PLE Post 9

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

Self-regulation is one of the most important skills that children learn in schools. This can be taught through many different strategies and adapted for each child. When children enter school they are all going to vary in their ability to self regulate, therefore it is not developmentally appropriate for each child to have the same expectations. One way self-regulation could be used in the intervention plan is to work with the child to create a goal and then have them monitor their own progress. She can monitory her progress by making tally marks every time she catches herself before acting out or misbehaving. Over a period of time she can see how she is making fewer and fewer tally marks because she is more aware of her behavior and is better able to regulate it.  This also establishes a sense of self-efficacy by seeing the progress she is making she will have a sense of pride and accomplishment. A child can gain a sense of self-efficacy by little changes such as starting off with answers they know and being called upon to share with the class, this shows them that they are smart and can share the answer with the class. A small change like this can create a more confident child who might believe they will do better and in turn they will be more likely to succeed on that task. When students gain a sense of self-efficacy they are more confident learners and in turn can help their self-regulation. Here is an article that talks about self-efficacy and how it is distinctly different from motivation in a classroom. 

PLE 8

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?

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?

I believe that there are a lot of great ideas in behaviorist theory with positive and negative rewards. I believe it is a good technique for teachers who are aware of when children can be moved to random reinforcement.  I also think that as a teacher you have to make sure that the children are not relying too much on the reinforcer because ideally you want them to instill internal motivation. 

I believe that constructivism is more of a way to think about teaching but not necessarily a classroom management tool. I believe that behaviorism is encouraging behavior that you want and discouraging behavior that you do not want. Although as continually said in class behaviorism and constructivism cannot go together I believe that they can be and that teachers often mix the two. A teacher can use behaviorism rewards such as stickers and the treasure box.  This same teacher can allow students to construct their own knowledge when they are learning about various math and science techniques.

This article looks at the behaviorist techniques that can be applied to a classroom such as reinforcements and the teacher as a researcher. I chose this article specifically because of how they view the teacher as a researcher, which is also a very constructivist view. I personally used this technique during my practicum as I took very detailed anecdotes of the children and their interests and based of that created a unit that I thought they would enjoy from my ‘research’.

PLE 7- Metacognitive Skills

Think of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.

During any reading lesson I think a teacher can incorporate the teaching of metacognitive skills through comprehension monitoring. This can be done for an extended period of time lead by the teacher until the children are able to go through the steps on their own. For first grade children can take turns reading through a short story. The teacher can stop the children and have them monitor their process and make sure they are aware of what is going on. I would do this by stopping and then having them tell a partner what they just read and the main points, the partners would take turns telling each other throughout the story.  I would use another technique after we finished reading the story. Children would have a sheet of paper and after asking a question they would write down their answer. Then I would give possibilities and have children give a thumps up if that is what they put. Then if there were multiple children who got the answer wrong we would go back in the text and find where we can answer that question. The children would be learning how to self check and after goring through this process with the teacher they would be able to do it own their own without having to talk to a partner or write down anything.  As they grow and their awareness becomes more automatic you can begin to have them pick out relevant information by learning what information is really important what information is not necessary to the entire story.

Here is an introduction from a book that talks about reading strategies and techniques that incorporate metacognitve skills into reading comprehension. The entire book is not available on Google but the introduction provides some background information.