Week 12 (?) - Readings

Bandura writes with a little bit of flair, and I like that. This is all very interesting to me, because the issue of why people do what they do is basically the fundamental human question. I intend to read this over again before class, but at this point I'm not entirely sure if I think Bandura is any closer to an answer than anyone else.

I did like his discussion of self-esteem versus self-efficacy. I think this is an important distinction to make. It seems to me that we spend a lot of time and worry on students' self-esteem. One thing I've noticed is that teachers, being the polite people they are, often shy away from telling a student they are wrong about something. Clearly, there are instances where the "wrong" isn't really possible, but I think students might benefit by an occasional honest "no." Being wrong about something doesn't have to hurt one's self esteem OR their sense of self-efficacy. It may hurt the former, but not if the students is in environment where wrong is not necessarily inferior. It will improve the latter if the student learns the error in their thinking and corrects it.

Motivation Readings

I didn't find Clark and Estes particularly revelatory. Much of it boils down more or less to common sense. One thing that they seem to come back to a few times is the idea that perception is reality when it comes to motivation. Though this is a bit of common sense, too, I think it's something that can often be overlooked.

This comes into play when trying to figure out how to offer accurate assessment without giving the kind of negative feedback that can depress motivation. How do you discuss a student's poor performance without upsetting a student's "basic need for competence?" I suppose you have to somehow maintatin their perception of their abilities while helping them understand what they're doing wrong. This seems like very thin ice on which to tread, especially while simultaneously taking into account the myriad personal and cultural factors that affect motivation.

This is an area where I think technology can help a lot. The secret of video games, going all the way back to pinball, is that they are designed to keep the player on the very edge of his or her competency, which is a concept that is discussed in these readings. Today's video games are masterfully designed to allow each individual player to stay in a situation where they feel challenged, but not in over their head. I generally think that we should decrease the amount of time our kids spend staring at a screen, but computer programs are uniquely suited to taylor an educational experience in such a way as to motivate students by constantly challenging them.

Week 9 Readings

Another week with an absolute ton of new material. I liked Miller's flair, but was most intrigued by the other two readings. I liked Schacter's discussion of the various ways in which memory can fail us. Memory is something that we use constantly and struggle to understand. I like the way Schacter looks at memory failure as a potentially useful part of the way our brains work.

In their discussion of 'element interactivity,' of materials or tasks, VanMerioenboer and Sweller state that "...a large number of interacting elements for one person might be a single element for another more experienced person who has a schema that incorporates the elements." I wonder if this might serve to hinder the assistance a more-expert learner can provide to less-expert peers. If one learner has already developed schema incorporating certain elements of a task, can a less-expert learner acquire those schema by observation? Or would it be a two-ships-passing-in-the-night scenario?

The readings this week also expose some of the flaws of traditional method of learning social studies, especially history and geography. We often expect our students to remember lists of names and facts, but do not require or encourage them to develop the schema necessary for these facts to be remembered. Part of me is of the opinion that we ought to accept that the trivia involved in the tradition learning of history (names, dates, etc.) will be forgotten, and focus on teaching our students schema that will be of use to them in the world they are entering.