"The only way to be totally free is through education" - Jose Marti

Like the relationship between teens and their family members or peers, the relationship that adolescents have with their school can affect their health and wellbeing as well as their academic performance. 

 

Unlike in the comprehensive schools of the past, modern adolescents now have more self-determination over the type of courses they take, however their academic success is often influenced by other factors. Contrary to popular belief, it is school sizes rather than class sizes that have a greater impact on adolescent achievement. However, students perform better academically in smaller schools than in larger schools. In spite of the knowledge that class size has little effect on performance, the majority of our class would prefer to teach a class size that is smaller than the current average in their respective subject area. Some areas of concern that we discussed were how class sizes related to the ability to have meaningful class discussions, the impact on effectively marking student work, and efficiently differentiating lesson plans to meet the needs of all students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

who are a part of extracurricular activities do much better academically and feel more connected to their school. If, however, students choose to work outside of school, they can risk more school misconduct, delinquency, and an increased chance of abusing drugs and alcohol (Mortimer et al., 1996; Steinberg et al., 1993).Working more than 15-20 hours per week can also be injurious to a students academic success (Singh, 1998).

 

Our reflection question for Topic 6 is: How might being aware of your implicit expectations and the attributions you make for your students' behaviour/explanations help you to be a better teacher?

 

In light of our class discussion and the textbook readings, it is obvious that implicit expectations and attributions can have decisive effect on future outcomes. There is an expectation-fulfillment complex between teachers and students, with students performing better when teachers believe that they are better students, and vice versa. This effect has been long recognized, first in the workplace with the Hawthorne Study (from 1924-1934) and later confirmed in the classroom by Ross Rosenthal (1968). As a teacher it is imperative that all students are given encouragement to succeed beyond their current abilities so that they are able to grow academically. 

 

With the advent of differentiated learning it can be particularly hard for teachers to appropriately challenge students so that each student feels that they are in a position to learn as much as possible. Based on Rosenthal's (1974) listed behaviours of encouragement there are a few aspects that can be corrected to provide equal opportunity for all students:

• Seating distance from the teacher can be addressed by a randomized seating plan that is re-generated monthly

• Calling on students during class discussion can also be randomized, this can be accomplished by a number of apps such as stick-pick

• Wait time for student responses must be catered to the complexity of the question. As a standard, I will ask a question, wait a minimum of 3 seconds before calling on a student, and then wait a minimum of 5 seconds before rephrasing or prompting.

For a number of other aspects that affect encouragement, I can only offer myself prompts and reminders to reflect on my daily practice and incorporate as many aspects as possible to create an equal-opportunity classroom.

 

Though performance is attributed to ability, effort, task ease, or luck, each of these aspects can be characterized as internal or external, stable or unstable, and controlled or uncontrolled. It is these characterizations that determines the emotional behaviour associated with the attribution. Students that believe the reasons for their success is internal feel a greater sense of pride in their accomplishments. Students who believe their performance is the result of a stable ability will be more hopeful than students who believe their ability is unstable. Finally, failure due to what is believed to be a controllable factor can result in student guilt while failure due to an uncontrollable factor can result in shame.

 

As a teacher it is important to give accurate and reflective feedback that encourages future success. Feedback focused on strategy or effort is more likely to elicit a positive effect (such as an increase in effort or future use of correct strategies). Effort and strategy-focused feedback should be given in cases of criticism as well as praise so that students are internalizing the task and able to realize that success is within their control. This is particularly important in my desired field of teaching, mathematics, as public opinion often dictates "it's okay, math is hard" which externalizes failures rather than focusing on strategies for success. For this reason it is important that I address the effect of such statements with parents and ensure that parents are also effort-focused. Education.com suggests a regular parent newsletter outlining what is being learned in class and guidelines for giving productive feedback at home. 

 

Citations:

 

Mortimer, J., Finch, M., Ryu, S., Schanahan, M., and Call, K. (1996). The effects of work intensity on

adolescent mental health, achievement, and behavioral adjustment: New evidence from a prospective study. Child Development, 67, 1243-1261

Rosenthal, R. (1974) On the social psychology of the self-fulfilling prophecy: Further evidence for Pygmalion

effects and their mediating mechanisms (Module 53). New York: MSS Modular Publications.

Rosenthal, R., and Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Singh, K. (1998). Part-time employment in high school and its effect on academic achievement. Journal of

Educational Research, 91, 131-139.

Steinberg, L., Fegley, S., Dornbusch, S. (1993). Negative impact of part time work on adolescent adjustment:

Evidence from a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 29, 171-180.

Stipek, D. (2010). How do teachers' expectations affect student learning. Excerpt from Motivation to Learn:

Integrating Theory and Practice, 2002 edition, p. 2216-221. Education.com. Retrieved Oct 12,

2015 from http://www.education.com/reference/article/teachers-expectations-affect-learning/

Weiner, B. (1972). Attribution Theory, Achievement Motivation, and the Educational Process. Review of

Educational Research. 42(2) p. 203-215. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1170017 

Western Electric Company. (1924-1934 inclusive). Western Electric Company Hawthorne Studies Collection.

Baker Library, Harvard Business School.

 

Additional Resources:

 

Culture Re-Boot - Establishing a Student-Centered Learning Culture: Teacher Expectations

 

Education.com - How Do Teachers' Expectations Affect Student Learning

 

Instant Classroom - Seating Chart Tool

 

AGPA - Best Teaching Practices: Wait Time

 

Education.com - Attribution Theory

 

Why Students Think They Fail and What Instructors Can Do About It: An Approach Using Attribution Theory

 

iTunes.Apple.com - Stick-Pick Application