Is It Them or Is It Me?

QED 520 Educational Psychology I

Problem Based Learning

Tutor: Daniel Tan Eng Hai

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Group One: Betty Chua Yi Qin

Eunice Leow Shium RouWendy Fan WenyingRodney Sea Chi Huah

PBL Scenario One

SCENE 1 (In the staff room)

Ms Jia sat at her table, staring into space, drained of every bit of her energy after class, and then with a sigh writing into her notepad to-do-list.

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Set of questions identified:I How will a teacher’s self-

efficacy affect the classroom learning

environment?

II How do teachers’ expectation and students’

motivation impact on academic performance?

III How do reward and punishment enforce

discipline and enhance performance?

IV To what extent will cognitive process, or the

lack thereof impact meaningful learning?

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I. How will a teacher’s self-efficacy

affect the classroom learning environment?

Self-Efficacy

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I Self Efficacy-Evidences• drained of every bit of her energy

• how am I going to manage

• should I even have signed up for teaching?

• How can others teach for so many years?

• Frustrated, Miss Jia approached Dua Xia, the boy with loudest voice in class. “Dua Xia, you have the loudest voice…”

• She always late one lah. Even if I am not in class, she also won’t notice it.

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II Self Efficacy-Theories

• Albert Bandura’s concept of Self Efficacy:

Ms Jia has low self efficacy

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III Self Efficacy- Analysis • Her low instructional self efficacy can be seen by

her inability to control the classroom, needing Dua Xia’s help to get them to settle down so that she may start her lesson.

• Less time was spent in active teaching and monitoring of students’ progress; Ms Jia was just interested in “getting the job done”, and to complete the syllabus by the given timeframe, as possibly prescribed by the SOWs.

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IV Self Efficacy- Solutions• She needs to prioritize her task by classifying it

into two possible categories, namely IMPORTANT and URGENT matters.

• Using Bandura’s theory, Miss Jia can improve her self-efficacy by practicing self-regulation which involves these three processes: self-observation, self-judgment and self-reaction.

• She should set manageable goals for herself

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II. How do teachers’ expectation and

students’ motivation impact on academic

performance?Expectation and Motivation

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I Low Expectation- Evidences I

• She suspects him of cheating

• If you didn’t study, be prepared to fail. Face the music! Why must you copy?

• You’ve never believed me.

• Even if I explain, you won’t be able to understand. It’s probably too difficult for you!

• Dutifully answered Annie’s questions, one by one, oblivious to the rest of the pupils in class

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I Low Expectation- Evidences II• Guess what I do is never enough… I give up…

(stomps out of class)• She asked Annie, her favourite pupil, to try

solving one of them• Unless you’re really blind, you should see that I

have put in a lot of sweat into my studies.• Irritated by the disruption, she said in a

condescending tone.• Really made Minah regret asking. Fine. I will not

ask in the future!” Minah shouted

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II Low Expectation- Theories

• Albert Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy

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III Low Expectation- Analysis I• Ms Jia’s efficacy has led to her low expectation

of most of her students.

• Not much support provided in helping them reach high standards, in challenging them towards high achievements. Lack of scaffolding (Vygotsky: ZPD)

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III Low Expectation- Analysis II• This has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, in

other words, students were not motivated by excitement and encouraged to learn even though they had demonstrated inquisitiveness, as in the case of Minah, as Ms Jia did not believe in their ability in Math

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III Low Expectation- Analysis III• The exception may be in the case of Anne,

who was self motivated (towards self mastery), though not much information is provided to support this.

• Negative feedback provided: “Just follow the rule. You don’t have to know the rationale behind it. Even if I explain, you won’t be able to understand. It’s probably too difficult for you!”

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III Low Expectation- Analysis IV• she did not motivate students to learn. Thus

the resulting effect on Lucy (and perhaps the class too) in the last paragraph; “Take all she says as facts and follow exactly what she says we are to do. Sure no problems, that way. ” Lucy said in a matter-of-fact tone and continued reading her CLEO magazine.

(Learned Helplessness)

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IV Low Expectation- Solutions• She should first believe that all children can

learn and not write them off.

• She should also set learning goals based on their potential instead of her bias judgment on them.

• She should not denigrate her students.

• Miss Jia should understand a student’s social life and family background before she sets any stereotypical view on them.

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III. How do reward and punishment enforce discipline and enhance performance ?

Reinforcement and punishment

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I Misuse of Reinforcement-Evidences I

• I don’t have the time to pursue the matter (smoking) with you now. See me after class

• That’s not fair! You didn’t even scold John when he was late for class just now! Lian Huay protested indignantly. He smoked and you didn’t even care. Then, now you scold me for such a small thing! What kind of teacher are you?

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I Misuse of Reinforcement-Evidences II

• Wah, Jia Lat is very unfair hor. John always gets away with things. Then, for the rest of us, we always get scolded. Like how it was just now, I asked her a question and she scolded me in front of the whole class. I hate her.

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II Misuse of Reinforcement-Theories

• Vygotsky’s approach to Social Constructivist

• Skinner’s theory about Reinforcement processes

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III Misuse of Reinforcement-Analysis

• She wrote off some pupils as unteachablesuch as John and Minah, even though they did exhibit some “bright sparks” e.g. studying the subject over the weekend, inquisitiveness, with the effect that some students like Lucy had already acquired “learned helplessness”

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IV Misuse of Reinforcement-Solutions I• She should provide immediate and positive

feedback to students when they attempt to question the topic or contribute to class participation.

• Punishment should not be made without proper investigation, taking the example of John, she should not punish him when she merely “suspected” him of cheating.

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IV Misuse of Reinforcement-Solutions II

• Fair and just punishment should be practiced promptly.

• When one breaks the rule, correction should be taken immediately instead of postponing it (John smoking).

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IV. To what extentwill cognitive processes,

or the lack thereof impact

meaningful learning?

Cognitive Processes.

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I Cognitive processes – Evidences I• I must finish teaching this topic today

• The only priority in her mind was to finish teaching this topic today. She constantly looks at her watch…

• Irritated by the disruption, she said in a condescending tone…

• Just follow the rule. You don’t have to know the rationale behind it.

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I Cognitive processes – Evidences II• Even if I explain, you won’t be able to

understand. It’s probably too difficult for you!

• Really made Minah regret asking. “Fine. I will not ask in the future!” Minah shouted.

• Know her pattern by now. You can do anything, just don’t stop her lessons in any way. And just don’t ask questions about her lessons.

• Miss Jia: Just follow the method and do accordingly

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II Cognitive processes- Theories

• Robert Gagne’s Instructional Cognitive processes, Social Constructivist Approach by Vygotsky, Information Processing theory

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III Cognitive processes- Analysis I

• Miss Jia did not even try to gain the attention of the class herself; she got Dua Xia to control the class. This instructional cognitive process was already wrong, right from the first step.

• Miss Jia didn’t give articulate the lesson objective(s) right from the start of the class. In fact, her only objective known to students was “to finish the syllabus”

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III Cognitive processes- Analysis II• Miss Jia did not link her lesson to any prior

knowledge, for example recapitulating from previous lesson. Using Information Processing Theory term, she did not activate the students’ long term memory and promote Metacognition.

• Miss Jia did not check entire class for understanding. She rushed through lesson assuming that the entire class understood what was taught, by questioning and receiving a correct answer from the smartest girl in class.

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III Cognitive processes- Analysis III• Again, not only did she not provide guidance,

she also discouraged / stopped the students from questioning by denigrating Minah who had a question regarding Math.

• He may have provided learning guidance to Anne, but this should have been done outside the lesson to the class.

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III Cognitive processes- Analysis IV

• She did not elicit response from her students during her lessons with questions or prompts.

• Discouraged response through negative feedback e.g. “Just follow the rule. You don’t have to know the rationale behind it. Even if I explain, you won’t be able to understand. It’s probably too difficult for you!”

(Rote learning without knowing rationale)

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IV Cognitive processes - Solutions I

• Ms Jia must draw the students’ attention by structuring her lesson plan properly.

• Clear objectives should be laid out at the beginning of the lesson. It would be better if she could recapitulate previous topic with the students.

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IV Cognitive processes-Solutions II

• When solving problem-sums, she should break them down into small steps (that are easily comprehended) and not simply rush through.

• Miss Jia can also start the lesson with simple questions then move on to difficult ones.

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IV Cognitive processes - Solutions III

• She should pick an average standard student or even a weak student to “test water”. If the weak student understands, that means 80% of the class understand too. For those who did not understand, they were either not paying attention or day-dreaming.

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IV Cognitive processes - Solutions IV

• Scaffolding: Miss Jia should give support (gradual withdrawal with increasing understanding) to students during the learning process and problem solving. For example: giving clues, asking questions, prompting students and breaking down problems into components.

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