Educational psychology santrock 1

This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page i 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile Educational Psychology FIFTH EDITION John W Santrock University of Texas at Dallas san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page ii 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2004, 2001 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning This book is printed on acid-free paper QDQ/QDQ ISBN: 978-0-07-337878-7 MHID: 0-07-337878-X Vice President, Editorial:  Michael Ryan Publisher:  Michael Sugarman Sponsoring Editor:  Allison McNamara Marketing Manager:  Julia Flohr Director of Development:  Dawn Groundwater Developmental Editor:  Erin Grelak Supplements Editor:  Sarah Colwell Project Manager:  Holly Irish Production Service:  Aaron Downey, Matrix Productions, Inc Manuscript Editor:  Maggie Jarpey Text Designer:  Laurie Entringer Cover Designer: Laurie Entringer Art Manager: Robin Mouat Photo Research: Jenifer Blankenship Buyer II: Louis Swaim Composition: 10.5/12 Minion Pro by Aptara®, Inc Printing: 45# New Era Thin Plus, Quad Graphics Credits: The credits section for this book begins on page C and is considered an extension of the copyright page Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Santrock, John W Educational psychology / John Santrock — 5th ed p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN-13: 978-0-07-337878-7 (alk paper) ISBN-10: 0-07-337878-X (alk paper) Educational psychology Learning, Psychology of Motivation in education I Title LB1051.S262 2011 370.15—dc22 2010045901 The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication The inclusion of a Web site does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill, and McGraw-Hill does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites www.mhhe.com san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page iii 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile About the Author John W Santrock John Santrock received his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota in 1973 He taught at the University of Charleston and the University of Georgia before joining the program in Psychology and Human Development at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he currently teaches a number of undergraduate courses John has been a member of the editorial boards of Child Development and Developmental Psychology His research on father custody is widely cited and used in expert witness testimony to promote flexibility and alternative considerations in custody disputes John also has authored these exceptional McGraw-Hill texts: Children (11th edition), Adolescence (13th edition), Life-Span Development (13th edition), and Child Development (13th edition) For many years John was involved in tennis as a player, a teaching professional, and a coach of professional tennis players He has been married for more than 35 years to his wife, Mary Jo, who is a realtor He has two daughters—Tracy, who also is a realtor, and Jennifer, who is a medical sales specialist He has one granddaughter, Jordan, age 19, and two grandsons, Alex, age 6, and Luke, age In the last decade, John also has spent time painting expressionist art John Santrock with his grandchildren Luke, Alex, and Jordan san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page iv 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile For the educators in my family: My wife, Mary Jo, a teacher; my father, John F Santrock, Jr., a teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools; my mother, Ruth Smith Santrock, an administrative assistant; my grandmother, Della Karnes Santrock, who taught all grades in a one-room school; and John F Santrock, Sr., a principal san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page v 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile Brief Contents C H A P T E R Educational Psychology: A Tool for Effective Teaching C H A P T E R Cognitive and Language Development 28 C H A P T E R Social Contexts and Socioemotional Development 70 C H A P T E R Individual Variations 110 C H A P T E R Sociocultural Diversity 141 C H A P T E R Learners Who Are Exceptional 180 C H A P T E R Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches 216 C H A P T E R The Information-Processing Approach 253 C H A P T E R Complex Cognitive Processes 294 C H A P T E R 10 Social Constructivist Approaches 332 C H A P T E R 11 Learning and Cognition in the Content Areas 360 C H A P T E R 12 Planning, Instruction, and Technology 398 C H A P T E R 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning 436 C H A P T E R 14 Managing the Classroom 476 C H A P T E R 15 Standardized Tests and Teaching 514 C H A P T E R 16 Classroom Assessment and Grading 547 v This page intentionally left blank san7878x_fm_i-xxxviii.indd Page vii 11/25/10 3:40 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile Contents Preface xxi C H A P T E R Educational Psychology: A Tool for Effective Teaching Exploring Educational Psychology Historical Background Teaching: Art and Science Effective Teaching Professional Knowledge and Skills Commitment, Motivation, and Caring 10 SELF-ASSESSMENT 1.1: The Best and Worst Characteristics of My Teachers 12 Research in Educational Psychology 14 Why Research Is Important 14 Research Methods 15 Program Evaluation Research, Action Research, and the Teacher-as-Researcher 19 Quantitative and Qualitative Research 21 CONNECTING WITH THE CLASSROOM: CRACK THE CASE The Classroom Decision 24 Reach Your Learning Goals 25 Key Terms 26 Portfolio Activities 26 Study, Practice, and Succeed 27 C H A P T E R Cognitive and Language Development 28 An Overview of Child Development 29 Exploring What Development Is 29 Processes and Periods 29 Developmental Issues 31 Development and Education 33 Cognitive Development The Brain 35 Piaget’s Theory 39 Vygotsky’s Theory 50 34 SELF-ASSESSMENT 2.1: Applying Piaget and Vygotsky in My Classroom 54 vii san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 446 11/19/10 11:46 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 446 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning Thinking Back/Thinking Forward The transition to middle or junior high school can be stressful because it coincides with many other developmental changes Chapter 3, p 88 Why the shift toward extrinsic motivation as children move to higher grades? One explanation is that school grading practices reinforce an external motivation orientation That is, as students get older, they lock into the increasing emphasis on grades, and their internal motivation drops Jacquelynne Eccles and her colleagues (Eccles, 2004, 2007; Eccles & Roeser, 2010; Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006) have identified some specific changes in the school context that help to explain the decline in intrinsic motivation Middle and junior high schools are more impersonal, more formal, more evaluative, and more competitive than elementary schools Students compare themselves more with other students because they increasingly are graded in terms of their relative performance on assignments and standardized tests Proposing the concept of person-environment fit, Eccles (2004, 2007) argues that a lack of fit between the middle school/junior high environment and the needs of young adolescents produces increasingly negative self-evaluations and attitudes toward school Her research has revealed that teachers became more controlling just at the time when adolescents are seeking more autonomy, and the teacher-student relationship becomes more impersonal at a time when students are seeking more independence from their parents and need more support from other adults At a time when adolescents are becoming more self-conscious, an increased emphasis on grades and other competitive comparisons only makes things worse How might teachers make school more personal for students? Perhaps by getting to know students better and linking their interests to academic content Although there is less research on the transition to high school, the existing research suggests that, like the transition to middle school, it can produce similar problems (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) High schools often are even larger and more bureaucratic than middle schools In such schools, a sense of community usually is undermined, with little opportunity for students and teachers to get to know each other As a consequence, distrust between students and teachers develops easily, and there is little communication about students’ goals and values Such contexts can especially harm the motivation of students who are not doing well academically What lessons can be drawn from this discussion? Perhaps the single most important lesson is that middle school and junior high school students benefit when teachers think of ways to make their school settings more personal, less formal, and more intrinsically challenging Some Final Thoughts About Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation An overwhelming conclusion of motivation research is that teachers should encourage students to become intrinsically motivated Similarly, teachers should create learning environments that promote students’ cognitive engagement and self-responsibility for learning That said, the real world includes both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and too often intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been pitted against each other as polar opposites In many aspects of students’ lives, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are at work (Cameron & Pierce, 2008) Further, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can operate simultaneously Thus, a student may work hard in a course because she enjoys the content and likes learning about it (intrinsic) and to earn a good grade (extrinsic) (Schunk, 2011) Keep in mind, though, that many educational psychologists recommend that extrinsic motivation by itself is not a good strategy Our discussion of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation sets the stage for introducing other cognitive processes involved in motivating students to learn As we explore five additional cognitive processes, notice how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation continue to be important The five processes are (1) attribution, (2) mastery motivation and mindset; (3) self-efficacy; (4) goal setting, planning, and self-monitoring; and (5) expectations san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 447 26/11/10 3:38 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e ATTRIBUTION Achievement Processes Combination of causal attributions 447 Reason students give for failure Attribution theory states that individuals are motivated to discover the Internal-stable-uncontrollable Low aptitude underlying causes of their own performance and behavior Attributions are perceived causes of outcomes In a way, attribution theorists say, stuInternal-stable-controllable Never study dents are like intuitive scientists, seeking to explain the cause behind what Internal-unstable-uncontrollable Sick the day of the test happens (Graham & Williams, 2009; Weiner, 2010) For example, a secondary school student asks, “Why am I not doing well in this class?” or, Internal-unstable-controllable Did not study for this particular test “Did I get a good grade because I studied hard or because the teacher made up an easy test, or both?” The search for a cause or explanation is External-stable-uncontrollable School has tough most likely to be initiated when unexpected and important events end in requirements failure, such as when a good student gets a low grade Some of the most External-stable-controllable The instructor is biased frequently inferred causes of success and failure are ability, effort, task ease or difficulty, luck, mood, and help or hindrance from others External-unstable-uncontrollable Bad luck Bernard Weiner (1986, 1992, 2010) identified three dimensions of causal attributions: (1) locus, whether the cause is internal or external External-unstable-controllable Friends failed to help to the actor; (2) stability, the extent to which the cause remains the same or changes; and (3) controllability, the extent to which the individual FIGURE 13.3 COMBINATIONS can control the cause For example, a student might perceive his aptitude as located OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS AND internally, stable, and uncontrollable The student also might perceive chance or luck EXPLANATIONS FOR FAILURE as external to himself, variable, and uncontrollable Figure 13.3 lists eight possible When students fail or poorly on a test or combinations of locus, stability, and controllability and shows how they match up an assignment, they attribute the outcome with various common explanations of failure to certain causes The explanation reflects To see how attributions affect subsequent achievement strivings, consider two eight combinations of Weiner’s three main students, Jane and Susan Both students fail a math test, but each attributes this categories of attributions: locus (internalnegative outcome to a different set of causes (Graham & Weiner, 1996, p 72): external), stability (stable-unstable), and When Jane flunks her math test, she searches for the reasons for the failure Her analysis leads her to attribute the failure to herself, not blaming her teacher or bad luck She also attributes the failure to an unstable factor—lack of preparation and study time Thus, she perceives that her failure was due to internal, unstable, and also controllable factors Because the factors are unstable, Jane has a reasonable expectation that she can still succeed in the future And because the factors are controllable, she also feels guilty Her expectations for success enable her to overcome her deflated sense of self-esteem Her hope for the future results in renewed goal setting and increased motivation to well on the next test As a result, Jane seeks tutoring and increases her study time When Susan fails the test, she also searches for reasons for the failure As it happens, her analysis leads her to attribute her failure to internal (lack of ability), stable, and uncontrollable factors Because Susan perceives the cause of her failure to be internal, her self-esteem suffers Because it is stable, she sees failure in her future and has a helpless feeling that she can’t anything about her situation And because it is uncontrollable, she feels ashamed and humiliated In addition, her parents and teacher tell her that they feel sorry for her but don’t provide any recommendations or strategies for success, furthering her belief that she is incompetent With low expectations of success, low self-esteem, and a depressed mood, Susan decides to drop out of school instead of studying harder What are the best strategies for teachers to use in helping students like Susan change their attributions? Educational psychologists often recommend providing students with a planned series of achievement experiences in which modeling, information about strategies, practice, and feedback are used to help them (1) concentrate on the task at hand rather than worrying about failing, (2) cope with failures by retracing their steps to discover their mistake or by analyzing the problem to discover another approach, and (3) attribute their failures to a lack of effort rather than lack of ability (Boekaerts, 2009; Brophy, 2004; Dweck & Elliott, 1983) The current strategy is not to expose students to models who handle tasks with ease and demonstrate success but rather to expose them to models who struggle to controllability (controllable-uncontrollable) Human Motivation: Metaphors, Theories, and Research by Bernard Weiner, p 253 Copyright 1992 by Sage Publications Inc Books Reproduced with permission of Sage Publications Inc Books in the format Textbook via Copyright Clearance Center attribution theory The theory that individuals are motivated to discover the underlying causes of their own behavior and performance san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 448 26/11/10 3:38 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 448 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning The student: • Says “I can’t” • Doesn’t pay attention to teacher’s instructions • Doesn’t ask for help, even when it is needed • Does nothing (for example, stares out the window) • Guesses or answers randomly without really trying • Doesn’t show pride in successes • Appears bored, uninterested • Is unresponsive to teacher’s exhortations to try • Is easily discouraged • Doesn’t volunteer answers to teacher’s questions • Maneuvers to get out of or to avoid work (for example, has to go to the nurse’s office) FIGURE 13.4 BEHAVIORS THAT SUGGEST HELPLESSNESS Deborah Stipek, Motivation to Learn, Table 5.3 “Behaviors Suggesting Learned Helplessness” p 69, © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc Reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc Thinking Back/Thinking Forward Some critics contend that the No Child Left Behind legislation is harmful for students who are gifted and for students’ creativity Chapter 6, p 207; Chapter 9, p 313 helpless orientation A response to challenges and difficulties in which the individual feels trapped by the difficulty and attributes the difficulty to a lack of ability mastery orientation A task-oriented response to difficult or challenging circumstances that focuses on learning strategies and the process of achievement rather than the outcome performance orientation A focus on winning rather than an achievement outcome; success is believed to result from winning mindset Dweck’s concept that refers to the cognitive view individuals develop for themselves; individuals have one of two mindsets: (1) fixed or (2) growth overcome mistakes before finally succeeding (Brophy, 2004) In this way, students learn how to deal with frustration, persist in the face of difficulties, and constructively cope with failure MASTERY MOTIVATION AND MINDSET Becoming cognitively engaged and self-motivated to improve are reflected in adolescents with a mastery motivation (Dweck, 2011; Dweck & Master, 2009) These children also have a growth mindset that they can produce positive outcomes if they put forth the effort Mastery Motivation Developmental psychologists Valanne Henderson and Carol Dweck (1990) have found that children often show two distinct responses to difficult or challenging circumstances Children who display mastery motivation are task-oriented; instead of focusing on their ability, they concentrate on learning strategies and the process of achievement rather than the outcome Those with a helpless orientation seem trapped by the experience of difficulty and they attribute their difficulty to lack of ability They frequently say such things as, “I’m not very good at this,” even though they might earlier have demonstrated their ability through many successes And, once they view their behavior as failure, they often feel anxious, and their performance worsens Figure 13.4 describes some behaviors that might reflect helplessness (Stipek, 2002) In contrast, children who have a mastery orientation often instruct themselves to pay attention, to think carefully, and to remember strategies that have worked for them in previous situations They frequently report feeling challenged and excited by difficult tasks, rather than being threatened by them (Anderman & Anderman, 2010) Another issue in motivation involves whether to adopt a mastery or a performance orientation Children with a performance orientation are focused on winning, rather than on an achievement outcome, and they believe that success results from winning Does this mean that mastery-oriented children not like to win and that performance-oriented children are not motivated to experience the self-efficacy that comes from being able to take credit for one’s accomplishments? No A matter of emphasis or degree is involved, though For mastery-oriented individuals, winning isn’t everything; for performance-oriented individuals, skill development and selfefficacy take a backseat to winning Recall that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act emphasizes testing and accountability Although NCLB may motivate some teachers and students to work harder, motivation experts worry that it encourages a performance rather than a mastery motivational orientation on the part of students (Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006) A final point needs to be made about mastery and performance goals: they are not always mutually exclusive Students can be both mastery- and performanceoriented, and researchers have found that mastery goals combined with performance goals often benefit students’ success (Schunk, 2011) Mindset Carol Dweck’s (2006, 2011) most recent analysis of motivation for achievement stresses the importance of children developing a mindset, which she defines as the cognitive view individuals develop for themselves She concludes that individuals have one of two mindsets: (1) fixed mindset, in which they believe that their qualities are carved in stone and cannot change; or (2) growth mindset, in which they believe their qualities can change and improve through their effort A fixed mindset is similar to a helpless orientation; a growth mindset is much like having mastery motivation In her book, Mindset, Dweck (2006) argued that individuals’ mindsets influence whether they will be optimistic or pessimistic, shape their goals and how hard they will strive to reach those goals, and affect many aspects of their lives, including san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 449 11/19/10 11:46 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e Achievement Processes 449 TEACHING CONNECTIONS: Best Practices Strategies for Creating a Mastery-Focused Classroom Goal Structure Classroom practices can impact the degree to which students adopt a mastery or performance goal orientation Suggestions for creating a classroom climate conducive to mastery goals are as follows (Ames, 1987, 1992; Meece, 1991; Middleton, & Midgley, 2002; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002) Focus attention on progress, rather than on performance This makes grades secondary to learning As such, individual performance should be a private matter between teacher and student This means keeping measures of student performance private Early elementary ● Don’t use public star charts to indicate student performance or compliance ● Don’t put students’ names on the board as a punishment Late elementary ● Don’t have students grade each others’ work ● Don’t return work in order of grade or announce grades as you return work ● Don’t ask students to call out grades as you record Middle School/High School ● Don’t publicize an honor roll ● Don’t have assemblies to reward students based on grades ● Don’t post grades Communicate to students your goal of their understanding the material, rather than performing well on a test Ask students to justify their answers to your questions so that you can monitor understanding and facilitate its development Foster a noncompetitive environment When students compete with one another, social comparison is inevitable, thus making performance goals more likely Use criterion-referenced grading Grading should be based on standards, rather than on the bell curve Communicate that mistakes are part of the learning process Allow students to revise their work when possible achievement and success in school and sports Dweck says that mindsets begin to be shaped as children interact with parents, teachers, and coaches, who themselves have either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset She described the growth mindset of Patricia Miranda: [She] was a chubby, unathletic school kid who wanted to wrestle After a bad beating on the mat, she was told, “You’re a joke.” First she cried, then she felt: “That really set my resolve I had to keep going and had to know if effort and focus and belief and training could somehow legitimize me as a wrestler.” Where did she get this resolve? Miranda was raised in a life devoid of challenge But when her mother died of an aneurysm at age forty, ten-year-old Miranda [thought] “If you only go through life doing stuff that’s easy, shame on you.” So when wrestling presented a challenge, she was ready to take it on Her effort paid off At twenty-four, Miranda was having the last laugh She won a spot on the U.S Olympic team and came home from Athens with a bronze medal And what was next? Yale Law School People urged her to stay where she was already on top, but Miranda felt it was more exciting to start at the bottom again and see what she could grow into this time (Dweck, 2006, pp 22–23) Consider also the powerful role second-grade Chicago teacher Marva Collins has in creating a growth mindset in her students She tells her students, many of whom are repeating the second grade, I know most of you can’t spell your name You don’t know the alphabet, you don’t know how to read I promise you that you will Patricia Miranda (in blue) winning the bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics What characterizes her growth mindset, and how is it different from someone with a fixed mindset? san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 450 11/19/10 11:46 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 450 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning None of you has ever failed School may have failed you Well, goodbye to failure, children Welcome to success You will read hard books in here and understand what you read You will write every day But you must help me to help you If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything Success is not coming to you, you must come to it (Dweck, 2006, pp 188–189) At a workshop for teachers and board members at Pennington School, Marva Collins encourages a participant as she plays the role of a student DIVERSITY Carol Dweck What does she emphasize as the most important aspects of students’ achievement? RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY self-efficacy The belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes Her second-grade students usually have to start off with the lowest level of reader available, but by the end of the school year, most of the students are reading at the fifth-grade level Collins takes inner-city children living in low-income, often poverty, circumstances and challenges them to be all they can be She won’t accept failure by her students and teaches students to be responsible for their behavior every day of their lives Collins tells students that being excellent at something is not a one-time thing but a habit, that determination and persistence are what move the world, and that thinking others will make you successful is a sure way to fail Dweck and her colleagues (Blackwell & Dweck, 2008; Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck & Master, 2009) recently incorporated information about the brain’s plasticity into their effort to improve students’ motivation to achieve and succeed In one study, they assigned two groups of students to eight sessions of either (1) study-skills instruction or (2) study-skills instruction plus information about the importance of developing a growth mindset (called incremental theory in the research) (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007) One of the exercises in the growth mindset group was titled, “You Can Grow Your Brain,” which emphasized that the brain is like a muscle that can change and grow as it gets exercises and develops new connections Students were informed that the more you challenge your brain to learn, the more your brain cells grow Both groups had a pattern of declining math scores prior to the intervention Following the intervention, the group who only received the study-skills instruction continued to decline but the group that received the combination of study-skills instruction plus the growth mindset emphasis on how the brain develops when it is challenged reversed the downward trend and improved their math achievement In other work, Dweck has been creating a computer-based workshop, “Brainology,” to teach students that their intelligence can change (Blackwell & Dweck, 2008) Students experience six modules about how the brain works and how the students can make their brain improve After being tested in 20 New York City schools recently, students strongly endorsed the value of the computer-based brain modules Said one student, “I will try harder because I know that the more you try the more your brain knows” (Dweck & Master, 2009, p 137) SELF-EFFICACY In Chapter 7, we introduced Albert Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy, the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes Bandura (1997, 2001, 2009, 2010a) emphasizes that self-efficacy is a critical factor in whether or not students achieve Self-efficacy has much in common with mastery motivation and intrinsic motivation Self-efficacy is the belief that “I can”; helplessness, the opposite of mastery, is the belief that “I cannot.” Students with high self-efficacy agree with such statements as “I know that I will be able to learn the material in this class” and “I expect to be able to well at this activity.” Dale Schunk (2011) has applied the concept of self-efficacy to many aspects of students’ achievement In his view, self-efficacy influences a student’s choice of activities Students with low self-efficacy for learning might avoid many learning tasks, especially those that are challenging, whereas students with high self-efficacy eagerly approach these learning tasks Students with high self-efficacy are more likely to san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 451 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e persist with effort at a learning task than are students with low self-efficacy (Schunk & Pajares, 2009) One study revealed that high-self-efficacy adolescents had higher academic aspirations, spent more time doing homework, and were more likely to associate learning activities with optimal experience than their low-self-efficacy counterparts (Bassi & others, 2007) A recent study found that students with high selfefficacy for reading and writing were more likely to adopt a deep, strategy-oriented approach to studying while their low self-efficacy counterparts were more likely to take a surface approach (Prat-Sala & Redford, 2010) Your self-efficacy as a teacher will have a major impact on the quality of learning that your students experience (Guo & others, 2010) Students learn much more from teachers with a sense of high selfefficacy than from those beset by self-doubts Teachers with low selfefficacy often become mired in classroom problems and are inclined to say that low student ability is the reason their students are not learning Low-self-efficacy teachers don’t have confidence in their ability to manage their classrooms, become stressed and angered at students’ misbehavior, are pessimistic about students’ ability to improve, take a custodial view of their job, often resort to restrictive and punitive modes of discipline, and say that if they had it to all over again they would not choose teaching as a profession Efficacious schools are pervaded by high expectations and standards for achievement (Walsh, 2008) Teachers regard their students as capable of high academic achievement, set challenging academic standards for them, and provide support to help them reach these high standards In contrast, in low-achieving schools not much is expected academically of students, teachers spend less time actively teaching and monitoring students’ academic progress, and tend to write off a high percentage of students as unteachable (Brookover & others, 1979) Not surprisingly, students in such schools have low self-efficacy and a sense of academic futility GOAL SETTING, PLANNING, AND SELF-MONITORING Goal setting is increasingly recognized as a key aspect of achievement (Anderman, 2011; Anderman & Anderman, 2010; Urdan, 2010) Researchers have found that self-efficacy and achievement improve when students set goals that are specific, proximal, and challenging (Bandura, 1997; Schunk, 2011) A nonspecific, fuzzy goal is “I want to be successful.” A more concrete, specific goal is “I want to make the honor roll by the end of the semester.” Long-Term and Short-Term Goals Students can set both long-term (distal) and short-term (proximal) goals It is okay to let students set some long-term goals, such as “I want to graduate from high school” or “I want to go to college,” but if you do, make sure that they also create short-term goals as steps along the way “Getting an A on the next math test” is an example of a short-term, proximal goal So is “Doing all of my homework by p.m Sunday.” As mentioned earlier, attention should focus mainly on short-term goals, which help students judge their progress better than long-term goals David McNally (1990), author of Even Eagles Need a Push, advises that when students set goals and plan, they should be reminded to live their lives one day at a time Have them make their commitments in bite-size chunks As McNally says, a house is built one brick at a time, a cathedral one stone at a time The artist paints one stroke at a time The student should also work in small increments Challenging Goals Another good strategy is to encourage students to set challenging goals A challenging goal is a commitment to self-improvement Strong interest and involvement in activities is sparked by challenges Goals that are easy to reach generate little interest or effort However, goals should be optimally matched Achievement Processes 451 Thinking Back/Thinking Forward Bandura’s social cognitive theory emphasizes reciprocal links between behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors Chapter 7, p 235 What characterizes students, teachers, and schools with high self-efficacy? san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 452 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 452 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning TEACHING CONNECTIONS: Best Practices Strategies for Improving Students’ Self-Efficacy Here are some good strategies for improving students’ selfefficacy (Stipek, 2002): Teach specific strategies Teach students specific strategies, such as outlining and summarizing, that can improve their ability to focus on their tasks Guide students in setting goals Help them create short-term goals after they have made long-term goals Short-term goals especially help students to judge their progress Consider mastery Give students performance-contingent rewards, which are more likely to signal mastery, rather than rewards, for merely engaging in a task Combine strategy training with goals Schunk and his colleagues (Schunk, 2001; Schunk & Rice, 1989; Schunk & Swartz, 1993) have found that a combination of strategy training and goal setting can enhance students’ self-efficacy and skill development Give feedback to students on how their learning strategies relate to their performance Provide students with support Positive support can come from teachers, parents, and peers Sometimes a teacher just needs to tell a student, “You can this.” In Through the Eyes of Teachers, Joanna Smith, a high school English teacher, describes how she helps students who struggle with “failure syndrome.” THROUGH THE EYES OF TEACHERS Helping Students Who Feel Like Failures Gain Confidence I believe that encouragement can help students overcome “failure syndrome.” Students with failure syndrome give up immediately when they sense any difficulty whatsoever It is easy to feel frustrated when facing these students, but I have found success when I truly reach them The only way for me to reach individual students is to get to know them and their families by giving journal assignments, choices about books they read, opportunities to tell me about themselves, and by opening myself up to them These students also need a lot of encouragement They need to know that you have noticed and are not happy with their failure, and then they need to know you believe in them Only then will students with failure syndrome perform Help students believe in their cognitive abilities (Anderman & Anderman, 2010) You are likely to have some students in your class who have a history of being unsuccessful in academic settings Talking to these students about your confidence in their abilities can improve their self-efficacy and help them to become more motivated to the student’s skill level If goals are unrealistically high, the result will be repeated failures that lower the student’s self-efficacy Personal Goals Another good strategy to encourage students in goal-setting is to guide them in developing personal goals about desired and undesired future circumstances (Ford & Smith, 2009) Too often teachers aren’t aware of their students’ personal goals and what their students hope to attain (Boekaerts, 2009) Personal goals can be a key aspect of students’ motivation for coping and dealing with life’s challenges and opportunities (Maehr & Zusho, 2009) DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH Developmental Changes and Goal-Setting Unfortunately, many of the changes involved in the transition to middle schools are likely to increase students’ motivation to achieve performance goals rather than mastery goals (Anderman & Mueller, 2010; Eccles & Roeser, 2010) Consider that these transitions often include a drop in grades, a lack of support for autonomy, whole-class task organization and between-class ability groupings that likely increase social comparison, concerns about evaluation, and competitiveness In one research study, both teachers and students reported that performancefocused goals were more common and task-focused goals less common in middle school than in elementary school classrooms (Midgley, Anderman, & Hicks, 1995) In addition, the elementary school teachers reported using task-focused goals more than middle school teachers did At both grades, the extent to which the teachers were task-focused was linked with the students’ and the teachers’ sense of personal san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 453 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e Achievement Processes 453 efficacy Not unexpectedly, personal efficacy was lower for the middle school than elementary school participants Thus, middle school teachers especially need to include task-focused goals in their instruction (Anderman, Austin, & Johnson, 2002) Also, a recent Japanese study revealed that in junior high and high school classrooms in which teachers created a mastery goal structure for their classroom, students were more intrinsically motivated and had a higher academic self-concept; by contrast, in performance-oriented goal structure classrooms students were less intrinsically motivated and had a lower academic self-concept (Murayama & Elliot, 2009) Planning and Self-Monitoring In Chapter 12 we described the importance of planning for teachers Planning is also important for students It is not enough just to get students to set goals It also is important to encourage them to plan how they will reach their goals Being a good planner means managing time effectively, setting priorities, and being organized Give students, especially at the middle school and high school levels, practice at managing their time, setting priorities, and being organized EXPECTATIONS Expectations can exert a powerful influence on students’ motivation Let’s examine student expectations and teacher expectations Students’ Expectations How hard students will work can depend on how much they expect to accomplish (Cavazos & Cavazos, 2010) If they expect to succeed, they are more likely to work hard to reach a goal than if they expect to fail Jacquelynne Eccles (1987, 1993) defined expectations for students’ success as “beliefs about how well they will on upcoming tasks, either in the immediate or long-term future” (Wigfield & others, 2006) Three aspects of students’ ability beliefs, according to Eccles, are (1) how good they are at a particular activity, (2) how good they are in comparison to other individuals, and (3) how good they are in relation to their performance in other activities How hard students work also depends on the value they place on the goal (Wigfield, Tonks, & Klauda, 2009) Indeed, the combination of expectancy and value has been the focus of a number of efforts to better understand students’ achievement motivation for many decades (Atkinson, 1957; Eccles, 1993, 2007; Feather, 1966) In Jacquelynne Eccles’ (1993, 2007) model, “expectancies and values are assumed to directly influence performance, persistence, and task choice Expectancies and values are influenced by perceptions of competence, perceptions of the difficulty of different tasks, and individuals’ goals” (Wigfield & others, 2006, pp 938–939) In Eccles’ view, the culture’s achievement orientation also plays a role in influencing students’ expectations Teachers’ Expectations Teachers’ expectations influence students’ motivation and performance (Anderman & Anderman, 2010; de Boer, Bosker, & van der Werf, 2010; Jussim, Robustelli, & Cain, 2009) “When teachers hold high generalized expectations for student achievement and students perceive RESEARCH A student and teacher at Langston Hughes Elementary School in Chicago, a school whose teachers have high expectations for students How teachers’ expectations influence students’ achievement? san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 454 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 454 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning THROUGH THE EYES OF STUDENTS Hari Prabhakar, Student on a Path to Purpose Hari Prabhakar’s ambition is to become an international health expert Prabhakar graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2006 with a double major in public health and writing A top student (3.9 GPA), he took the initiative to pursue a number of activities outside the classroom in the health field Toward the end of high school, Hari created the Tribal India Health Foundation (www.tihf.org), which provides assistance in bringing low-cost health care to rural areas in India Juggling his roles as a student and as the foundation’s director, Prabhakar spent about 15 hours a week leading Tribal India Health In describing his work, Prabhakar said ( Johns Hopkins University, 2006): I have found it very challenging to coordinate the international operation It takes a lot of work, and there’s not a lot of free time But it’s worth it when I visit our patients and see how they and the community are getting better (Sources: Johns Hopkins University, 2006; Lunday, 2006; Marshall Scholarships, 2007; Prabhakar, 2007) these expectations, students achieve more, experience a greater sense of self-esteem and competence as learners, and resist involvement in problem behaviors both during childhood and adolescence” (Wigfield & others, 2006, p 976) In a recent observational study of 12 classrooms, teachers with high expectations spent more time providing a framework for students’ learning, asked higher-level questions, and were more effective in managing students’ behavior than teachers with average and low expectations (RubieDavis, 2007) Teachers often have more positive expectations for highability than for low-ability students, and these expectations are likely to influence their behavior toward them For example, teachers require high-ability students to work harder than low-ability students, wait longer for them to respond to questions, respond to them with more information and in a more elaborate fashion, criticize them less often, praise them more often, are more friendly to them, call on them more often, seat them closer to the teachers’ desks, and are more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt on close calls in grading (Brophy, 2004) An important teaching strategy is to monitor your expectations and be sure to have positive expectations for students with low abilities Fortunately, researchers have found that with support teachers can adapt and raise their expectations for students with low abilities (Weinstein, Madison, & Kuklinski, 1995) VALUES AND PURPOSE In the discussion of expectations, we indicated that how hard students work is influenced by the value they place on the goal they have set We also indicated that the culture’s achievement orientation influences students’ values Just what are “values”? Values are beliefs and attitudes about the way we think things should be They involve what is important to individuals Values can be attached to all sorts of things, such as religion, money, sex, helping others, family, friends, self-discipline, cheating, education, career, and so on In Chapter we described two moral education approaches that emphasize the importance of values in students’ development: character education and values clarification Hari Prabhakar (in rear) at a screening camp in India that he created It is important to note the integral role purpose plays in as part of his Tribal India Health Foundation shaping students’ values In his book, The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life (2008), William Damon defines purpose as an intention to accomplish something meaningful to oneself and contribute something to the world beyond the self Finding purpose involves answering such Thinking Back/Thinking Forward questions as “Why am I doing this? Why does it matter? Why is it important for Character education is a direct approach me and the world beyond me? Why I strive to accomplish this end?” (Damon, that involves teaching students basic 2008, pp 33–34) moral literacy; values clarification emphaIn interviews with 12- to 22-year-olds, Damon found that only about 20 percent sizes helping students to clarify what their had a clear vision of where they want to go in life, what they want to achieve, and lives are for and what is worth working for why The largest percentage—about 60 percent—had engaged in some potentially Chapter 3, p 100 purposeful activities, such as service learning or fruitful discussions with a career counselor—but still did not have a real commitment or any reasonable plans for san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 455 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e Achievement Processes reaching their goals And slightly more than 20 percent expressed no aspirations and in some instances said they didn’t see any reason to have aspirations Damon concludes that most teachers and parents communicate the importance of such goals as studying hard and getting good grades, but rarely discuss what the goals might lead to—what the purpose is for studying hard and getting good grades Damon emphasizes that too often students focus only on short-term goals and don’t explore the big, long-term picture of what they want to with their life These interview questions Damon (2008, p 135) has used in his research are good springboards for getting students to reflect on their purpose: What’s most important to you in your life? Why you care about those things? Do you have any long-term goals? Why are these goals important to you? What does it mean to have a good life? What does it mean to be a good person? If you were looking back on your life now, how would you like to be remembered? I recently asked teachers what strategies they use to help students achieve? Following are their responses EARLY CHILDHOOD Our preschoolers are given goals to achieve throughout the year For example, weekly goals are to identify and write a new letter each week To motivate children to achieve this goal, we ask them to bring in a special object from home that begins with the letter of the week and share it with the class The children enjoy the weekly responsibility of bringing in special objects and feel involved in the learning process —Missy  Dangler,  Suburban Hills School ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: GRADES K–5 I begin the school year by sharing my teaching goals with the students After that, I ask the children to come up with a list of their goals for the year, and we display them next to the child’s self-portrait These goals and self-portraits are on display all year, so that we are all reminded of what is important We also work on classroom rules that support the students’ and my goals —Yvonne  Wilson,  North Elementary School MIDDLE SCHOOL: GRADES 6–8 In this age of testing, it’s important to motivate students to learn for learning’s sake (not just to well on a test) With that in mind, I intentionally identify material that will not be included in the assessment process This material is usually high-interest, trivia, or sometimes a wonderful story relevant to the material Although this material won’t be on the test, my students look forward to learning it —Mark  Fodness,  Bemidji Middle School HIGH SCHOOL: GRADES 9–12 My high school art students respond best to praise Everyone loves to hear, “Wow, that looks fantastic; good job!” Another motivator for my students is that artworks that are well done may be entered in one of the many contests, shows, and exhibits we enter each year Having a reward dangling out there is a great motivational tool —Dennis  Peterson,  Deer River High School DEVELOPMENT 455 san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 456 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 456 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning Review, Reflect, and Connect Discuss the important processes in motivation to achieve REVIEW ● What are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation? How are they involved in students’ achievement? ● What characterizes attribution theory and an attribution approach to students’ achievement? ● How does a mastery orientation compare with a helpless orientation and a performance orientation? Why is a growth mindset important in students’ achievement? ● What is self-efficacy? What types of instructional strategies benefit students’ self-efficacy? ● How are goal setting, planning, and self-monitoring important in improving students’ motivation to achieve? ● How can students’ and teachers’ expectations affect students’ motivation? ● What values and purpose mean? How can the importance of students developing a purpose be summarized? REFLECT ● Sean and Dave both get cut from the basketball team The next year, Sean tries out again but Dave does not What causal attributions (and their effects) could explain the behaviors of these two students? PRAXIS™ PRACTICE Which of the following is the best example of someone who is intrinsically motivated? a Eric is reading the latest Harry Potter book because he wants to become a better reader b Jordan is reading the latest Harry Potter book because he can’t wait to see what happens to Harry and his friends c Josh is reading the latest Harry Potter book so that he will have read enough pages to qualify for the class pizza party at the end of the month d Martynas is reading the latest Harry Potter book because his teacher assigned it and he wants to please his teacher Joan just failed a science test “I knew it,” she says “I have never been any good at science, and I never will be.” Which of the following best characterizes Joan’s attribution for her failure? a external-stable-controllable b external-unstable-uncontrollable c internal-stable-controllable d internal-stable-uncontrollable Which of the following is the best example of a performance-goal orientation? a Alicia competes with her best friend to see who can get the higher grade on every test, taking delight in receiving the high score b Cassandra hates math, does not believe that she can be successful, and gives up at the first sign of struggling c Ed struggles in math, but wants very much to learn the material, so when he gets stuck on a problem, he asks for help d Martin does his work as requested and does a fair job on it, but he doesn’t really care about his grades or about how much he learns san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 457 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e Motivation, Relationships, and Sociocultural Contexts Review, Reflect, and Practice PRAXIS™ PRACTICE (CONTINUED) Jacob is struggling in algebra and as a result is experiencing low self-efficacy Which of the following people would provide the best role model? a David, a local engineer, who tells the class how useful math will be in their futures b Jamal, a fellow student, who has also struggled in the course but is now grasping the concepts c Mrs Jackson, Jacob’s algebra teacher, who has always loved math d Suzanne, a fellow student, who is getting an A with minimal effort Which student has the least appropriate goal? a As Mark is choosing courses for his senior year in high school, he decides to take the more challenging of the two courses his counselor suggested to him b Sam is taking geometry in his senior year of high school because he has always struggled in math c Sylvia decides to take advanced-placement calculus in her senior year although she knows it is a difficult course d Zelda is a capable math student, but she chooses an easy math course in which she is almost certain to get an A Ms Martin teaches eighth-grade history to an academically diverse class DeMarcus is a gifted student who has always earned high marks Joe has a learning disability Ms Martin does not believe it would be fair to expect the same performance from Joe as from DeMarcus However, she knows that Joe can learn the material with proper scaffolding Because of this, she seats Joe near her desk, praises him when he does something well, and gives him constructive criticism when needed How are her expectations and behavior likely to affect the achievement of these students? a Her expectations are likely to result in similar achievement from both students b Her expectations are likely to result in high achievement from DeMarcus and fairly high achievement from Joe c Her expectations are likely to result in high achievement from Joe and low achievement from DeMarcus d Her expectations are likely to result in low achievement from both students Which of the following questions that a teacher poses to a student in her eleventh-grade class best reflects an inquiry about the student’s purpose in life? a Why did you not study harder for your test this week? b What’s most important to you in your life? c What can you the rest of the year to get a good grade in this course? d How are you going to improve your chances of becoming a school leader? Please see the answer key at the end of the book MOTIVATION, RELATIONSHIPS, AND SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXTS Social Motives Social Relationships Sociocultural Contexts In addition to achievement motives, students also have social motives Our coverage of the social dimensions of motivation focuses on students’ social motives, relationships, and sociocultural contexts 457 san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 458 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 458 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning SOCIAL MOTIVES Social motives are needs and desires that are learned through experiences with the social world Students’ social needs are reflected in their desires to be popular with peers and have close friends and the powerful attraction they feel to someone they love Though all have a need for affiliation, or relatedness, some have a stronger need than others Some students like to be surrounded by lots of friends In middle and high school, some students feel something is drastically missing from their lives if they don’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend to date regularly Others don’t have such strong needs for affiliation They don’t fall apart if they don’t have several close friends around all day and don’t sit in class in an anxious state if they don’t have a romantic partner Children’s social concerns influence their lives at school (Anderman & Anderman, 2010) Every schoolday, students work at establishing and maintaining social relationships Researchers have found that students who display socially competent behavior are more likely to excel academically than those who not (Wentzel, 2008) Overall, though, researchers have given too little attention to how students’ social worlds are related to their motivation in the classroom Both teacher approval and peer approval are important social motives for most students In the elementary school years, students are motivated to please their parents more than their peers (Berndt, 1979) By the end of elementary school, parent approval and peer approval are about equal in most students’ motive systems By eighth or ninth grade, peer conformity outstrips conformity to parents By twelfth grade, conformity to peers drops off somewhat as students become more autonoWhat are some aspects of students’ social worlds that are linked to their motivation in the classroom? mous and make more decisions on their own Adolescence can be an especially important juncture in achievement motivation and social motivation (Anderman, 2011; Anderman & Mueller, 2010; Eccles & Roeser, 2010) New academic and social pressures force adolescents toward new roles that involve more responsibility As adolescents experience more intense achievement demands, their social interests might cut into the time they need for DEVELOPMENT academic matters Or ambitions in one area can undermine the attainment of goals in another area, as when academic achievement leads to social disapproval In early adolescence, students face a choice between whether they will spend more of their time pursuing social goals or academic goals The results of this decision have longterm consequences in terms of how far adolescents will go in their education and the careers they will pursue SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS Students’ relationships with parents, peers, and friends have a tremendous impact on their lives Their interactions with teachers, mentors, and others also can profoundly affect their achievement and social motivation Research has been conducted on links between parenting and students’ motivation (Duchesne & Ratelle, 2010; Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010) Studies have examined family demographic characteristics, child-rearing practices, and provision of specific experiences at home (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) social motives Needs and desires that are learned through experiences with the social world Demographic Characteristics Parents with more education are more likely than less educated parents to believe that their involvement in their child’s education is important, to be active participants in their child’s education, and to have intellectually stimulating materials at home (Schneider & Coleman, 1993) When parents’ time and energy are largely consumed by other concerns or people other than the child, the child’s motivation can suffer Living in a single-parent family, having parents san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 459 11/19/10 11:47 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com www.mhhe.com/santrockep5e Motivation, Relationships, and Sociocultural Contexts who are consumed by their work, and living in a large family can undercut children’s achievement Child-Rearing Practices Even though demographic factors can affect students’ motivation, more important are the parents’ child-rearing practices (Wigfield & others, 2006) Here are some positive parenting practices that result in improved motivation and achievement: ● ● ● Knowing enough about the child to provide the right amount of challenge and the right amount of support Providing a positive emotional climate, which motivates children to internalize their parents’ values and goals Modeling motivated achievement behavior—working hard and persisting with effort at challenging tasks Provision of Specific Experiences at Home In addition to general childrearing practices, parents provide various activities or resources at home that may influence students’ interest and motivation to pursue various activities over time (Wigfield & others, 2006) For example, reading to one’s preschool children and providing reading materials in the home are positively related to students’ later reading achievement and motivation (Wigfield & Asher, 1984) Indeed, researchers have found that children’s skills and work habits when they enter kindergarten are among the best predictors of academic motivation and performance in both elementary and secondary school (Entwisle & Alexander, 1993) The extent to which parents emphasize academic achievement or sports and provide opportunities and resources for their children to participate in these activities in the elementary school years influence whether the children are likely to continue to choose course work and extracurricular activities consistent with these activities in adolescence (Simpkins & others, 2004) A recent U.S large-scale longitudinal study revealed that students’ achievement was linked to academic resources in their homes (Xia, 2010) In this study, doing homework more frequently, having home Internet access, and owning a community library card were more influential in African American children or children in low-SES families attaining higher achievement than in children from other ethnic and higher SES backgrounds Thinking Back/Thinking Forward Family management practices, such as maintaining a structured and organized family environment and effectively monitoring the child’s behavior, are positively related to children’s grades and selfresponsibility Chapter 3, p 78 Thinking Back/Thinking Forward Five different peer statuses of children are popular, average, neglected, rejected, and controversial Chapter 3, p 83 RESEARCH Peers Peers can affect a student’s motivation in a number of ways (Hamm & Zhang, 2010; Harris, 2010; Winne & Nesbit, 2010) In considering students’ achievement, it is important to consider not only academic goals but social goals as well Students who are more accepted by their peers and who have good social skills often better in school and have positive academic achievement motivation In contrast, rejected students, especially those who are highly aggressive, are at risk for a number of achievement problems, including getting low grades and dropping out of school (Dodge, 2010) A recent study revealed that having aggressive-disruptive friends in adolescence was linked to a lower likelihood of graduating from high school (Veronneau & others, 2008) And, as we saw in Chapter 3, having friends who are academically oriented is linked to higher achievement in adolescence (Crosnoe & others, 2008) Teachers Teachers play an important role in students’ achievement (Friedel & others, 2010; Wentzel, 2009, 2010) When researchers have observed classrooms, they 459 How might peer relations contribute to students’ achievement? san7878x_ch13_436-475.indd Page 460 26/11/10 2:24 PM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile www.downloadslide.com 460 Chapter 13 Motivation, Teaching, and Learning FIGURE 13.5 STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIONS OF TEACHERS WHO CARE Teachers who care Teaching behaviors Makes an effort to make class interesting; teaches in a special way Teaches in a boring way, gets off-task, teaches while students aren’t paying attention Communication style Talks to me, pays attention, asks questions, listens Ignores, interrupts, screams, yells Equitable treatment and respect Is honest and fair, keeps promises, trusts me, tells the truth Embarrasses, insults Concern about individuals Asks what’s wrong, talks to me about my problems, acts as a friend, asks when I need help, takes time to make sure I understand, calls on me Forgets name, does nothing when I something wrong, doesn’t explain things or answer questions, doesn’t try to help me What role teachers play in students’ motivation? RESEARCH THROUGH THE EYES OF STUDENTS “You Always Manage to Cheer Us Up” I know our science class sometimes is obnoxious and negative but we really appreciate you You always manage to cheer us up and treat us like your kids That shows how much you care about us If you hadn’t been there for me like you were, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now Good luck with all of your other students and I hope they learn as much as I have I’ll miss you next year Hope to see you around Letter from Jennifer to William Williford, Her Middle School Science Teacher, Perry, Georgia Teachers who not care have found that effective, engaging teachers not only provide support for students to make good progress, but encourage students to become selfregulated achievers (Pressley & others, 2007a,b) The encouragement takes place in a very positive environment, one in which students are constantly being guided to become motivated to try hard and develop self-efficacy A recent study revealed that instructional and socioemotional support (as exemplified in attending to students’ interest and initiative, providing appropriately challenging learning opportunities, and creating positive social relationships) were linked to first-grade students’ achievement (as reflected in meeting reading and math academic standards) (Perry, Donohue, & Weinstein, 2007) Many children who not well in school consistently have negative interactions with their teachers (Stipek, 2002) They are frequently in trouble for not completing assignments, not paying attention, goofing off, or acting out In many cases, they deserve to be criticized and disciplined, but too often the classroom becomes a highly unpleasant place for them Researchers have found that students who feel they have supportive, caring teachers are more strongly motivated to engage in academic work than students with unsupportive, uncaring teachers (Wentzel, 2009, 2010) One researcher examined students’ views of the qualities of good relationships with a teacher by asking middle school students questions such as how they knew a teacher cared about them (Wentzel, 1997) As shown in Figure 13.5, students had favorable impressions of teachers who were attentive to them as human beings Interestingly, students also considered teachers’ instructional behaviors in evaluating how much their teachers cared about them The students said that teachers convey that they care about their students when they make serious efforts to promote learning and have appropriately high standards Students’ motivation is optimized when teachers provide them with challenging tasks in a mastery-oriented environment that includes good emotional and cognitive support, meaningful and interesting material to learn and master, and sufficient support for autonomy and initiative (Wentzel, 2009) Many researchers conclude that when academic work is meaningful, it sustains students’ attention and interest, engages them in learning, and reduces the likelihood that students will feel alienated from school (Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Kempler, 2006) Also, as we saw in our discussion of Bandura’s ideas on self-efficacy earlier in the chapter, the motivation and achievement climate of the entire school affects students’ motivation Schools with high expectations and academic standards, as well as academic and emotional support for students, often have students who are motivated to achieve (Reksten, 2009) ... ed., 2010) He has published extensively in leading educational journals, including Educational Measurement, Educational Psychology, American Educational Research Journal, and Psychological Measurement... /Volumes/208/MHSF222/san7878x_disk1of1/007337878x/san7878x_pagefile Contents Preface xxi C H A P T E R Educational Psychology: A Tool for Effective Teaching Exploring Educational Psychology Historical Background Teaching: Art and Science... John W Educational psychology / John Santrock — 5th ed p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN-13: 978-0-07-337878-7 (alk paper) ISBN-10: 0-07-337878-X (alk paper) Educational psychology