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IS PERSONAL CHOICE KEY TO MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO READ?

10 Friday Jun 2016

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 Abstract

 

Across the United States students are struggling and failing in their classes and having problems with reading. Many students continue to drop out of school despite huge dollars spent on educational materials.

District wide, basal reader programs could be part of the problem. Dewitz and Jones (2012) state “basal reading programs can be ‘handy’ for teachers but are ‘not the best of tools for educating avid readers or those who struggle with the basics.”

Current research shows us that reading is an ‘effortful’ activity that requires student motivation. Motivation is essential to reading and student choice, regarding what they read, is essential to motivation (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000).

Social Learning Theory: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

Keywords: Social Learning Theory, motivation, self-selection, basal readers.

 

Social cognitive theory is founded on an agentic perspective (Bandura, 2006d, 2008a). To be an agent is to exert intentional influence over one’s functioning and the course of events by one’s actions.  Bandura advanced a comprehensive theory of human motivation and action in his social learning theory.  Because intrapersonal influences, in which self-efficacy is a constituent, are part of the determining conditions of behavior, people have a hand in shaping events and the course their lives take.

Bandura’s theory states that the self-efficacy begins to materialize within students as they gain successful mastery of the subject. As they are, step by step, able to do a thing, their view of themselves and their own abilities starts to increase and they become willing to tackle more difficult tasks (Bandura, 2012). As students start to gradually improve their reading skills, they become more confident in their abilities and more able to take on new challenges.

However; every student starts with schema beliefs about the world and about themselves.  Schema beliefs are very real for the person who has them (Piaget, 2007). As teachers, we have to evaluate what the schema beliefs are for the students walking into the class. We have to start, not where we are, but where they are and then work up from there in every subject.

Additionally, we have to deal with student emotions that they bring to the table as they approach reading or any subject. If they walk in with negative beliefs about themselves and their abilities (I don’t like to read) teachers need to deal with those emotions also. The more negative beliefs the student or group of students have about the subject, the more we have to deal with the emotional content of the setting first and then, slowly, move into the academic context.

Emotions are the primary motivational system for behavior to include perception, cognition and actions. The function of fear (“I don’t do math”) is to motivate flight from a dangerous situation. Fear can disengage the motor system resulting in an emotionally paralyzing response when the individual is facing threats to self-concept or psychological well-being (Izard & Ackerman, 2000). Emotions, schemas, and self-beliefs therefore all become part of a student’s ‘reading ability.’ Motivation, as we shall see, is a key emotional factor in a student’s commitment to reading.

What are Basal Readers and what effect do they have on reading?

Basal readers are anthologies of stories published by the big publishing houses and usually sold, en masse, to school districts across the nation. An example is Reading Street (Afflerbach, 2010) where various authors have submitted stories on a variety of subjects. Frequently, these books seek to teach grammar, parts of speech, proper sentence structure plus reasoning and logic skills. The contention being, that if we break the language down into its various parts, this deconstruction process is going to teach reading. Conversely, the books are frequently large, intimidating, complicated to understand and boring to the extreme. Some research indicates students go backward in their abilities to read instead of forward (Dewitz, 2012).

Conversely, reading with authentic materials such as books, magazines and newspapers is being shown to increase student interest, engagement, involvement and academic progress. Dewitz and Jones explore the effects of basal readers on student reading levels. They have determined that certain districts require their teachers to use basal readers ‘with fidelity’ meaning that the package programs from the publisher must be followed exactly regardless of teacher preferences. The results are frequently unsuccessful. In one study, 25% of third graders in programs like this, failed to past their state assessments (Dewitz, 2012).

What are the basics that students need to improve reading?

In his article, Torgesen (1998) indicates that one of the most compelling findings from recent reading research is that children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up. As several studies have now documented, the poor first-grade reader almost invariably continues to be a poor reader (Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1996; Torgesen & Burgess, 1998).

And the consequences of a slow start in reading become monumental as they accumulate exponentially over time. As Stanovich (1986) pointed out in his well-known paper on the “Matthew effects” (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer) associated with failure to acquire early word reading skills, these consequences range from negative attitudes toward reading (Oka & Paris, 1986), to reduced opportunities for vocabulary growth (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985), to missed opportunities for development of reading comprehension strategies (Brown, Palinscar, & Purcell, 1986), to less actual practice in reading than other children receive (Allington, 1984).

The best solution to the problem of reading failure is to allocate resources for early identification and prevention. School-based preventive efforts should be engineered to maintain growth in critical word reading skills at roughly normal levels throughout the early elementary school period. Although adequate development of these skills in first grade does not guarantee that children will continue to maintain normal growth in second grade without extra help, to the extent that we allow children to fall seriously behind at any point during early elementary school, we are moving to a “remedial” rather than a “preventive” model of intervention.

Adequate reading comprehension is the most important ultimate outcome of effective instruction in reading. The ultimate purpose of reading instruction is to help children acquire the skills that enable learning from, understanding, and enjoyment of written language.

Two general types of skill and knowledge are required for good reading comprehension. Consistent with Gough’s “simple view of reading” (1996), comprehension of written material requires: 1) general language comprehension ability, and 2) the ability to accurately and fluently identify the words in print. That is, good general language comprehension and good word reading skills are the most critical skills required for effective comprehension of written material. Most children who become poor readers experience early and continuing difficulties in learning how to accurately identify printed words.

First, children destined to be poor readers at the end of elementary school almost invariably have trouble “sounding out” unknown words (Siegel, 1989).

Second, poor readers at all grade levels are characterized by slower than normal development of a “sight vocabulary” of words they can read fluently and automatically (Adams, 1990).

The most common cause of difficulties acquiring early word reading skills is weakness in the ability to process the phonological features of language. This is perhaps the most important discovery about reading difficulties in the last twenty years (Lundberg, Frost, & Peterson, 1988; Wagner, et al., 1997) and (Liberman, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1989).

On the one hand, many children enter school with adequate general verbal ability and cognitive weaknesses limited to the phonological/ language domain. Their primary problem in learning to read involves learning to translate between printed and oral language. On the other hand, another significant group of poor readers, composed largely of children from families of lower socioeconomic or minority status, enter school significantly delayed in a much broader range of pre-reading skills (Whitehurst & Lonigan, in press). Since these children are delayed not only in phonological but also in general oral language skills, they are deficient in both of the critical kinds of knowledge and skill required for good reading comprehension. Even if these children can acquire adequate word reading skill, their ability to comprehend the meaning of what they read may be limited by their weak general verbal abilities.

To summarize, adequate monitoring of the growth of children’s word reading abilities should include out-of-context measures of word reading ability, phonetic decoding ability (as measured by ability to read non-words), and word reading fluency.

 

Moving Away from Basal Readers, where do we go from here?

So, now we have identified some of the problems which contribute to reading problems in young children. In addition to early intervention strategies, what else can be done to improve student reading and comprehension? In the last 15 years, researchers who have studied third-grade children’s reading, have become interested in their motivation to read, along with the cognitive skills required to read well (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). Because reading is an effortful activity that often involves choice, motivation is crucial to reading engagement. Motivation theorists attempt to understand the choices that individuals make among different activities available to them and their effort and persistence at the activities they choose (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Wigfield & Eccles, 2002a). Even the reader with the strongest cognitive skills may not spend much time reading if he or she is not motivated to read (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000).

Students’ self-concepts and the value they place on reading are critical to their success.  . The motivational research of the last decade supports what good classroom teachers have known for a long time. Supporting children in their literacy learning is not an exact science, nor is it a simple matter.  Teachers can make a  difference in the literacy lives of young children when they serve as reading models and motivators and create classroom cultures that are book-rich, provide opportunities for choice, encourage social interactions about books, build on the familiar, and reflect the view that books are the best reward (Gambrell, 2015).

These researchers found that though third grade boys were equally as self-confident as girls about their reading, they self-report valuing reading less than girls. In addition, they found that third grade boys and girls valued reading newspapers and magazines as well as books (Marinak and Gambrell, 2007). Also, choice is widely acknowledged as a method for enhancing motivation. Allowing young children to make even a minimal task choice increased learning from the task and enhanced subsequent interest in the activity (Lepper, 2005).

Research shows that allowing students to make choices about their reading material increases the likelihood that they will engage more in reading. Moreover, many schools have limited resources for the students  for their self-selection process in reading, (McKool, 2007). Lastly, the subject of interest is gaining momentum in the field of research as an emotion unto itself.  Interest has clear motivational and goal components, particularly for exploration, information seeking, and learning. To illustrate, people spend more time reading interesting text (Ainley, Hidi, & Berndorff, 2002) and process the text more deeply, resulting in enhanced learning (Silva, 2005).

Data Collection:

I created the attached survey to administer, anonymously, to 4th   and  5th grade students in the Clovis Unified School District.  The list was composed of books from the Fresno Library ‘Novel-List for K-8 students’. The books are selected by professional librarians and have usually won a number of awards by the time they are included on the list.

Embedded within the list are books that are regularly used in 4th and 5th grade classes and are assigned as whole-class reading assignments. Those books are Chronicles of Narnia, The Giver, The Island of the Blue Dolphin and Holes. The survey was to provide students a short list of books to select from and asks them to choose which books they would ‘like’ to read. The purpose of this list is to discern which books students would choose for enjoyment purposes. Enjoyment of reading is heavily linked to continued commitment to reading as a lifestyle and further engagement academically (Gambrell, 2015).

I approached the GIS (Vice-Principal) of an elementary school where I frequently work and asked if I could give the survey to students in my class. Although the answer was not exactly no, his response was that all requests for research have to go through the District office and a response takes at least 60 days, with no guarantees of a yes answer.  Additionally, the principal at the school strongly discourages any teachers from requesting such permission.

Since it seemed unlikely I would be able to administer my survey at Clovis Unified, my second stop was Betty Rodriquez Library where I volunteer.  I presented the list to two librarians and was able to get some but not all data from them because this is ‘classified’ information. However; they were able to tell me how many books Fresno County has for each selection and that is a significant indicator of public interest. Clearly, the library orders more copies of books based on customer demand. I had to reorganize my list starting with the most library volumes to the least number. This is the new list:

  • The Giver –Lowry – 36 copies
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – Rowling – 35 copies (series)
  • The Last Olympian – Ricordan – 20 copies (series)
  • Holes – Sachar – 17 copies
  • Esperanza Rising – Munoz-Ryan – 17 copies
  • Chronicles of Narnia – Lewis – 14 copies (series)
  • Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell – 9 copies
  • Tomas and the Library Lady – Mora – 7
  • Elsewhere Chronicles – Nykko – 6  (series)
  • Spirit Animals – Blood Ties – Nix – 9 (series)
  • Ella Enchanted – Levine – 6
  • We are the Ship – Nelson – 5
  • Nnewts – TenNapel – 5 (series)
  • Brixton Brothers – Mysterious Case of Cases – Barnett   – 5  (series)
  • Goblin Secrets – Alexander – 4 (series)
  • The Jumping Tree -Saldana – 1

Of the books on the list; The Giver, Holes, Chronicles and Island are all required reading and that contributes to their higher numbers. Students come into the library to get copies and finish their homework.

However; there is a significant trend that shows up in the other books. Students consistently pick fantasy books and books that are part of a series. It appears they are selecting the books based on the name of the author and then going back and getting more books in the series by that same author. They might have picked up the first book originally by the title or the cover, however later, they determine what they are comfortable with and go and find more books like that first one. Of the group above; seven of the selection are books from a series. This finding is significant because it gives us insight into what ‘hooks’ are effective to keep students returning again and again to the library or the bookstore.

As a child, I read all the Nancy Drew series, and then moved to Charlotte Bronte, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne and others. I found the authors I liked and then went back over and over again for more of their books. That is exactly how books are sold to adults; people select the author of their choice be it John Grisham or J. K. Rowling, Clive Cussler or Janet Evanovich. That author becomes so popular that the author’s next book is often sold before it is published!!

The most effective reading programs for kids should, then, focus on a popular author, tell the students some interesting author facts and then list author books and allow the students to pick their ‘choice’ of these books. For example Chris Van Allsburg, a very popular novelist, has written a number of children’s books that have been made into movies (Jumanji, Zathura.) These movies can be incorporated into a lesson plan to introduce students to the author and help develop author interest. Students can pick their choice of his books, read aloud to each other, write up a report on the book and make a presentation to the class to talk about their book. Many teachers have utilized just such a plan for their English Language Arts programs with great success (Nickerson, 2015.)

“Series books provided a great hook to get…reluctant readers engaged and reading (Szymasiak and Sibberson, 2001). …using series books was a successful technique for improving fluency …students became familiar with the main characters and text structure, making comprehension…easier…Having students hook into a series was (a great way) to improve reading rates and ultimately their stamina…for longer books,” (Allen, 2005).

To go back for a moment to basal readers and ‘why’ they don’t work. The authors in most basal reader books are not professional writers. They are usually teachers who have been assigned to write an essay on a specific topic that the school (or publishers) want to cover. They write the ‘story’ (essay) and incorporate the required facts and vocabulary, add some pictures and nice colored captions and viola, there is the ‘story’. These submissions are understandably boring and command no long-term or sustained interest in the students. No student is going to want to hold on to a copy of his or her basal reader because they want to reread those great stories. Whereas, with a really great author, (Mark Twain for instance) how many times will an average reader reread one of his books? (Dewitz, 2012).

Teachers need to look at long-term reading goals and incorporate repeat reading as one of their objectives.  If students get ‘hooked’ on a series or a magazine or a newspaper, the chances are they will read that same publication over and over again and/or move onto another similar publication.

The Role of Libraries

Stephen Krashen (2011), an expert on literacy writes “Children of poverty have very little access to books at home and in their communities, with less access to good public libraries and bookstores (Neuman and Celano, 2001). Once again, school is not helping: children of poverty attend schools with poorly supported classroom libraries and school libraries (Duke, 2000; Neuman and Celano, 2001). Studies confirm that increased access to books is related to increased reading achievement ( Krashen, 2004, Lindsay, 2010), which makes sense in view of findings that show that self-selected reading is a powerful predictor of reading achievement (Krashen, 2004).

Library, means the percentage of school libraries in each country with over 500 books. This was a strong predictor of reading achievement (beta = .34). … the library predictor was nearly as strong as social class (as a predictor of reading level) (Krashen, 2011).

The four studies reviewed … show that predictors related to access to reading material are strong and consistent predictors of reading test scores. … a great deal of previous research, … strongly suggest that providing access to books can, to at least some extent, make up for the effects of poverty on reading. As noted above, several studies confirm that children of poverty have little access to books at home or in their community; the school library may be the only source of books for these children,” (Krashen, 2011).

Libraries are an invaluable link to literacy in general and higher reading scores in particular. We need to support and help libraries and they can help our students. Libraries want repeat customers. Teaching students about authors and also genres will teach them how to find reading material that is good for them. Students may be overwhelmed with the volume they find in the library and they need to be taught how to find their own personal choices through the maze of books and materials found there.

“… the role of academic libraries in contributing to student engagement and better institutional retention rates, George Kuh ( National Survey of Student Engagement) said that academic librarians may indirectly affect student success through their interactions with students and by helping them acquire needed research and information literacy skills and competencies. By establishing rapport with students, librarians can help foster a supportive campus environment which has salutary effects on student engagement and achievement. …” (Bell, 2008). Librarians can teach student how to use the library resources; both for content and enjoyment.

As Hiebert (2009) states, “the measure of whether we are successful as literacy educators is whether individuals turn to texts for information, restoration, inspiration and enjoyment” (p. xii). Encouraging the love of reading habit…..requires thoughtful ….reading instruction that is built upon principles of motivation (Gambrell, et al., 2011).

 

Conclusion

It is impossible to separate student motivation with student results in reading.

Providing balanced book collections at all grade levels is vital to engagement during both reading instruction and self-selection. A balanced collection includes a broad range of informational titles and a variety of print materials. These resources include fiction, non-fiction materials, books, magazines and newspapers (Gambrell, 2011).

Teachers need to refocus their selection of classroom reading materials to be current with student interests. Books written in the last decade will have more appeal to modern students. We need to focus on developing author interest and genre interest so that students learn their personal comfort zone. They will revisit what they are familiar with again and again (Gambrell, 2011).

Teachers should try to incorporate known authors who write a book series. Once the student indentifies with the author, it is easy to go back to the library, find the author and then get the next book. Also, once all those books have been read, if the student has an understanding of their genre (science fiction, mysteries, thrillers, manga,) it is easy to find other authors in the same genre (Allen, 2005).

Although children are not ‘little adults’, we need to recognize that their preferred style of reading may be very similar to that of adult readers; we like to read what we are most comfortable reading. As parents and teachers we need to give children avenues to discover their own personal reading ‘comfort zone’ so that continued reading will become a life-long habit (Allen, 2005). The best readers will be the ones who can and will read for enjoyment as well as content (Krashen, 2011).

 

 

References

Afflerbach, P., Blachowicz, C., Boyd, C., Izquierdo, E., Juel, C., Kame’enue, E…Wixson, K.  (2010). Reading Street, NJ, Pearson Education, Inc.

Allen, J. (2005). Becoming a Literacy Leader: Supporting Learning and Change.USA: Stenhouse Publisher. ISBN: 978-157110-419-9.

Bandura, A. (2012). On the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy revisited. Journal of Management, 38(1). doi:10.1177/0149206311410606.

Bell, S. (2008). Keeping them enrolled: how academic libraries contribute to student retention. Library Issues, 29,( 1).

Cordova, D.  & Lepper, M. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, (issue), 715-730.

Dewitz, P., Jones, J. (2012). Using basal readers: from dutiful fidelity to intelligent decision making. VA, The Reading Teacher.  66,( 5),  391-400. doi: 10.1002/TRTR.01134.

Gambrell, L. (2015). Getting Students Hooked On The Reading Habit. The Reading Teacher,  69, (3), 259-263, International Literacy Association doi:10.1002/trtr.1423.

Gambrell, L.B., Huges, E., Calvert, W. Malloy, J. & Igo, B. (2011). Authentic reading, writing and discussion: An exploratory study of a pen pal project. The Elementary School Journal, 112(2), 234-258.

Guthrie, J., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp. 518-533). Mahwah, N.J.: Earlbarum.

Hiebert, E.H. (2009). Reading more, reading better. New York, NY: Guilford.

Izard, C. E. & Ackerman, M.P. (2000). Motivational, organizational, and regulatory functions of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland-Jones (Eds.),Handbook of Emotions (2nd ed.) (pp. 253–322). New York: Guilford.

Krashen, S. (2011). Protecting students against the effects of poverty: libraries. New England Reading Association Journal, 46(2), 17.

Lepper, M.R., Corpus, J.H., & Iyengar, S.S. (2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations in the classroom: age differences and academic correlates. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 97(2), 184-196. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.97.2184

Marinak and Gambrell (2007). Boy’s  Voices: I can Read, I choose Not To. Paper presented at annual meeting of the College Reading Assoc., Salt Lake City, UT.

McKool, S.S. (2007). Factors that influence the decision to read: an investigation of fifth grade out-of-school reading habits. Reading Improvement, 44, (3), 111-131.

McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner – Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

Nickerson, A. (Producer,12/23/2010). (2015).http: oneextradegree.blogspot.on2011/01/chris-van-allsburg.–author-study-update/.

Piaget, J. (1975/1985).  Newman and Newman, (2007). Theories of Human Development, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Inc. ISBN 978-0-8058-4702-4, 83-108.

Silva , P. J.  (2005). What is interesting? Exploring the appraisal structure of interest. Emotion,5, 89-102.

Torgeson, J.K. (1998) Catch them before they fall: identification and assessment to prevent reading failure in young children. American Educator.

Viadero, D. (2010). Analysis ties 4th grade reading failure to poverty, Education Week. Retrieved: www.edweek.org, 2016.

 

PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY BLOG

03 Tuesday May 2016

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BLOG NUMBER FIVE – PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY

 

In Newman and Newman (2007) Eric Erickson’s eight stages of personality development are listed; trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role diffusion, intimacy vs. isolation and so on to the end of life, (pg 217).

Erickson was very clear in his discussion of the role of adolescence in life – that is namely, independence from parents. The job of the teenager is to pull himself or herself away from dependency on parents. This subconscious psychological goal explains a lot of bad attitudes that are common with teenagers.

In the same way, the role of the older child (school age-elementary) is to become industrious and to learn how to do things for themselves which also, gradually pulls them away from dependence on the parent.

As anyone who has learned to play a musical instrument knows, progress is not always steady. There may be practice, practice, and practice with what appears to be little or no improvement. But yet, if the student is diligent and continues to practice, all of a sudden, one day they are ‘suddenly’ better at playing the instrument.

Growing up and growing away from parents follows a similar pattern. Kids seem to grow really quickly for awhile and then regress and backslide into more juvenile behavior and then, seem to catch their breath, get back on track or whatever is their own process, and start growing again. Sometimes faster and sometimes slower depending on the kid, the subject and the circumstance.

Safe Choices: it is the job of the parent and the teacher to give students numerous opportunities to grow and develop in a safe and sheltered environment until such time as they are ready to do things themselves. Vgotsky (Newman & Newman, 2007)talked about the Zone of Proximal Development where the child/student was being supported by an older person, more experienced and with more wisdom as they learned and were able to ‘stretch’ to their own potential, (pgs 243-244).

These concepts apply to learning music, math, English, sports and personal relationships. I was teaching at a High School recently and the class was called ‘Leadership’. The students, all high school seniors, were allowed to leave campus to go elsewhere for a couple of hours to volunteer for this and that. The program is carefully monitored and regulated with permission slips, cars, phones, the whole bit. After the activity was done, they would come back to campus and check in. This is a perfect example of allowing students to fulfill their needs for growing autonomy, self-regulation and self-control. It is a good program and is giving the student ‘freedom’ in little bites.

The entire process of education from start to finish is an ongoing process of two steps forward and one back. This is to be expected and is a normal part of the growth and development process. Wise parents and teachers keep formulating ways in which students can grow and develop in age appropriate stages.

SOCIAL ROLE THEORY – BLOG 5

21 Thursday Apr 2016

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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Newman and Newman (2007) indicate that children learn through observation and imitations of other’s behavior, (Bandura & Walter, 1963, pg 135). The people who are being observed are called models and this process of learning is called modeling. (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961, pg 136). They also learn their position in society and learn the behaviors associated with those roles, (pg 160). In class, we have seen numerous examples of how children imitate adults (“Toy Stories” Gabrielle Galimberti.) and how they imitate parents and teachers in classrooms (video on children teaching class.) It is certainly important to know/realize that as a teacher ‘all eyes are on you’ at all times and students are constantly watching the teacher’s behavior toward them and other students. They judge the teacher by his/her behavior and frequently seek to duplicate that behavior.

A kind of phenomenon that occurs in elementary schools is the absolute flurry of tattling on other students. The thinking of the student goes something like this: these are the rules, we learn the rules, I have to follow the rules, I will get in trouble and get punished if I don’t follow the rules. Hey, look at that guy! He’s not following the rules! If I have to follow the rules and if I get punished if I don’t, then he better have to too. This reasoning carries onto adult life wherein on jobs, employees time and time again compare ‘the amount of work’ that they have to do to the amount that other guy has to do and then spend endless amount of time complaining if the ‘scales aren’t fair.’ It is possible that students get more upset about another student not getting ‘proper punishment’ than that the other guy got more rewards. Probably, in their minds, they justify the rewards by thinking ‘well, he/she worked to deserve it.’

A lot of time in class is wasted with this kind of circular behavior: student A behaving badly and students B, C, D all reporting on it. We saw in the video tapes of children ‘teaching class’ that they were duplicating efforts of teachers to control behavior in class. Sometimes these efforts can get pretty punitive and extreme.

One of my treatments for ‘bad behavior’ is to have the student come up to the board and write his/her name with a 1 next to it. I explain to the students that for every 1 on the board they owe me 1 minute at recess. If they have really been misbehaving I will increase it to 5 minutes but usually not more than that for elementary ages. Once they have ‘served their time’ and recess is over, I have the students come up one at a time and erase their names off the board and we are now even. If other students start to complain about this somehow being ‘unfair’ I explain that the students ‘served their time for their crimes and we’re done’. Students who misbehave usually know they have and frequently don’t even protest that much; as long as it is fair. Also, effective punishments should not include lectures, threats, recriminations, lots of harsh words and heavy judgmental attitudes. What this procedure does is to address the individual behavior and yet in a public way so that other students see that the bad behavior does not go unpunished; therefore, their perpetual feelings of a ‘need to report’ have been taken care of because the behavior has been dealt with quickly and swiftly by the teacher. My feeling is that all parties in the classroom end up feeling like their needs are met. The guilty party has received an age appropriate punishment that is not too extreme and the classmates get the personal satisfaction of feeling that ‘justice’ has been served.

Blog #5 – Cognitive Information Processing

12 Saturday Mar 2016

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“I don’t do math!” The student announced to me with an angry tone and crossed her arms over her chest, chin set.

This student, age 16 years, was telling me about the position she had developed over years of unsuccessful interactions in class doing (attempting to do) math. I could appreciate her point of view as I, also, was never very good at math. Now, what do I as a teacher do to deal with this situation? Let her read a magazine while other students are struggling with their math work? Kick her out of the program?

What were the ‘facts’ of the situation? The bare-bone facts were that this student, like all the students there, had to pass a GED test to graduate from the program. The math level for the test was approximately 5-6th grade difficulty. What could I do to leap-frog over her very set beliefs (schemas) which were true for her, to get her to accomplish the goals set for her by the program?

Schema beliefs are very real for the person who has them. There was no point in my wasting my time arguing with her that her ‘beliefs weren’t true.’ They were true for her. (Piaget).

Also, emotions are the primary motivational system for behavior to include perception, cognition and actions. The function of fear (“I don’t do math”) is to motivate escape from a dangerous situation. Fear can disengage the motor system resulting in a freezing behavior when the individual is facing threats to self-concept or psychological well-being. (Izard & Ackerman).

The answer was that for this low-level class, I needed to scaffold on what the students already knew about math and start the process of building brand new schemas about math, who they were as students and what they were capable of doing.

 

As I said, I was never very good in math either.  Now, I consistently got A’s in History, English and Social Studies and passed an AP English class; but math, no.

The first semester I was in college, I was required to take a statistics class. (Yikes!) The teacher did something that I will never forget. He handed out pages and pages of multiplication problems, addition, subtraction and fractions. He made us do these dumb problems over and over and over again. Until, guess what, we were able to do them pretty well. He had taken existing schemas of basic math, which was in most cases was rusty, and forced us to practice the skills again and again until the skills were ‘exercised’ and ‘toned’. Only then, did he begin to spoon feed us the theoretical concepts of the class. I think I ended up getting a B in the class. The theory I could almost always understand, the mechanics threw me.

In Albert Bandura’s theory of social learning, the self-efficacy begins to materialize within the student as they gain successful mastery of the subject. As they are, step by step, able to do a thing, their view of themselves and their own abilities starts to increase and they become willing to tackle more difficult tasks.

With that math class, I started playing games of Bingo with the students.  I presented them with a simple math problem, they had to solve the problem and that answer was the answer on the Bingo card. They all got little prizes (Skinner, reinforcement) at the end (candy) for winning a card. I told that student “It’s not math, it’s Bingo.” Students’ were reshaping mental images of what ‘they could do and couldn’t do’ and replacing those images with new and successful ones.

Also, the Bingo game was of ‘interest’ to the students and ‘fun’ and they liked to play it. Additionally, these same absolutely loved Monopoly, a game which requires a fair amount of higher level mathematical thinking and reasoning.

Interest has clear motivational and goal components, particularly for exploration, information seeking, and learning (see Krapp, 1999; Sansone & Smith, 2000; Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992). For example, people spend more time reading interesting text (Ainley, Hidi, & Berndorff, 2002) and process the text more deeply (Schiefele, 1999), resulting in enhanced learning.

Eventually, I had a number of students who were then able to pass the math section of the GED test and one boy who sailed through the Army ABSVAB test in one day.

Using behaviorism theory to reinforce the learning, (prizes) and schema theory to scaffold the old learning with the new and then social learning theory (self-efficacy) to build new self-concepts, we were able to pull students through course work which they were quite convinced they could not do.  What is also important is that students were working with other students. The social–learning context was reinforcing to the belief that ‘we’ can do this thing.

 

References

Bandura, Albert (2012). On the Functional Properties of Perceived Self-Efficacy Revisited. Journal of Management, Vol. 38 #1. DOI:10.1177/0149206311410606

Calvete, E, Orie I. and Hankin, B. L. (2013). Early Maladaptive Schemas and Social Anxiety in Adolescents, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27, pgs 278-280.

Izard, Carroll E.  & Ackerman, Brian P. (2000). Motivation, Organization and Regulatory functions of Discrete Emotions. Handbook of Emotions, 2nd Ed., The Guilford Press, New York.

McLeod, Saul, 2007, updated 2015.  Skinner – Operant Conditioning, Simply Psychology, http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html, Retrieved Internet 2016.

Piaget, Jean (1975/1985).  Newman and Newman, (2007). Theories of Human Development, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Inc. ISBN 978-0-8058-4702-4, pgs. 83-108.

Silva , P. J.  (2005). What is interesting? Exploring the appraisal structure of interest. Emotion, Vol 5, pgs. 89-102.

Skinner, B. F. –  Newman and Newman, (2007). Theories of Human Development, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Inc. ISBN 978-0-8058-4702-4, pgs 133-135.

BLOG 4 – BEHAVIORISM – TEACHING SKILLS

27 Saturday Feb 2016

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We were out on the playground for PE. I got out two balls from the ball bin to play soccer. The boys explained to me that these were the wrong balls and that they were basketballs and not soccer balls. I told them to go get soccer balls and to return these.

They did that and came back with two soccer balls. After a couple of minutes, they discovered that the soccer balls were flat and told me that. Freeze frame. What, do I, as a teacher do at this point?  Do I throw up my hands and shrug? Go look for someone to put air in the soccer balls? Try to find some other balls? Mind, we have less than 30 minutes to play. In other words, do I try to fix the problem with limited time and resources? What I did do was to ask the boys “What do you want to do?” They decided they would rather play with the basketball that had enough air in it than to try and play with the soccer balls that were nearly flat. I agreed.

Then the boys talked me into letting them play boys vs. girls and that lasted until the score was 7- 0 (boys vs. girls) and I changed it to one class vs. the other class. (5th graders!)

According to Dweck, (1975) learned helplessness is the perceived inability to surmount failure. Children (and others) will attribute their failure in many situations to lack of ability.

Students of all ages have been taught forever to depend solely on the teacher for their guidance and instruction. They have ‘learned’ helplessness and that the teacher is the ‘source’ of all information and the ‘cure or solution’ for all problems. To gradually place responsibility into the hands of the students themselves is a new idea and one that often, they are not comfortable with.

My soccer ball problem is a relatively simple situation with few consequences attached to the wrong ‘answer.’ We need to allow the students gradually more and more in their academic and social programs to make choices for themselves so that they are thinking when they make decisions as opposed to operating on habit and routine.

From a behaviorist viewpoint, students have been taught to obey authority and to not question what they are told to do. Given that this training starts at the very beginning of their lives, it is not surprising that the average 11 year old has trouble making simple decisions for himself or herself.

The reward/punishment model that I have already advanced (see Blog #3) gives elementary school children immediate rewards (and punishments) for behavior. The behaviorist model as advanced by B.F. Skinner (1935) originally, shows us, that without doubt, people and animals can be trained (conditioned) by rewards (classic conditioning) to give us desired performance. While it is certainly not fair to ever compare children to Pavlovian dogs, we are all, in truth animals and we respond to many of the same stimuli. Adults would cringe at such a comparison made of them yet, what are paychecks, bonus programs, benefits, contests that adults respond to all the time?

However; dealing with both adults and children, it is also important to realize that there are other intrinsic rewards that people response to just as well. For example, being recognized for good work, academic achievement, good grades, nice hair, a pretty dress, new shoes, etc. People like to be recognized for their intrinsic value and worth.

In conclusion; for the classroom teacher, short term rewards (and punishments) do work and perhaps the best conclusion here is that, they work for the short run. We seek to grow and development better, stronger and more resilient students who are internally motivated and who learn how to reward themselves.

I am volunteering at a library and discussed ‘series’ books with the librarian. Examples of series books are Nancy Drew,  The Hardy Boys, Harry Potter and the like. She told me that her 13 year old daughter is always so eager to get to the next book in her own series, that instead of waiting for it to appear on the shelf of the library, she goes to the local book store and buys the latest book with her own money. This girl has found that reading her own ‘series’ so rewarding that she is willing to spend her money to do so. This cannot be said of many students.

Teaching students to give themselves ‘proper’ rewards for their own good behavior is a worthy task for parents and teachers alike. Part of my class project will be to develop lists of ‘rewarding’ books for pre-teens, especially boys, that will keep them interested in reading.

 

References:

Diener, C.I. & Dweck, C.S. (1978). An analysis of learned helplessness: Continuous changes in performance, strategy, and achievement cognitions following failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 36, issue 5, pgs 451-462.

Newman and Newman, (2007). Theories of Human Development, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Inc. ISBN 978-0-8058-4702-4.

BLOG #3 – DYING FOR ATTENTION

18 Thursday Feb 2016

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BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM

 

I showed up for class early; it was a 5th and 6th grade, combo class. Students lined up outside the door before coming in. Sam was one of the last students to get into line and certainly, the last one to stop talking to friends. Sam, age 12, is the tallest, biggest and the best looking of his class. If he keeps growing, he will outsize me in just a couple of years. Given the dyed hair, the big size and the obvious attitude, I knew I would have my hands full with this one.

I started my class as I usually do; going over the rules of raising your hand, staying in your seat and reading a book when done. Then, I incorporated my new favorite, which is the Happy/Sad board. Students get one Happy point for correct answers, being helpful, passing out papers, asking to use the restroom, etc. They get one Sad point for talking when they should be listening or when they are supposed to be doing their work.

I explained these rules to a very silent class who were trying to decide if I planned to eat them or not. As I began to give points to students for doing lunch count, taking attendance to the office, handing out papers and the like, they started to get the idea and then began ‘working’ for points.

Some time ago I was introduced to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies (Merton, 1948) meaning that what we believe about either ourselves or another person, frequently begin to manifest into actual patterns of behavior. Sam and a couple of other students had desks placed oddly on the edge of other students. This was an apparent effort on the part of the teacher to control ‘outré’ behavior. Sam began to almost immediate chitter-chat with the students at his table. I handed out morning work in math and it appeared that he knew how to do the equations. I called him and another student to the front to show us how the problem was done and to explain their method. After doing that, both students got to write their names on the board and to then get a point.

I deliberately called on Sam on other occasions so that he would have a chance to earn points on the board. Then, when his behavior started to deteriorate into silliness and goofing with other students, I had him march up to the front and erase points off the board. His co-conspirators also got to do the same thing. The important part of this punishment is that it is immediate and clear. There are no parents, counselors, principals involved. The student gets to give himself the reward or punishment right then and there. It is important when using methods such as this that the teacher has ‘with-it-ness,’ meaning that you are alert to what is going on in class; the good and the bad. Students need to be ‘caught’ doing things right as well as when they do things wrong.

At recess, I pulled Sam over to talk to me when the other students had left the room. I told him he could recapture those lost points but he had to stop goofing with the other students. End of lecture; very clear-cut, not very long and demanding no promises. It was going to be in his hands how this thing went.

After recess, I consulted my Happy Board and one by one called the students up to the front and gave them each a sticker from a page of popular Disney characters. Sam had re-earned one point so he got one too. A couple of times Sam attempted to engage me in discussions about ‘why do we have to do this anyway,’ kind of thing and I would not engage with him.

By the end of the day, Sam was working on his packet the way he was supposed to do and actually turned it in before any of the other 6th graders. One student was attempting to goof with him again and he told the kid to leave him alone because ‘he needed to finish his work.’ Unbelievable! Toward the end of the day, I handed out stickers one more time and Sam got a second sticker. It is important to realize that although the students do like the stickers, it is more the honor of getting called up to the front for good behavior and getting to show off a little in front of their classmates that is really ‘the thing.’

In the Calvete article the author points out that deep schemas of the adolescent individual predict surface-level anxious thoughts and these perpetuate more negative schemas. Maladaptive schemas maintain social anxiety. Negative self-imagery contributes to social phobias. Also, socially anxious individuals seek out negative information to reinforce preconceived notions about themselves because that is what they are comfortable with. The underlying negative self-schemas affect behavior and maintain social anxiety.

Sam is a twelve-year old boy who is dying his hair. This indicates a need to be ‘different’. He chatters incessantly which indicates an ‘other-directedness’ as indicates by Calvete and a constant need for approval from others. He has a hard time making eye contact and is argumentative. He is not autistic and this would suggest a trust problem with significant adults in his life. As teachers, our job is not to psychoanalyze Sam’s behavior constantly, but to figure out simple measures that will get him and keep him on track long enough so that he can utilize the brain he has to achieve, get some good grades and find new ways to feel better about himself. This is not just about learning the material, it is a process in class of getting the students re-organized, on task and moving along so they feel they can accomplish and handle the material and master what is in front of them.

Some may argue against the use of ‘rewards’ to encourage behavior. Research has shown that incentives can be moderately successful when they are well specified and well targeted. (Gneezy, Meier and Rey-Biel, 2011). These students are eleven and twelve years old. Eventually, we hope that they will become more ‘inner directed’ and less ‘reward or outer directed’ but that can still take some time. Regardless, all people enjoy positive recognition for doing well.

In this and in all classroom settings and also in parenting; it is the job of the teacher/parent, to teach the student/children to gradually think for themselves and to become independent in their thoughts and actions and to become capable of taking care of themselves and making proper choices. It is a long process involved in ‘letting go of the reins’ and gradually allowing the students to more and more to take control of their own learning and eventually, their own lives.

 

References:

Calvete, E, Orie I. and Hankin, B. L. (2013). Early Maladaptive Schemas and Social Anxiety in Adolescents, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27, pgs 278-288.

Gneezy, Uri, Meier, Stephen and Rey-Biel, Pedro (2011). When and Why Incentives Don’t Work to Modify Behavior, Journal of Economic Perpectives, Vol. 25, #4, pgs 191-210.

Merton, Robert K. (1948). Self-fulfilling Prophecy, The Antioch Review, Vol.  8, (#2-Summer) : pgs 193-210, retrieved Internet 5/4/2014.

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my! Blog #2- Schema Learning

07 Sunday Feb 2016

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BLOG #2 – ACTIVATING SCHEMA IN THE CLASSROOM/CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT – Courtney Webb

I got the call early, had to cover for a 1st grade class, the teacher was sick. I pulled myself together and got to the school and into the classroom. The teacher had, (thankfully) come in early and created an entire lesson plan and gotten copies of all student activities made and sorted into piles (love him.) What stopped me short was the white board.

A large section of the board was divided into two rows; Happy Face and Unhappy Face. The Happy board had a number of names and apparently there was going to be a pizza party of some sort to celebrate. The Unhappy board had three names, all boys. Ominously there were points next to each name. 5 for the first, 10 for the second and 15 for the third! This was not looking good. How to get this ship turned around?

I stared at the board and then remembered my B.F.Skinner (1948) behaviorist training. When the students got into class we did role and I called the three Musketeers up to the front and pointed out the board.  I advised the students that if they did what I asked them to do, each time, they could come up to the board and erase one mark. Any marks left at recess meant they owed me one minute per mark. They nodded their heads.

I had them each erase one mark for coming up when I asked them to. I was using Skinner’s methods of reinforcement to control classroom behavior so that learning could occur. Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based on Thorndike’s law of effect. Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect – Reinforcement. Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened). (McLeod, 2007.)

Later we did ‘morning work’ and there were three pages of Math Facts. I gave students points for everything; correct answers, asking to use the bathroom, asking for a tissue, helping another student, and passing out papers. Anything and everything. Of course, the entire class got to participate and put “Happy Points” up on the Happy side of the board. By recess, all of the ‘bad’ points were gone and students were engaged in learning. Whew! Plus, they just loved earning points.

After recess, we read a book about a boy and the circus. From the circus we were able to leapfrog into talking about lions, and tigers and bears and where they come from. We talked about the park preserves in Africa and the shooting of Cecil the Lion and how the rangers found the body via the use of a GPS tracking device they had put in his ear. One 1st grader knew it was an American dentist who shot the lion. Then we talked about Yosemite Park and how many students had been there. Quite a few.

We talked about the US Forest Rangers in the park and how they put GPS trackers in the bear’s ears to track them and why. We discussed whether or not bears eat people (no) but that they come to the camps searching for food and that, yes, they are dangerous when frightened or threatened. We talked about endangered species and what the rangers are doing to protect them. In the end, I had to tell them about a master hunter at the local gun shop who was commissioned by the park to shoot bears that chronically come back to camp and threaten people. Unfortunately, this man had to shoot four bears last year; too bad.

Activating the student’s own schema we were able to talk about National Parks, wild animals, endangered species, GPS trackers, hunting practices and keeping safe while visiting the mountain parks. Students were actively engaged in the discussion and hopefully learned about something more than circuses (which are fun.)

Piaget first developed the concept of schema theory in 1926.  Later, R.C.Anderson further developed the idea that schemas are the storage system that we use to store experiences and knowledge that we have. (Little, Box, 2001.)

By activating prior knowledge and experiences (Who has been to Yosemite Park?) we are bringing students into the discussion. We are ‘scaffolding’ new learning onto older learning. Students who lack prior schematic knowledge can have more problems understanding and making sense of the text they are currently reading. This is especially true in cross-cultural settings and for many at-risk students. (Little, Box, 2001.)

By developing general knowledge (Who knows about lions and bears?) we are helping students to build schemata and make connections between ideas, using subject material they are interested in. The Schemata development in young children forms the basis for later learning. (Savage, 1998.)

Abstract concepts (endangered species, GPS tracking systems,) are best understood on a foundation of concrete relevant information (Who has seen a bear?) (Schallert, 1984.)

Schema development is an aid to reading, vocabulary development and comprehension. (Pearson and Anderson, 1979.)  Theorists are telling us that comprehension in reading is closely linked to prior knowledge and experiences. Concept mapping was a term used by Cassidy, 2011 to discuss the linking of sets of ideas and explaining their connections as a way to develop reading, thinking and brainstorming.

References:

Little, D. C. and Box, J. A. Spring 2011, Reading Improvement, Vol. 48, Issue 1, p. 24-31. 8p.

McLeod, Saul, 2007, updated 2015.  Skinner – Operant Conditioning, Simply Psychology, http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html, Retrieved Internet 2016.

EPISTEMOLOGY BLOG POST

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Definition of epistemology

  1. : the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity

Origin of epistemology

Greek epistēmē knowledge, fromepistanai to understand, know, from epi- + histanai to cause to stand — more at stand (Websters.)
First Known Use: circa 1856

Yesterday, as a sub-teacher, I taught a lesson to first-graders on a book about masks. The book had masks from Korea, Japan, Africa, the American Northwest and Mexico. From the pictures we were able to pick out the blue tile roofs common to Korea, the face of Buddha from Japan, the carved wooden mask of Africa and the eagle from the Native Americans, probably from Washington State. We were able to explore (briefly) geography, culture and nationalities. We talked about totem poles of the NA people and that eagles, bears, fish and mountain lions were all made into images. We discussed Dia De Los Muertos and what that was (Day of the Dead) and what masks students had worn on Halloween.

Touching briefly on the subjects brings the study of geography and culture into the classroom and adds an element of inclusion for students who come from those cultures. Although none  knew where totem poles came from, many of them knew all about costumes for Dia De Los Muertos. Students like to feel included in classroom activities and that their personal backgrounds count and matter. Also, that these cultures have value and merit and therefore, they have value and merit.

Relective practice is “A moving beyond the acquisition of new knowledge and understanding, into questioning [of] existing assumptions, values, and perspectives (Cranton 1996, p. 76). Four elements are central to critical reflection: assumption analysis, contextual awareness, imaginative speculation, and reflective skepticism (Brookfield 1988, p. 325). (Imel, 1998.) Reflective practice is central to my style of teaching. 

Diversity training that I have received over the years has given me a greater understanding and perspective on the vast array of cultures and nationalities that come together in this state in particular and this nation. It is not just enough to teach students that we live in California, and Oregon is north of us and Washington State is north of that. What does that mean and why is it significant? It is important to teach students more than just a bunch of facts. In order to develop a comprehensive schema and understanding of the world, students need to learn connectivity between the things that surround them.

Reflective practice in all classes should consider whether students are engaged in the material, interested in what they are learning and whether or not they are demonstrating increasing and developing command of facts and skills.

Educators have become familiar with the concept of reflective practice through Donald Schon’s (1983, 1988) writings about reflective practitioners. Schon’s work has an historical foundation in a tradition of learning supported by Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget, each of whom advocated that learning is dependent upon the integration of experience with reflection and of theory with practice.  (Osterman 1990). (Imel,1992.)

However, Osterman (1990) maintains that an important part of reflective practice is developing the ability to articulate that tacit knowledge. The competent practitioner must be able to 1) describe the event 2) analyze the event) theorize about it and 4) take action. And, again and again, the practitioner (teacher) has to ask himself or herself the question “Is this working with this class?”

I was once a long-term sub for Job Corps in Sacramento. They had an expensive and complicated Reading 180 program. The class had an abundance of computers and tons of level reading books that should have been interesting to the students. The teacher had been extensively trained for the program. However; some smart psychologist decided the students lost interest easily, so a timer would ring every 15 minutes. Then, students had to get up and move to another work station. Great in theory and horrible in practice. Students hated the program, probably because they hated being herded around like cattle. The teacher nearly lost control of that class because of the negative emotional reaction from her students.

My personal epistemology would be that developing the whole mind schema is important for students in terms of how well they ultimately do on college entrance exams and also, for them to develop a well-rounded interest and curiosity in their world. Time and time again, I find students have more tucked up their sleeves than I would have thought. But, that information does not come out if I do all the talking. I once had a nine year old boy tell the class that the dinosaurs died because an asteroid hit the planet. He stole my line! Students need to become gradually more responsible in class for constructing their own learning and developing their own instruments for teaching others. Whether that be papers, Power Points or drama skits; students need to demonstrate their acquisition and command of knowledge their own way.

“Learning is the change in performance that results from experience and interaction with the world.” Students need to demonstrate what they learn. Standardized tests are one way to demonstrate learning, but they are not the only way and teachers need to develop tools in the classroom to assist their students in their ability to demonstrate their own learning. (Driscoll, 2005.)

Dweck talks about the mindset where students interpret their performance as a ‘setback’ or a ‘failure.’ Student who learn to evaluate their efforts as setbacks rather than abject failures are more likely to exercise persistence in the face of challenge. Students who ‘catastrophize’ every small thing into being a ‘big thing’ are more likely to give up and throw in the towel at the least little bump in the road. (Dweck, 2006.)

No large successes in school or any other endeavor will ever be accomplished without setbacks and it is our jobs as teachers to give students the permission to ‘reframe’ their reference points for self-evaluation and give themselves permission to ‘fail’ so that they will eventually succeed.

References

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Introduction to theories of learning and instruction. In Psychology of     learning for instruction (3rd ed., pp. 1-15). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success (pp. 3-11). New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

Imel, S. (1992).  Reflective Practice in Adult Education.(Eric Digest No. 122. ED346319). Columbus, OH: ERIC. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov.hmlproxy.lib.

Imel, S. (1998). Transformative learning in adulthood. (ERIC Digest No. 200 ED423426). Columbus, OH: ERIC. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov.hmlproxy.lib.

Merriam-Webster: Dictionary and Thesaurus. Retrieved Internet: www.merriam-webster.com.