Exam 3 ESCPS 2010 Whitney

Social Cognitive Theory/Social learning theory

•Based on work begun by Albert Bandura in the 1950s

-Theories reflect his life—self-directed, self-regulating learner

-Recognized need to understand people's behavior in social context (beyond behavioral principles)

-Learning through modeling and observing others (social part)

Modeling: Changes in behavior, thinking, or emotions that happen through observing another person - a model

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•Social cognitive theory, his later work: Social + cognitive parts

-Adds concern with cognitive factors such as beliefs, self-perceptions, and expectations (cognitive part of his theory)

-Dynamic system; explains human adaptation, learning, motivation

Triadic Reciprocal Causality

•System at work in social cognitive theory•An explanation of behavior emphasizing effects of individual and environment on each other

•Dynamic interplay among 3 kinds of influences

-Personal factors: Beliefs, expectations, cognitive abilities, motivation, attitudes, knowledge

-Physical and social environment: Resources, consequences of actions, other people, models and teachers, physical settings

-Behavior: Individual actions, choices, verbal statements

•All factors influence and are influenced by each other

Power of Triadic Reciprocal Causality in Classrooms

•Progressive and self-perpetuating cycles of events

-Teachers communicate expectations to students

-Expectations affect students' confidence

-Expectations and confidence affect students' achievement

•Study: Evidence that math confidence and math achievement reciprocally influence each other

•Example of constant interaction of triadic forces:

-Student comes to class late

-Teacher has negative reaction to student's behavior

-Student feels insulted; teacher develops low expectations

-Student senses distrust, loses interest in trying in class

-Teacher sees low effort, invests less effort in helping student

Modeling: Learning by Observing Others

•Factors that affect learning by observing modeled behavior

-Developmental level of observer

-Status and competence of model

-Extent to which model is like observer (similar age, gender, race)

-Consequences of model's actions that observer values

-Actions viewed by observer as appropriate, attainable, rewarding

-Actions that help observer attain goals

-Observer's self-efficacy for performing the modeled behavior

•Observing modeled behavior increases observer's belief in the possibility of success with the behavior

Elements of Observational Learning

•Attention to important points, maintaining focus

•Retention of steps/procedures by mental rehearsal

•Production, imitation of observed behavior; practice

•Motivation to perform modeled behavior

•Reinforcement to persist in the behavior, continue learning

5 possible outcomes of observational learning

1.Directing attention to objects involved in modeled behavior

2.Fine-tuning already learned behaviors

3.Strengthening or weakening inhibitions

-Ripple effect: Spreading of behaviors/attitudes through imitation

4.Teaching new behaviors, including cognitive skills

5.Arousing emotion: Reaction to events observed or read about

-Examples: Emotional reaction to seeing other child fall from swing and break an arm; seeing media portrayal of acts of heroism

Using Observational Learning

•Model behaviors/attitudes students need to learn-Show enthusiasm for the subject

-Demonstrate mental and physical tasks, problem solving, persistence, effort

•Use peers, especially class leaders, as models

-Group students who do well with struggling students

-Ask students to demonstrate appropriate behaviors

•Show that positive behaviors lead to reinforcement

•Enlist help of class leaders to model behaviors for the class

-Ask well-liked student to befriend isolated student

-Use high-status student to lead activity, promote cooperation

Human agency:

Capacity to coordinate one's learning skills, motivation, and emotions to reach goals

-Make intentional choices and plans

-Design appropriate courses of action

-Motivate and regulate execution of these plans/actions

-(Capacity to change our environments, control our behavior)

Self-efficiency:

Sense of competence toward a particular task

-Our beliefs about our personal competence in a given area

-Essential for positive student outcomes across content areas and grade levels

-High self-efficacy linked to greater effort, persistence, resilience in face of challenging tasks; acting with agency

Context-specific assessment of one's competence to perform a specific task

-Strong predictor of behavior

-Varies depending on the subject or task (we may have high self-efficacy for reading but low self-efficacy for writing)

Self-concept

A more global self-perception; judged by comparing self to others and by internal comparisons

Self-esteem

Judgment of self-worth; relates to what we value

-Not related directly to self-efficacy (may have high self-esteem and low self-efficacy in areas we don't value)

-May be affected by feelings of incompetency in areas we do value

Mastery experiences

Our own direct experiences

-Successes attributed to one's ability, effort, choices, and strategies; not luck or help from others

-Usually the most powerful source of efficacy information

Vicarious experiences

Accomplishments modeled by someone else (stronger source when model is similar to observer)

-Seeing their success increases belief in observer's ability

-Failure of esteemed model decreases self-efficacy of observer

Social persuasion:

A "pep talk" or specific performance feedback

Physiological or emotional arousal:

Reactions causing one to feel alert, attentive, wide awake, excited, or tense

-Psyched and ready increases efficacy; anxiety decreases efficacy

Self-Efficacy in Learning and Teaching

•Self-efficacy influences effort, motivation, and performance

-Higher self-efficacy > Greater effort, persistence, motivation; higher goals and better performance; acting with agency

-Relates to school performance from 3rd grade through college

•Increases when students (1) adopt short-term goals, (2) use specific learning strategies, (3) receive achievement rewards

•Encourage self-efficacy in students (danger in underestimating)

-Emphasize their progress in a specific area

-Set learning goals, model mastery orientation for them

-Give specific feedback for improvement; revise grades when improvements are made

-Remind of past efforts resulting in accomplishment

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy

•Belief in ability to reach even difficult students

•Personal characteristic of teachers that predicts student achievement

•High efficacy > teacher taking responsibility for student learning

-More intentional approaches, success meeting student needs

-Greater job satisfaction, commitment; less burnout

•Optimistic teachers: Persist, set higher goals, work harder

-For new teachers - danger in overrating abilities, underpreparing

Self-regulation:

•Process of activating and sustaining thoughts, behaviors, emotions in order to reach our goals

•Self-regulated learning: Skills and will to analyze learning tasks, set goals, plan how to do tasks, apply skills, make adjustments

-Being metacognitive, motivated, and strategic about learning

•Characteristics of self-regulated learners:

-Academic learning skills

-Self-awareness

-Self-control

-Motivation for learning

•Learning independently throughout life requires self-regulation

What Influences Self-Regulation?

Three factors influence skill and will of students:

1.Knowledge about self, subject, task, strategies for learning, context for applying their learning 2.Motivation as seen in level of interest and belief in self

-Believe their intelligence and abilities are improvable

-Feel their actions/choices are controlled by self

3.Volition, will-power: Deliberate, effortful, voluntary persistence

-Protecting self from distractions in order to reach goals

-Self-control: Regulate attention, emotion, and behavior

-Grit: Perseverance/passion to pursue long-term goals

Development of Self-Regulation

•Emphasis on interaction of three factors: Personal, environmental/social, and behavioral

•Learned through observation during childhood

-Internalize modeled strategies, demonstrate greater self-control

•Cognitive functions required: Resist impulsive behavior, hold information in working memory, see different perspectives

•Developed through two social processes:

-Co-regulation: Modeling, direct teaching, and coaching by teachers, parents, mentors

-Shared regulation: Students work together to regulate each other through reminders, prompts, other guidance

A Social Cognitive Model of Self-Regulated Learning

Zimmerman's 3-phase cycle of self-regulated learning

1.Forethought: Analyze tasks, set goals, plan strategies

2.Performance: Use strategies and self-talk; monitor progress

3.Reflection: Evaluate; attribute success to effort and good strategies; revise plan for greater effectiveness in future

Student's role at all three phases: Self-observation, self-evaluation, self-reaction

Teacher's role: Help students set and internalize reasonable standards; coach students in self-regulatory skills

Examples of Self-Regulation in 2 Classrooms

•Incorporating self-regulation strategies into writing projects

-Example of student who is strong in writing working with student who is weaker

-Weaker student learned skills, strategies from stronger student

-Attempted challenging tasks, demonstrated self-regulated learning

•Incorporating self-regulation skills into math problem solving

-Teach transfer and self-regulated learning strategies

-Helped students learn math problem-solving skills and transfer skills to new problems

-Helped students persist (self-regulation) when faced with new kinds of challenging problems

Technology and Self-Regulation

•Importance of self-regulatory and metacognitive skills in media-rich learning environments

•Enhance self-regulation by presenting scaffolds, prompts

-Students need to learn to evaluate info they find online

-They need motivation to stay focused with technology

-They need scaffolding and support with complicated concepts

•Considerations for teachers:

-How to coach students to learn self-regulation with technology

-How to model self-regulated learning strategies for students

-How to model responsible use of technological devices

Another Approach to Self-Regulation: Cognitive Behavior Modification

•Cognitive behavior modification: Focus on self-talk, self-instruction to regulate behavior (self-management)

•Procedures based on behavioral and cognitive learning principles for changing your own behavior

•Self-talk prompts for listening, planning, working, and checking

-Sets of questions to talk oneself through the steps of tasks

•Self-instruction with talking aloud to self, fading to private speech to self

-School intervention programs train students to use self-instruction to deal with anger, social problem-solving, study skills, and more

Emotional Self-Regulation

•High emotional intelligence involves self-regulating skills:

-Interpret emotions in self and others; identify effective actions in emotional contexts; regulate emotion in social situations

•Development of social and emotional skills and competencies:

-Self-awareness of own feelings, values, interests

-Self-management of emotions to control impulses

-Social awareness to take perspective of others and empathize

-Relationship skills to establish/maintain healthy, cooperative relationships; resolve conflict

-Responsible decision making to benefit self and community

•Anger, sadness, shyness negatively relate to achievement

•Self-control positively relates to achievement

Encouraging Emotional Self-Regulation

•Create a climate of trust in the classroom

-Be fair with consequences; avoid comparisons among students

•Help students recognize and express their feelings

-Use terms describing emotions; encourage journal writing about feelings (keep writings private)

•Help students recognize others' emotions, develop empathy

-Use students' interactions, analysis of characters in stories

•Teach and model strategies for coping with emotions

•Help students recognize cultural differences in emotional expression

Teaching Toward Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulated Learning

•Teacher stress - big area of concern in the profession

-High rate of burnout among beginning teachers

•Effective stress management associated with high teaching self-efficacy and positive level of emotional self-regulation

•Common stressors: Student misbehaviors, interpersonal challenges, work-related pressure

•Helpful practice:Learn emotional skills, mindfulness stress reduction, compassion training

-Focus emotional resources on present situation-Release unnecessary expectations, biases

-Develop greater compassion for self and others

Designing Classrooms for Self-Regulation

•Design complex, meaningful tasks (not too difficult)

-Address multiple goals, large chunks of meaning-Extend over long periods of time, variety of processes

•Share control by giving students choices

-Teach, model decision making about choices

-Students take responsibility: Plan, set goals, monitor progress

•Develop opportunities for students to self-evaluate progress

-Involve students in evaluation criteria•Use cooperative tasks to create climate of community

-Teach routines; establish norms for participation

-Teachers/students co-regulate one another's learning

Four pillars for teaching

Four pillars for teaching

-Constructivist: Students must first make sense of the material

-Cognitive: They must remember what they understood

-Behavioral: They must practice and apply their new skills, understandings; make them fluid, automatic

-Social cognitive: They must take charge of their own learning

•Diverse perspectives and theories of learning have merits

•Used together, they create productive learning environments

Motivation:

•Internal state that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior

•Sometimes explained in terms of traits (personal characteristics) or state (a temporary situation)

•Intrinsic motivation: Activities that are satisfying, rewarding

-Self-determined; no incentives or punishments needed

•Extrinsic motivation: Created by external factors

-Determined by others; earn reward, avoid punishment

•Amotivation: Complete lack of intent to act; no engagement

•Question: Are intrinsic/extrinsic 2 ends of a continuum?•Question: Are intrinsic/extrinsic 2 independent possibilities?

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

•Impossible to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic just by looking at other's behavior

•One's reason for acting defines the type of motivation

-Internal locus of causality from intrinsic motivation

-External locus of causality from extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Lessons for Teachers

•Learning is not always intrinsically motivated

•Teachers need to nurture intrinsic motivation

•Incentives and external supports necessary in some teaching situations

-Make sure extrinsic motivation supports learning

•Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation decline as students advance to higher grade levels

•Many factors influence motivation

-Knowing these factors helps teachers nurture motivation

Types of Motivation Views

Views of motivation based on theories of learning and cognition

•Behavioral view - Emphasizes extrinsic (reinforcers, rewards, incentives, punishers)

•Cognitive view - Emphasizes individual's active search for meaning, understanding, competence

•Social cognitive view - Emphasizes self-efficacy and agency as central factors

•Sociocultural view - Emphasizes engaged participation and maintaining identity within a community

6 Themes: Areas of motivation that have implications for teaching

1.Needs and self-determination

2.Goals and goal orientations

3.Expectancies and values

4.Attributions and beliefs about control

5.Self-beliefs and self-perceptions

6.Emotions, Interests, curiosity, and anxiety

Needs and Self-Determination

•Early research focus: Needs for achievement, power, affiliation influence motivation

•Maslow's hierarchy (1970): Humans have 7 levels of needs

-Needs must be met in order

-Four low-level needs are deficiency needs

Survival, safety, belonging, self-esteem

-Three higher-level needs are being/growth needs

Cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization

•Criticism of hierarchy: Needs not always met in order

-Students' physical, emotional, intellectual needs interrelate

•Classroom application: Low-level needs should be met in order for students to be motivated to learn

3 needs to approach motivation and self-determination

-Achievement: Competence or mastery over tasks; promotes self-efficacy

Helps establish learning goals for future tasks

-Autonomy: Control to determine own actions, be in charge of own behavior

Struggle against external controls such as rules, deadlines

-Relatedness: Belonging, fitting in, relating to others and forming close emotional bonds with other who care about us

Self-Determination in the Classroom

•Influenced by classroom goal structure

-Teachers' messages about autonomy and demonstrating competence

•Classrooms that support self-determination and autonomy

-Increase students' interest, curiosity, creativity, attendance, grades, conceptual learning, self-regulated learning strategies

-Greater sense among students that the work is important

•Controlling classrooms, unsupportive of self-determination

-Students higher in passivity, unengaged and even defiant-Improve performance only on rote recall tasks

Cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002)

-Events affect motivation through the individual's perception of the events as controlling behavior or providing information

•2 aspects of events: Controlling and informational

-Controlling: Diminish intrinsic motivation; may increase motivation to perform to please others

-Information: Increase students' feelings of competence and increase intrinsic motivation

•Ways teachers support student needs for autonomy

-Limit controlling messages to students

-Provide information highlighting students' growth, competence

Supporting Self-Determination and Autonomy

•Give students choices

-Different ways to meet learning goals; choose learning partners

•Help students set/achieve self-selected goals

•Hold students accountable for consequences of their choices

•Provide rationale for limits, rules, constraints

•Acknowledge validity of negative emotions in reaction to teacher control

•Give non-controlling, positive feedback to students

-Avoid controlling language; give genuine praise

The Need for Relatedness

•Meeting students' need in the classroom

-Demonstrate caring for each student

-Foster students' peer relationships

-Greater need for positive relationships for at-risk students

•Positive teacher-student relationships increase likelihood of high school success, college attendance

•Higher rate of physical and emotional problems with students lacking positive relationships at school

Goals and Goal Orientations

•How goal setting improves performance

-Direct attention to the task

-Energize efforts to complete the task, reach the goal

-Increase persistence, less likely to give up

-Develop new knowledge/strategies to ensure success

•Types of goals that enhance motivation

-Specific, elaborated goals with subgoals

-Moderate difficulty, not too easy or too hard

-Proximal, reachable in the near future

Four Achievement Goal Orientations in School

Patterns of beliefs about goals related to achievement in school

•Mastery: Personal intention to learn, master skills; associated with ability goals

-Invested; persist despite difficulties; seek appropriate help

•Performance: Personal intention to look smart in the eyes of others; get good grades; associated with ego goals

-Less concern for learning; more concern about others' evaluation

•Approach/avoidance focuses

-Approach mastery or avoid misunderstanding

-Approach performance or avoid looking dumb

-Problems with avoidance in both mastery and performance patterns of goal orientation

Social and Work-Avoidance Goals

•Work-avoidant learners: Don't want to learn or look smart; want to escape work, be able to chill

-Low interest in learning, looking good, or avoiding looking dumb

•Social goals: Variety of needs and motives to be connected to others or to be part of a group (common among adolescents)

-Prioritize nonacademic activities over learning

-Goals may support or hinder learning

-Associated with emotional well-being and self-esteem

•Teaching with mastery-oriented goal structure

- challenge and support all students to succeed; foster mastery learning goals

Feedback, Goal Framing, and Goal Acceptance

Other factors that make goal setting in the classroom effective

•Feedback emphasizing progress

-Highlight accomplishments

•Goal framing when explaining assignments and activities

-Link to students' intrinsic goals of becoming competent, self-directed, and connected to others

•Goal acceptance by students, getting them on board

-Willing to commit to goals that are realistic, reasonably difficult, and meaningful

Goals: Lessons for Teachers

•Help students set goals with these characteristics:

-Clear, specific, reasonable goals (with subgoals)

-Moderately challenging, attainable in the near future

•Provide encouragement and accurate feedback

-Compare students to themselves, not to others

•Focus on learning, improving (intrinsic); not performance, high grades, or competition (extrinsic)

•Help students feel secure and competent about achieving goals

Expectancy-Value-Cost Explanations

•Expectancy x value theories - motivation seen as the product of 2 main forces - 1) expectation of reaching goal, 2) value of goal

-If I try hard, can I succeed? If I succeed, do I value outcome?

-Expectancy and value - both personal interpretations

-If either value = zero, no motivation to work toward goal

•Costs - price of pursuing goal

-Amount of energy/effort required; what I could be doing instead

-Is cost worth possible benefit? What are risks if I fail?

•Value - extent to which task is important to individual

-5 possibilities: Importance value, interest value, utility value, pleasing others, cost of doing task (negative consequences)

•To support motivation - encourage self-efficacy, communicate value of tasks, help students persist, value the effort to succeed

Attributed causes for success or failure categorized in 3 dimensions (according to Weiner)

-Locus: location of cause (may be attributed to internal or external causes); closely related to feelings of self-esteem

-Stability: whether cause is same across time and in different situations; related to expectations about the future

-Controllability: whether person can control cause; related to emotions such as anger, gratitude, shame

•Attribution theories of motivation - how individual's explanations, justifications, and excuses influence motivation

Attributions in the Classroom

•Attributions of students with strong self-efficacy for a task

-Failure seen as internal, controllable (lack of effort)

-Focus on strategies to succeed next time; feel in control

•Attributions of students with low self-efficacy for a task

-Failure seen as external - lack of ability; out of their control

•Greatest motivational problems - failure attributed to stable, uncontrollable causes (leads to apathy, futility)

•Teacher attributions affect teacher reactions and student attributions and motivation

-Better to attribute achievement to effort instead of ability

Self-Beliefs and Self-Perceptions

•Beliefs about knowing: Epistemological beliefs

-Beliefs about structure, stability, certainty of knowledge and how knowledge is best learned

-Influence students' motivation and kinds of strategies they use

•Dimensions of epistemological beliefs

-Structure of knowledge: Simple set of facts or complex concepts?

-Stability/certainty of knowledge: Fixed or evolving?

-Ability to learn: Fixed (innate) or changeable?

-Speed of learning: Gain knowledge quickly, or does it take time?

-Nature of learning: Memorized facts or integrated understandings?

•Students' and teachers' beliefs affect goals they set and learning strategies they apply

Mindsets and Beliefs About Ability

•Beliefs about ability - a continuum from fixed to growth mindset

-Fixed: belief that abilities are stable, uncontrollable, set traits

-Growth: belief that abilities are unstable, controllable, improvable

•Students with fixed mindset set performance-avoidance goals

-More likely to cheat, avoid risk of failure

-View often held by students with learning disabilities

•Growth mindset associated with greater motivation and learning

-Focus on processes of problem solving, applying good strategies

•How teachers support growth mindset: Teach how learning changes brain; act as a learning coach, not a judge of abilities

-Give constructive feedback toward improvement

-Tie praise to processes that lead to learning (not just effort)

Beliefs About Self-Worth

•Intrinsic motivation hinges on sense of efficacy, control

•Learned helplessness: Expectations, based on previous experiences with lack of control, that one's efforts lead to failure

-Believing events/outcomes are uncontrollable, failure inevitable

-Leads to three types of deficits

Motivational: Expect to fail; give up

Cognitive: Miss opportunities to improve skills and abilities

Affective: Often experience depression, anxiety

•Difficult to reverse effects of learned helplessness

Self-Worth

•Connections between attributions and beliefs about ability, self-efficacy, and self-worth

•Lessons for teachers: Abilities can be changed

-Stress mastery goals; show students how effort improves learning

Encouraging Self-Worth

•Emphasize the improvable nature of ability

-Share examples of improving knowledge/skills, examples of failures that became successes

•Teach the difference between learning goals, performance goals

-Use personal best goals, not student-to-student competition

•Use failure as diagnostic to guide improvement

-Encourage revising, improving, redoing

-Show connections between revised work, higher grade, greater competence

•Encourage help seeking and help giving

-How to ask specific questions in order to understand

-Train class experts to help with ongoing needs

Two types of interest and the 4 phase model of interest development

•Individual (personal) : long-lasting, enduring

•Situational interests: short-lived aspects of an activity

•4-phase model of interest development: Situational interest triggered, then maintained; individual interest emerges, then becomes well-developed interest

Curiosity: Novelty and Complexity

•Curiosity rises when students attend a gap in knowledge

-Awareness of gap in knowledge, then metacognitive realization of what they know they don't know, and desire to know more

•Guidelines for building on student interests and curiosity

-Relate content objectives to student experiences

-Identify student interests; incorporate into lessons/discussions

-Use humor, personal experience, anecdotes

-Use original source material, notes of inventors, explorers, authors

-Create surprise and curiosity; ask students to make predictions

•Try to create a state of flow (immersion in challenging tasks, fully attentive and involved)

Emotions and Anxiety

•Learning influenced by mood and emotion: Physiological responses, behaviors, and feelings

-Stimulation to amygdala triggers emotional reactions

-Physiological responses + interpretations produce emotions

•Concern for emotions related to success/failure in school

Arousal and Anxiety

•Arousal: Physical and psychological reactions causing one to be alert and wide awake

-Too low: Bored, drowsy, lack motivation

-Too high: Pressured, anxious, performance impeded

-Optimum levels: High for simple tasks, lower for complex tasks

•Anxiety: General uneasiness, tension, self-doubt

-Cause and effect of school failure; cognitive and affective aspects

-Affects preparation focus, performance, and reflection

•Three kinds of coping strategies

-Problem-focused self-regulation, emotion-focused strategies, avoidance strategies

Coping with Anxiety

•Help anxious students recognize source of their anxiety, set realistic goals, use effective methods for learning and studying

•Establish mastery-oriented classroom goal structures

•Use competition carefully

•Avoid large-group performance tasks for highly anxious students

•Avoid uncertainty; give clear instructions

•Avoid unnecessary time pressures

•Teach test-taking skills; reduce grade focus and test pressure

•Develop alternatives to written tests

•Teach self-regulation strategies to use before, during, after tests

•Avoid being visibly distressed, transmitting teacher anxiety

Motivation to Learn in School

•Goals of teachers: Engage students productively, develop enduring interests in learning, engage them deeply/cognitively

•Types of strategies that support motivation to learn

-Messages of accountability, explaining clear goals, making connections across subjects, encouraging risk taking

-Connecting with homes, reinforcing concepts by using games, representing a task in multiple ways, providing choices

•Types of strategies that do not support motivation to learn

-Attributions to intellect rather than effort, negative feedback

-Teacher emphasis on competition rather than working together

-Absence of scaffolding, lack of connections, tasks too easy

TARGET Model

6 areas in which teachers influence student motivation to learn

•Tasks: Authentic and valued by students

-Attainment value, interest value, utility value •Autonomy: Bounded choices, cognitive autonomy support

•Recognition: For improvement, accomplishments

•Grouping practices: Motivation influenced by type of goal structure (cooperative, competitive, individualistic)

•Evaluation procedures: Emphasis on learning more than grades

•Time in the classroom: Provide engaged, persistent learning activities

Strategies to Encourage Motivation: meet 4 conditions

1.Provide organized environment free from disruptions

2.Support students; avoid embarrassing them for mistakes

3.Assign challenging, but reasonable tasks

4.Design authentic tasks

•Student questions, teacher actions related to motivation:

-Can I succeed at this task? Build confidence, positive expectations

-Do I want to succeed? Show the value of the learning

-What do I need to do to succeed? Focus attention on task, finished products

-Do I belong? Help students feel a sense of belonging

Motivation to Learn

Ways to support families, partner with them in motivation to learn

•Understand family goals for children

-What skill they believe their child needs to work on

•Identify student and family interests that can be related to learning goals

•Give families a way to track progress toward learning goals

•Help families build child's confidence, develop positive expectations about learning

•Partner with families in showing value of learning

-Ways skills are applied at home and beyond

•Provide sources that build skill and will for families

-Simple study strategies, access to "homework hotline"

•Have celebrations of learning; invite and involve families

Basics of Assessment

•Standardized tests - published tests

-Standardized methods of developing test items

-Administered under uniform conditions

-Standard methods of scoring, reporting, and interpreting scores

•Classroom assessments - created and selected by teachers

-Many forms: essays, portfolios, projects, objective tests, performances, oral presentations, and others

-Used to help teachers make value judgments about teaching and learning

Measurement and Assessment

•Measurement quantifies how much, how often, how well

-Test scores, ranks, ratings, measures of learning

-Information that helps teachers make classroom decisions

-Can provide unbiased data about student learning

-Allows teacher to compare a student's performances with that of other students or with a specific standard

•Assessment - broader term than measurement

-Process of gathering data about student performance

-Ways to sample/observe students' skills, knowledge, and abilities

-May be formal or informal, quantitative or qualitative

Formative, Interim, and Summative Assessment

•Formative assessment -ungraded tests, activities

-Purpose: Form and shape instruction

-Used before and during instruction to guide teaching

-Feedback about teaching effectiveness and learning needs

•Interim assessment - occurs at regular intervals during year

-Purpose: Determine progress and growth

-Used to differentiate instruction, assess RTI progress

•Summative assessment - graded exams, projects,

-Purpose: Assess achievement

-Used after instruction to judge amount of learning, assign grades

Assessing the Assessments: Reliability

•Reliability: Does test render consistent test scores?

-Test results are the same with repeated administrations

•Sources of error in test scores

-Errors related to student: Mood, skills, motivation, cheating

-Errors related to test: Unclear directions, reading level too high, ambiguous items, time limits

-Standard error of measurement: Hypothetical estimate of how much students' scores would likely vary if test were repeated

•Confidence interval: Range of scores within which an individual's true score (error-free score) would likely fall

-Student's actual score falls within standard error band(for example, plus or minus 5 if standard error is 5)

Validity of Scores

•Validity: Does the test measure what it intends to measure?

-Determined by evidence; judged in relation to use of scores

•Test must be reliable to be valid; may be reliable but not valid

Absence of Bias

•Assessment bias: Qualities that offend, unfairly penalize a group

-Based on gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, other group-defining characteristics

-Content, examples, language may distort performance of a group

•Unfair penalization: questions focus on content knowledge and opportunities that vary by group

-Content about male-dominated sport, higher-class experiences, customs of the dominant culture, high-status word connotations

-Language of test and tester different from language of student

•Offensiveness: question content insults/angers a group

-Offended students may not perform at their best

Two types of comparison to interpret test results

-Norm-referenced comparison - score compared to scores obtained by other people who have taken the same test

-Criterion-referenced comparison - score compared to a fixed standard or minimum passing score

•A test may be interpreted by either type of comparison

Norm-Referenced Test Interpretations

•Norm-referenced: comparison of the individual's score to scores of the norm group on the same test

-Norm - typical or average score on the test

-Norm group - sample of students (class/school, district, national, international) serving as a comparison group for scoring tests

•Uses: Compare performances of students to determine rankings, select top students for a program

•Limitations: Not a picture of one's ability

-Comparison to others provides relative information about the individual (norm group may be very high or low)

-Not appropriate for affective and psychomotor objectives

Criterion-Referenced Test Interpretations

•Criterion-referenced: scores compared to a set performance standard (criterion)

•Uses: Measure basic skills, levels of individual ability-Measure student's mastery of specific learning targets

-Show specifically what the individual is capable of doing

-Good for formative and interim assessments

•Limitations: Not appropriate for all teaching situations

-Many subjects cannot be broken into a set of specific targets-Sometimes comparisons are helpful

Selected-Response Testing

•Students choose response from possible responses provided

•Straightforward scoring, clear-cut answers (multiple-choice, matching, true/false, short-answer or fill-in items)

•Use the format that provides most direct measure of learning

•True/false - items must be entirely true or entirely false

•Matching - provide clear directions, short lists of items (

Multiple-Choice Tests

•Multiple-choice items can test facts and can be designed to assess higher-order outcomes

•Writing multiple-choice items

-Step asks the question or poses the problem

-Alternatives are the choices; wrong answers are distractors

•Guidelines:

-Make stem clear, simple; state in positive terms

-Fit answer choices consistently to stem's grammatical form

-Avoid distractors that have the same meaning

-Avoid always, all, only, never unless they appear in all alternatives

-Avoid overusing all of the above, none of the above

-Avoid using exact textbook wording

Essay Testing

•Constructed response - students create answers

•Assess important, complex learning outcomes

-Covers less content than selected-response items

•Question includes: 1) clear, specific context; 2) what students should describe/explain; 3) guidelines, what to include in answer

-Use few questions; limit to 2 or 3 essays per class period

•Evaluating essays

-Establish scoring criteria or a rubric; share with students

-Assign point values to components of the essay

-Grade all responses to one question, then move to next question

-Assign grades and sort papers by grade; skim papers in a stack to see if they are comparable in quality

Assessing Traditional Testing

•The positives of traditional tests

-Assess content knowledge - facts, concepts, principles, theories, explanations, arguments, ideas

-Evaluate students' knowledge effectively and efficiently

-Taking frequent tests improves learning, even without feedback from the test

•Criticisms of traditional tests

-They fail to test students' skills applied to real-world situations

-Students are asked to use skills/knowledge out of context

Formative and Authentic Classroom Assessments

•Formative (ungraded) assessments help form/support instruction

-Informally, such as teacher observations

-Formally, such as quizzes that don't count toward a grade

-Used early in a unit to see what students know, need to know

•Informal assessments that help teachers make decisions, help students self-assess

-Exit tickets point out students' struggles, learning needs

-Journals show student thinking, concerns, interests; help teachers make connections

-Student involvement in assessments to track their own progress, assess their improvement, create questions, and more

Authentic Assessments

•Assessments that ask students to apply skills and abilities in real-world contexts

-Example: Use fractions to double a recipe

•Require students to perform

-Performance assessment: Students carry out an activity, produce a product to demonstrate their learning

•Common approaches to authentic assessments

-Portfolios and exhibitions

Portfolios

•Portfolio: Collection of student work in an area

•Shows student's growth, self-reflection, achievement

•Process portfolios document learning, show progress

•Best-work portfolios showcase final accomplishments

•Guidelines for creating portfolios

-Involve students in selection of pieces to go into portfolio

-Show student's self-reflection and self-criticism

-Relate goals of learning to portfolio contents

-Use them for different functions at different times of the year

-Make sure portfolio pieces demonstrate student's growth

-Teach and model the process of creating and using portfolios

-Examine portfolios often; give constructive feedback

Exhibitions

•Exhibition: A performance test or demonstration of learning that is public and usually takes extended time to prepare

-Must take audience into account

-Helps students understand the qualities of good work

-Helps students recognize those qualities in their own productions and performances

-Benefits students to select examples of their work to exhibit, articulate their reasons for making the selections

-Being able to judge quality can encourage students' motivation

Evaluating Portfolios and Performances

•Use checklist, rating scale, rubric; criterion-referenced

-Performance/product compared to established public standards

•Scoring rubrics - rules that are used to determine the quality of a student performance (not too specific, yet not too general)

•Guidelines for developing rubrics

-Make sure skill being assessed is important and can be taught

-Show examples varying in quality; discuss characteristics

-List criteria of good work and describe gradations of quality

-Practice using rubrics to evaluate the models

-Use self- and peer assessment; let students revise their work

-Use same rubric for teacher assessment of student work

Reliability, Validity, Generalizability

•Grading performances is based on teacher's personal judgment

•Raises questions about reliability, validity, generalizability

•Reliability improves with experienced raters, good rubrics

-Focus on a few specific dimensions of the performance

-Give limited scoring options (1-4, not 1-100)

•Validity questions result from different ratings of a student's work on different types of assessment

•Student performance on a specific task may not generalize to the larger area of study

•Sources of bias/inequity in performance assessment

-Bias effects based on student's appearance, speech, cultural differences, access to resources, out-of-class help

Assessing Complex Thinking

•Testing complex understanding improves learning

-Applies at all levels of Bloom's taxonomy

•Assess complex thinking by means other than tests

-Authentic tasks such as citing evidence, making claims, writing essays, using rhetorical tools, writing with clarity

-Assess using rubrics and other criterion-based tools

•Classroom assessment: Lessons for teachers

-Align assessment tools with learning targets

-Different learning targets require different assessment methods

Grading: Norm-Referenced versus Criterion-Referenced

•Purpose of grades: Communicate student's current achievement level to the student and student's family

•Norm-referenced: Student's standing in comparison to others

-Grading on the curve - limits the number of high grades

-Highly competitive; damages relationships among students

-Does NOT communicate what student knows or can do

•Criterion-referenced: Based on mastery of course objectives

-Criteria for each grade are specified in advance

-Grade based on each student's level of achievement of targets

-Theoretically, every student could achieve mastery—a grade of A

Effects of Grading on Students

•Grades shape self-perceptions of ability to succeed

-Need to balance high standards and chance to succeed

•Failure can increase motivation to work hard, see connections between hard work and improvement

-Need to challenge students and help them succeed

-Encourage high level of effort rather than protecting from failure

-Provide critical feedback to help students learn

•Retention: Studies show mixed results of effects

-More often males, minorities, poor, younger children

-Associated with poor long-term outcomes (higher drop-out rate, fewer job opportunities, lower self-esteem)

Grades and Motivation

•Assessments should support motivation to learn

-Motivation to learn vs. motivation to make a good grade; help students focus on the learning, not grades

-Aim for meaningful learning; often results in motivation to learn AND motivation to make a good grade

-Support failing student to revise, improve work, set high goals

•Competition for valedictorian in high schools

-Strategies often not focused on learning

•Develop talent: the job of educators-Maintain high standards

-Give students a chance to reach them

-Key: Formative assessment and quality feedback

Guidelines for Any Grading System

•Explain grading early, remind students of policies often

•Base grades on clear standards, unbiased/objective evidence

•Provide clear directions for all graded work

•Quickly correct, return, and discuss tests

•Be able to defend the grade; in general, don't change a grade

•Inform students of their standing in the class

•Discount test questions missed by most of the class

•Encourage creative answers; give partial credit for partially correct answers and allow retakes when appropriate

•Make sure students have prerequisites for tasks

•Balance written and oral feedback; tie grades to targets

Beyond Grading: Communicating with Families

•Ways to communicate with and report to families

-Notes with report cards

-Phone calls with good news, not just bad news

-Open house at school

-Student-led conferences, teacher-led conferences

-Portfolios and exhibits of student work

-Homework hotline, school and class Web pages

-Home visits

•Information shared with parents: should be factual, based on observation and information from assignments

Standardized Testing: Types of Scores

•Mean score

•Median score

•Mode

•Standard deviation

•Variability

•Range

Standard Scores

•Standard scores: scores based on the standard deviation

-Z score: standard score indicating the number of standard deviations above or below the mean a particular score falls

May be positive or negative number; average is 0

-T score - standard score with mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 (always a positive number)

Average performance gets a T score of 50

-Stanine score -whole number scores from 1 to 9, each representing a wide range of raw scores

Mean is 5; standard deviation is 2

Interpreting Standardized Test Reports

•Individual test report for each student provided by test publisher

-Different achievement tests use different reporting formats

-Typically include scores on subtests and overall totals

-School decides which scores to include in the reports •Discussing test results with families

-Know the meaning of all scores on your school reports

-Use nontechnical terms to explain the meaning of each type of score on test reports to families

-Explain how scores represent comparison of child's performance to that of other students in the test group

-Use percentile scores to explain norm-referenced tests

-Avoid using grade-equivalent scores

Accountability and High-Stakes Testing

•Critical decisions made on basis of high-stakes test scores

-Require ethical choices based on values plus accurate information

-One use of test results: Hold teachers, schools, administrators accountable for student performance

•Teachers' perspectives on high-stakes tests

-Results arrive too late to help plan instruction-Many feel pressure to teach to the test

•Documented problems with high-stakes testing

-Preparing/administering tests is very time consuming

-Test content defines and narrows the curriculum

-Results may be used inappropriately for critical decisions

Inappropriate Uses for High-Stakes Test Results

•Tests were not designed for the following purposes

-Making pass/fail decisions; denying students advancement

-State-to-state comparisons; states can't be compared

Curricula vary by state and funding varies by state-Evaluation of teachers or schools

Uncontrollable factors influence students' scores

-Identifying where families buy homes (false read on best schools)

Districts with highest test scores may not be the best schools

•Ongoing questions about high-stakes tests: Are they valid? Reliable? Measure what you taught? Improve teaching?

Using High-Stakes Testing Well

Essential characteristics of effective testing program:

•Match content standards of the district

•Multiple tests used for decision making

•Test complex thinking, not just skills and factual knowledge

•Alternate tests for students with identified disabilities

•Opportunities for retesting when stakes are high

•Reports of results that make students' situations clear if they have special challenges/circumstances

•Appropriate remediation available for students who fail

•Adequate opportunities for students to learn test material

•Consideration for English learners•Use results FOR children, not against them

Reaching Every Student

•Helping students with disabilities prepare for high-stakes tests

-Begin extra preparation at an early age

•Guidelines for preparing all students for testing

-Make sure test questions match course content

-Make sure students know how to use all test materials

-Follow instructions for administering test exactly

-Make students as comfortable as possible for the test

•Advice to students

-Study the night before; get plenty of sleep

-Sit away from friends; read/follow directions; use time effectively

-Guess appropriately as needed and check your work

-Answer essay questions as directly as possible

Teacher Accountability and Evaluation

•Concern of educators: unfairness of using standardized tests to evaluate schools and individual teachers

•Value-added measures: Use of statistical analyses to indicate the average test score gain for students (assess actual growth)

-Adjusted for student characteristics, prior achievement level (show where they started the year, not just where they ended)

-A way to show a teacher's value-added effect

•To assess actual growth

-Begin with baseline scores/levels of achievement

-Determine growth expectations; compare with actual test scores

-Example: 6th grader reading at 3rd grade level expected to advance at least one grade level during the year

Quality Standardized Assessment: Lessons for Teachers

•Importance of both growth and proficiency

-Measure of both growth and proficiency together give more complete picture of students' learning

•"Power of Two" in assessing student learning

-Achievement measures students' performance at a single point in time

-Growth measures students' growth between two points in time

Ethics

-refers to a the rules that a social system provides us with

•System of principles of conduct that guide the behavior of an individual

•Application of broad ethical principles and specific rules to the problems that arise in professional practice

Morals

•are our own principles

•fundamental, universal rules of society

•Beneficence (doing or producing good)

•Non-maleficence (not committing harm or evil) •Veracity (devotion to the truth)

•Autonomy (allow people to make decisions for themselves)

-Applied professional ethics

Professionalism

•What is professionalism in Education?

-Attire

-Punctuality

-Effectiveness

-Behavior in Meetings

-Communication

-Discretion-Language/Topics

-Social Media Communication

•Answering your smart phone

•Texting

Professional quality control

•Ethical codes and professional standards

•Educational law

•Credentialing standards

•Program accreditation