Equity, Delpit's Article

Reflection: My big idea was that learning is not done by listening to a teacher and taking in everything he/she says.  This type of stereotype is a problem described in Delpit's article. It seems that the teacher is always the authority figure and the students are supposed to listen and obey. However, this is not how equity and learning is established. Children must learn to think for themselves and realize they are knowledgeable people as well. They are capable of learning and knowing things perhaps even the teacher doesn't know. However, when there is a power relationship in the classroom, students seem to believe everything a teacher says and never question anything. No knowledge is gained this way. However, when a teacher does not play such an authority figure role, students start to ask questions about the material learned. When they ask questions, they are confirming the knowledge and must understand it to do so. In addition to this, they are able to realize things beyond the material given to them and could even perhaps teach the teacher and the rest of the class something others didn't realize before. Teachers should create opportunities for students to learn and think for themselves, not provide one dimensional ways of thinking they believe is right. 

Activity: My activity is simple: The teacher sits down and does work with the students. If students were doing a math sheet, for example, I think it is important for the teacher to sit down with them and do it rather than stand at the front of the classroom as an authority figure. When the teacher comes and sits at a desk and does the work with students, it gives the teacher more of a friend and less of a power role. When students see teachers doing things like this they can still look to a teacher as a good role model to do their work, but also less of a person who "knows all." This gives students more responsibility and feeling more capable to do their work by thinking for themselves.

Behavior Theory of Motivation

The behavioral theory of motivation is closely related to operant conditioning. This idea uses reinforcement as a way to motivate students. If a  behavior is associated with good consequences (reinforcement), the students will be more likely to perform the behavior again under similar circumstances. Through this theory, motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation would cause a student to perform a behavior a certain because of the reward at the end. They are doing the task solely because of the outcome. This can be rewarded with things such as trophies, candy, stickers, attention, praise, etc. Intrinsic motivation does not involve an external incentive. Instead, it allows students to engage in activities that is a part of the activity itself. Examples of this would be free play with blocks, coloring, reading time, etc. Teachers often try to use extrinsic motivators to help motivate them intrinsically by giving them stickers, extra recess time, no homework, and other external rewards. It is important to effectively use rewards so that the students aren't completely the take only because of the reward at the end. To do so, you must consider these factors:

• purpose of reward
• how student perceive the award
• context in which reward is given

 A few guidelines that can be used for rewards that are not detrimental to intrinsic motivation are:

• Occasionally use unexpected rewards such as showing a movie
• Use unexpected tangible awards sparingly such as stickers, candy, or trophies
• Withdraw rewards as soon as possible so that students are not engaging solely to get the reward
• Use the most modest reward possible
• Make the reward contingent on quality of work
• Minimize the use of authoritarian style such as closely monitoring, threats, or controlling language

In my classroom I could use the behavioral theory of motivation by allowing students to participate in activities that are intrinsically motivational. In a first grade classroom, If a student finishes their work early, I will allow them to read. They can read one of the books they checked out from the library or one of the ones in the classroom. I will also have an "I'm Finished" bin that will have different activities they can do if they don't want to read. These activities will range from reading a science magazine, doing extra math problems, creating a story, etc.  My field experience teacher has one of these and the student love to pick activities that are in this bin. If a student is doing great academically, I would use tangible measure to reward them. Each test that a student receives a 100% on, I will put their name in a raffle. At the end of the month I will draw 2 names from the box and they will get to pick from a goody box which would contain a variety of rewards.

Behavior Theory of Motivation

             Behavioral Theory of Motivation defined in simplest form would be to reward students for  learning. One's behavior is due to either external factors such as the factors that are outside the learners control. (which is the key focus of behavioral theory) whereas internal factors are under control of the learner.
         Rewards given out in this theory are given on a basis of participating or completing an activity or achieving a certain level of performance for getting an A+.
         
         The factors that affect perception of rewards: - Purpose of the reward
                                                                                - How students perceive the reward
                                                                                - The context in which the reward is given.

          A few guidelines to follow to meet the need of the students level of intrinsic rewards would be too :
             1.) Close monitoring by the teacher
             2.) Having deadlines and imposed goals
             3.)  Threats and directives and so on

         An activity you could do using the behaviorist learning theory for example if a goal at the end of the lesson is a “certificate of completion”, then the student and teacher have tangible proof of their success. They can also add speed and accuracy on the form along with a grade. They receive immediate feedback and in order for the students to receive positive feedback and a correct answer, they just need to focus on the instruction and put forth better effort and attention.

Behavioral Theory of motivation

1.     The behavioral theory of motivation is basically the theory of operant conditioning.

2.     This learning theory is all about reinforcing behaviors.  When a student performs a task or exhibits a behavior, giving them a positive consequence will increase the likelihood of them exhibiting that behavior again.  This is what the theory of motivation is all about.  When they think that peers approve of an action, then it creates high positive reinforcement because everyone likes to feel approval and acceptance.  Another big part of this theory is rewards.  Examples of rewards for positive actions are stickers, or candy, or no-homework passes.  The examples can go on forever, but they all give positive behavior reinforcement.  It helps with operant conditioning.  I think that this relates a lot to Vygotsky’s theory.  The students will first see and learn what behaviors are considered “good”.  This will be a learning time.  Then they will take what they hear, and make it a part of their own personal actions.  This is conditioning at its finest.

3.     In my future 5^th grade classroom, I can use this theory to encourage participation and good behavior in class.  To encourage participation, I will pass out candy to active listeners and people that can answer questions as well as ask good questions.  I don’t want to penalize for wrong answers, so I will still give out a reward for wrong answers.  I value the attempt and that the students will be making an effort.  I will also give out rewards for excellent behavior in class.  This will obviously include not acting out.  But behavior also includes being a positive encouragement to peers in class.  Negativity will not merit a good behavior reward of a free-homework pass.  These two motivations will be great in my future classroom.

Case Study

Case study: Elementary School

• Several of the students in your second grade class groan when it’s time for spelling. They dislike completing worksheets and find dictation exercises monotonous. Consequently, many of them do poorly on their weekly spelling quizzes and don’t seem to care.

1. I would start by changing the words to make them more appealing to the students' likes. I would let me pick out the words. I could do this by having them turn in words that they can think of randomly, from the dictionary, from the books that they are reading, or something else. If teacher's use things that students see or hear in their daily lives, they will be more interested in what they are learning. Instead of just filling out worksheets, I would set out stations for the students to work at. These stations could be: writing the spelling words with your non-dominant hand, typing the spelling words in different fonts and colors of your choice and printing it out, writing a riddle for each word, make an alliteration sentence for each spelling word, and then write out the spelling words with 3-4 markers in your hand at once. These activities could begin making spelling fun. If this can be done once a week and the activities be different every couple of weeks, this could be great for kids to think of spelling as fun.  Also, in order to review the spelling words a day before the test, have the kids do a spelling bee. Whoever wins receives a prize like a bonus point on the test or go shoeless for a day. This would be where extrinsic motivation comes in.

2. To show my students that I value the process of learning, rather than the product, I would emphasize how important it is to learn the words that they hear every day, but may not know how to spell them. If I used words from their books and had them spell those on the tests, this could show how I think it is important to learn these words and use the spelling rules to help them spell new words they see or hear. 

3. The students' values of the spelling section of class right now are nothing. It is hard to tell whether or not they have positive or negative expectancies at this time because I am not sure if they are doing poorly on the tests. If they are doing poorly, they have a negative expectancy towards the test because they are afraid of failing. My intrinsic motivation that I stated above would be using expectancy-value theory because it would give my students a positive expectancy for success and their intrinsic value would increase because they are satisfied or curious about spelling.

4. I think the expectancy-value theory would be most relevant because motivation has a lot riding on what your expectancy of the challenge is. Is it positive or negative? Also, the values being intrinsic or extrinsic, shape the amount of effort we put forth on something. With my changes in the lesson, etc., the students would have high values for spelling. 

Self Theory of Motivation (Self-Efficacy)

1) Self-efficacy is the belief in someone's own ability to accomplish something.

2)  A person develops their own self-efficacy by: past performance, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and states of emotional arousal.  Self-efficacy is improved in students when they have mastered something and feel their success is due to their effort.  Observing someone else perform the task at hand, vicarious experiences, helps improve one's self-efficacy, especially when the observer is at the same level as the model.  Verbal persuasion has been seen to determine one's self-efficacy if the person doing the praising is seen as important.  Students who are fatigued, stressed or anxious tend to not have as high of a self-efficacy as a student who is confident and eager.  There are three main components for an individual to be motivated based off of Bandura, outcome expectations, efficacy expectations and self-regulation.  Outcome expectations is simply what an individual believes to be the outcome. Efficacy expectations are what the individual believes of their own ability. Self-regulation is one's ability to control their emotions. Self-efficacy is related to Bandura's social cognitive theory. Two of the three main assumptions from Bandura's theory are covered with the idea of self-efficacy.  Learning can occur by observing others and personal characteristics are important in learning are the two assumptions of Bandura's theory covered in the book.

3) An activity that could be conducted based off of self-efficacy in a classroom of 1st graders with a diverse group could be based on spelling words.  In order to get the children excited and in a good emotional state I would have the students learn the words by different chants or songs.  I would first demonstrate the chant and then have the students repeat back. The children would feel more capable of doing the chant after seeing me and their classmates doing it as well.  Chants and songs have been shown to help students learn something and retain it better, therefore students are more likely to do well on their spelling assessments, raising their outcome expectations and efficacy expectations for future lessons. Along with these different motivational aspects I would encourage the students as I teach them the spelling words.  Because different student's self-efficacy is affected differently, I have touched on each aspect of self-efficacy motivation in order to encompass all of my students.

Madeline Leslie: Cognitive/Self Theories

Big Idea: A teacher introduces a subject to her students. Once the teacher gives the children some background information on the topic, it’s up to the student to continue to explore the subject and gain more knowledge. Once they become more knowledgeable, the student participates in some type of activity that enhances that knowledge. They then study all the information they have been introduced to and are tested on it.  After they are tested, the student will receive a good grade for all the work they have put in. The teacher will praise the student for receiving such a good grade. The student will then want to continue the process in order to continue to receive good grades.

Activity/Example: The teacher wants her students to learn about chemicals. She creates a PowerPoint and teachers her students the main points they will need to know about chemicals. The students will then want to explore this subject area and find out more about the topic. Once they know about chemicals, they will participate in a science lab, experimenting with different chemicals and seeing different reactions. What they learn in the lab enhances their previous knowledge about chemicals. The students will be working in groups of four. Next, the students need to study for their test. After they take the test, they receive an A and their teacher praises them for doing such a fantastic job. The student likes the feeling of feeling smart and having their teacher be proud of them, so they repeat the process for the next topic they’re going to learn.

Reflection: My diagram model has not changed from my previous model, however the interpretation and reflection of the material has been altered. My initial model was based solely on hands on activities. I then realized that hands on activities, although they are important, are not actually doing the teaching. They are there to enhance the learning process; and therefore I needed to incorporate some type of activity that would actually teach the students background information on the topic. The students must know background information before they participate in any sort of activity. After the students become knowledgeable enough to work on an activity, they have the option to split up into pairs because working in groups and having social interactions will allow the students to challenge each other and become even more knowledgeable, or they can choose to work alone. If a student chooses to work alone, they may be trying to promote self-efficiency, which we learn about in Module 17. Self-efficiency is an expectation that we are capable of performing a task or succeeding in an activity. After the activity is completed, the students will begin to study for an upcoming test. Studying for the test displays either the concept of extrinsic motivation or intrinsic motivation, which we learn about in Module 16. Extrinsic motivation focuses on external rewards for their behavior, such as receiving a good grade on a test, while in intrinsic motivation, learning is the reward itself. My goal as a teacher will be to promote intrinsic motivation; however I’m not senseless enough to believe that all my students will participate in this type of motivation. Deciding whether to work with a partner or alone may affect they type of motivation that each student is performing. After the student studies and gets tested on the material, the student will receive a grade. The teacher will be more than excited if their students receive good grades. They will even hand out different forms of reinforcement which will in turn encourage the students to do just as well on their next test/activity.