about metacognition. It's thinking about their thinking!

Consider a lesson plan you might use.  Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain?

A lesson plan that I might use would be a reading lesson that focused on comprehension and critical thinking. Students would read a story in a textbook and then summarize the main events and answer questions about the story to check for understanding. 

The metacognitive skills/abilities that are involved are  summarizing, comprehension monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-questioning. Students will have to be aware of if they can pinpoint the main ideas of the story. A student can assess this by making sure that their summary includes something from all of the major points in the story (beginning, middle, and end). Students will also develop awareness of if they comprehend the story when they answer the questions about the story correctly or incorrectly. Students can spend time answering the questions on their own, and then answers can be shared with the whole group. This way students can compare and contrast their responses and the instructor can emphasize the correct answers. Lastly, students will use problem-solving and their critical thinking skills to dig deeper and assess the responses they came up with and what prior knowledge they had that influenced those answers.