Social Cognitive Theory-Week 4 (Sarah Isaacson)

Activity

The teacher discusses sounding out the letter sound “ph” and “gh.” The teacher is the model for the students, modeling through her discussion and then when reading aloud to the students.  The students then work in groups, being models for each other because the students are in pods where everyone has a different strength, but one of the students has strong reading skills already to be the main model during group work.  The teacher will continually remind the students as they are reading in groups that they can do this and that it is not much harder than what they worked on last week.  This will give the students the confidence to continue to read and really learn the concepts of the “ph” and “gh” sounds.  After sufficient practice, the students will be able to read aloud to the class with a book they know is at the right level for their reading level, promoting self-regulation.

Explanation

For this model/activity, I chose to use Social Cognitive Theory to modify my model.  I did not have to change that much about my model for this week, because my activity already had quite a bit of social cognitive theory aspects in it already.  Social Cognitive Theory, developed by Bandura, focuses on learning through observation and modeling, as well the belief in one’s own abilities.  The teacher is the model at the beginning of the activity; during her discussion with the students, she is modeling what she wants her students to do.  Because the students are learning by observing the teacher, they are using “vicarious learning” (174).  The teacher is a “live model,” which is where the students can learn directly and get immediate feedback. This way, if the students are confused about anything, the teacher can fix the misconception or explain the concept more clearly.  Having the teacher as the model at the beginning is also conducive for the students to learn because the teacher is “viewed as competent…[and] more likely to be imitated [because] he or she is someone with high status” (175).  This causes the students to feel confident in learning because they know that their teacher knows what he or she is talking about.  The book specifically states that, “teachers provide an excellent example of models in the classroom” (175).  This tells us that it is a good idea for the teacher to model the learning because the students will want to imitate the behavior from their teacher before a person who does not appear to know what they are doing.  This is why, during group time, the teacher set up the pods in the classroom, making sure that there are varying reading levels at each, providing another model who does not have the most knowledge on the subject, but might have more than others in the class.  This would improve the self-efficacy of the student who is better at reading, because they would realize that they are able to do the reading.  Another way to help boost self-efficacy, which is “an individual’s belief about his or her capabilities for success,” would be for the teacher to repeatedly tell students that they can succeed in this activity and that they can read those sounds.  Seeing their peers succeed in making these sounds and seeing them read could give the struggling students the confidence to “believe that they too can be successful” (178).  Students will be able to self-regulate when they pick the book they will want to read aloud and choose a book that is at an appropriate reading level.  This will also give the student more confidence because they will know that they can read that book. 

Sarah Isaacson