1דף ד"בס

Synopsis and Interpretation of "Improving Self-Efficacy and Motivation - What To Do , What To Say" by Howard Margolis and Patrick P. McCabe.

From: Intervention In School & Clinic, Vol. 41, No. 4, March 2006 (pp. 218-227).

from: http://69.195.124.74/~howardm2/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Confidence-Self-efficacy-WhatToDoSay.pdf "Self-Efficacy" is the belief that one has the capability to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments. According to self-efficacy theorists, low self efficacy causes motivational problems. Students that believe that they cannot succeed on specific tasks will avoid or resist those tasks or superficially attempt them and give up quickly. Often, the key to motivation is to get them to believe that they can succeed. This belief can change behaviors. (Brophy, 1998; Pajares, 2003, Bandura, 1997, p. 3, Henk & Melnick, 1995; Walker, 2003) Sources of self efficacy are: 1) Enactive mastery (actually mastering task performance), 2) Vicarious experiences (observing others doing the difficult task), 3) Verbal persuasion (offering information to interpret and evaluate), 4) Physiological reaction or state (techniques to challenge irrational thoughts before, during and after doing a task). (Alderman, 2004; Ormrod, 2003; Pajares, 2003; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Zimmerman, 2000, 2001) What To Do - How to strengthen self-efficacy: 1) Plan moderately challenging tasks that are slightly above current performance levels and require moderate effort, thereby developing willingness to persist and obtain meaningful achievement. Tasks should not be excessively difficult and require continuous, herculean efforts because such tasks negatively effect self-efficacy. Such tasks cause fatigue and the excessive effort required is interpreted as a sign of personal inadequacy. Often these tasks are in fact too difficult. (Part of this paragraph is from pg. 223). (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Pressley et al., 2003; Stipek, 1998) 2) Use peer models that can be observed successfully tackling targeted tasks. The peer models should be similar to student observers in ways the observers deem important. Includes both: a. mastery models (flawless demonstration of targeted task) and b. coping models (ability to overcome mistakes in achievement of targeted task). Coping models should attribute success to factors that are controllable and modifiable (note: Proper Hashkafa might diverge here to attribute rather to סייעתא דשמיא after best effort, as in יגעתי ומצאתי etc.). (Alderman, 2004; Maag, 1999; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Schunk, 2001, Robertson, 2000; Schunk, 1999, 2001; Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997; Zimmerman, 2001) 3) Teach specific learning strategies that provide a logical sequence of steps for attacking difficult tasks, thereby making task manageable, giving struggling students a starting point & developing optimism about ability to succeed. Teachers should identify critical strategies, explain why and when to use them, have students overlearn the strategies. Possible instructional sequence: Get commitment to master, describe strategy in easy to remember format, model strategy while thinking aloud, have student verbally self-instruct themselves, provide corrective feedback, have students rehearse each step with its purpose, provide ample practice-both guided and independent, communicate to student at what point they have reached mastery, discuss usage of strategy in various situation, teach students how to self monitor usage & reinforcement of strategy, provide encouragement & deserved praise & corrective feedback. (Lenz, Deshler, and Kissam 2004 p. 261, De La Paz, 1999; Graham, Harris, & Troia, 2000; Swanson, 2000, Swanson & Deshler 2003, Wilson, Maheady, and Sindelar’s 1997, Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997) 4) Whenever possible, allow students the ability to choose among acceptable, meaningful assignments and identify students' interests and develop assignments that incorporate interests into tasks. Seek tasks that are relevant to students' lives. Get students involved in small-group discussions. Possible guidelines for encouraging involvement: Have students face each other, clearly state topic and goals, encourage and reinforce good listening, organize small mixed achievement groups of students, monitor groups to keep focus, use simple language and check for misunderstandings. (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002, Allington & Johnston, 2001); Alverman & Phelps, 1998, p. 329, Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003) 5) Reinforce effort, persistence & correct strategy use by offering extrinsic reinforcers and by negotiating behavioral contracts. Phase out reinforcers by moving from continuous to fixed to variable schedules of

2דף ד"בסreinforcement and by moving from novel to naturally occurring reinforcements. (Alberto and Troutman 2003, Heron and Harris 2001, and Maag 1999) 6) A formal and systematic behavior analysis may be necessary. What To Say - How to strengthen self-efficacy: 1) Encourage student effort and show how effort and persistence applied to activities at the appropriate level that require moderate effort will usually bring success, when coupled with previously mastered strategies. (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002) 2) Tie new tasks to previously mastered tasks, thereby making the new ones more accessible. Ask students to compare new tasks to old ones and to find ways of applying previously learned strategies. Record progress and chart recent successes. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003; Heron & Harris 2001, Schunk, 1999, 2001; Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997) 3) Offer immediate, specific feedback on what needs to be improved and what was done right. This acts as a map for success which strengthens self-efficacy. During the acquisition stage of new information mistakes are common and allowing mistakes to become entrenched can cause diminished self-efficacy, therefore immediate feedback and correction is crucial. Five types of teacher directed feedback: 1: Corrective feedback-reteach, rephrase, clarify, restate. 2: Prompt-Offer information (visual, auditory, tactile) to help correct mistakes. 3: Process feedback-Strengthen students' clarity by repeating student's correct answer and explain reasoning. 4: Instructive feedback-expand on concepts by offering additional information, such as definitions of difficult words. 5: Praising-Only offer legitimately earned praise so as to avoid the problem of unearned praise that students eventually understand as false & insincere. Effective praise suggests competence and is contingent on success, specifies accomplishments, is spontaneous and focuses attention on task relevant behavior. Praise should encourage determination, independence & creativity. Ineffective praise can weaken teacher's credibility and minimize effectiveness of future praise. (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997, Heward, 2000, Salend 2001, Good & Brophy, 2003, Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). 3) Encourage functional attributions, where student sees success as attainable with proper effort and strategy. Retrain students accustomed to dysfunctional attributions where they convince themselves that effort is useless and success is impossible. First, ensure that tasks are only moderately difficult. Then stress that success and failure is tied to controllable or modifiable factors and that failure is not a permanent limitation. Teacher should state reason for outcome before stating actual outcome, so that student dwells on the reasons. Peer tutoring can also help strengthen functional attributions. (Kozminsky & Kozminsky, 2002, 2003; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002, 2003; Ring & Reetz, 2000; Shelton, Anastopoulos, & Linden, 1985, Fosterling, 1985; Robertson, 2000, Alderman, 2004; Mushinski-Fulk & Mastropieri, 1990; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002) These strategies often work to improve self-efficacy, increase motivation and help academic success by replacing destructive patterns of low self-efficacy perceptions that cause maladaptive academic behaviors, and cause diminished interest in schoolwork and cause avoidance of courses. Beliefs in personal competence become habits of thinking that serve students throughout their lives. Still, these techniques aren't guaranteed to always work. REFERENCES Alberto, P., & Troutman, A. (2003). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Alderman, M. K. (2004). Motivation for achievement: Possibilities for teaching and learning (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Allington, R. L., & Johnston, P. H. (2001). What do we know about effective fourth-grade teachers and their classrooms? In C. Roller (Ed.), Learning to teach reading: Setting the research agenda (pp. 150–165). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Alverman, D. E., & Phelps, S. F. (1998). Content reading and literacy (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Longman. Brophy, J. (1998). Failure syndrome students (ERIC Digest No. ED419625). Retrieved January 14, 2003, from http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=ED419625&db=eric De La Paz, S. (1999). Self-regulated strategy instruction in regular education settings: Improving outcomes for students with and without learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 14, 92–106. Ellis, E. S. (1996). Reading strategy instruction. In D. D. Deshler, E. S. Ellis, & B. K. Lenz (Eds.), Teaching adolescents with learning disabilities: Strategies and methods (2nd ed., pp. 61–125). Denver, CO: Love. Fosterling, F. (1985). Attributional retraining: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 495–512.

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