"The Magic of Learning": Locus of Control, Self-Efficacy, and Self- Determination in Alignment to Prompt Student Engagement
“When the teacher says, I am the one that makes learning possible in the classroom and I am committed to make it happen. And the student says, I will do everything that I can to learn. I am ready to learn. That is when the magic of learning really happens” (Johnson, 2011). In the above quote, the importance of teacher-student interaction and accountability are highlighted. Specifically, in a classroom setting, the teacher and students have fundamental roles to play in the teaching and learning process. In addition, both have essential motivational needs that needs to be met. If both parties find their motivational levels and actions in sync, then meaningful and engaged learning can occur. This week’s readings seem tailor-made to the sentiments expressed by Ben Johnson regarding dynamic teacher-student interaction and the teaching and learning process. Specifically, the three motivational concepts which I believe can positively impact teaching and learning outcomes as well as promote student engagement include locus of control, self-efficacy, and self-determination.
Locus of Control
James Neill’s, What is Locus Control presents readers with the theoretical concept of locus control which refers to “an individual’s perception about the underlying main cause of events in his/her life” (2006, para. 2). In other words, it is the personal belief that individuals have about seeing themselves as in control of their own future and/or luck. Locus of control has two distinct subdivisions: external (individual behavior is guided by external forces) and internal (individual behavior is guided by the student’s personal decisions and efforts). For low-achieving and high risk students, promoting student awareness of internal locus control with classroom and/or homework assignments might be an effective strategy for fostering student engagement and feelings of satisfaction. For example, if a homework assignment requires students to write a brief essay or reaction paper, providing students with the option to submit additional supplementary work that demonstrates their learning of a task such as a conceptual map, picture/drawing, storyboard, flash/YouTube video, or PowerPoint presentation could be interesting ways for students to demonstrate internal locus of control.
Self-Efficacy
Albert Bandura’s (1994) Self-Efficacy speaks to the importance of encouraging students to be aware of their own capabilities to master academic content and complete classroom tasks. For students with low self-efficacy - self-doubt, fear, and anxiety seem to be their constant companion (Affective Processes section, para 1-9); thus, to counteract the above affective elements and promote self – efficacy within low achieving, struggling students, teachers might do the following: Plan moderately-challenging tasks; use peer models; teach specific learning strategies; capitalize on students’ choice and interests; allow students to make their own choices; encourage students to try; give frequent, focused feedback, encourage, accurate attributions (Margolis, H. & McCabe, P.P.,2006). In terms of the classroom environment and structure, Bandura seemingly advocates an equitable classroom as oppose to one grounded in a competitive paradigm. He encourages teachers to adopt “ cooperative learning structures, in which students work together and help one another” which lead student to more positive self-evaluations of capability and higher academic attainment than do individualistic or competitive ones (School as an Agency for Cultivating Cognitive self-Efficacy section, para 5).
Self-Determination
Self – Determination Theory (SDT) is a “meta-theory for framing motivational studies, a formal theory that defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic sources of motivation, and a description of the respective roles of intrinsic and types of extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences” (2008, Self-determination theory, Overview section, para 1). This meta- theory consists of five mini-theories that address either motivational or personality elements: Cognitive Evaluation Theory; Organismic Integration Theory; Causality Orientation Theory, Basic Psychological Needs Theory, and Goals Contents Theory.
SDT manifests itself in the classroom environment via teachers adopting an autonomy - supportive motivating style (Reeve & Hausic, 2009). Teachers who have this type of style are “responsive (e.g.spend time listening), supportive (e.g. praise the quality of performance), flexible (e.g. give students time to work in their own way), and motivate through interest (e.g. support intrinsic motivation)” (Reeve, 2002, p. 186). Students in classrooms taught by autonomy-supportive teachers "experience an impressive and meaningful range of positive educational outcomes, including greater perceived competence, higher mastery motivation, enhanced creativity, a preference for optimal challenge over easy success, increased conceptual understanding, active and deeper information processing, greater engagement, positive emotionality, higher intrinsic motivation, enhanced well-being, better academic performance, and academic persistence rather than dropping out of school" (Reeve, 2006, p. 228).
Student Engagement
Student engagement in classroom activities refers to"the intensity and emotional quality of students' involvement during learning. It features both behavioral and emotional aspects" (Reeve, 2002, p. 194).
Behaviors during learning Emotions during learning
* Attention * Interest (vs. Boredom)
* Effort * Enjoyment
* Participation * Enthusiasm
* Persistence * (Lack of) Anxiety or Anger
At the secondary school level, the alignment of locus of control, self-efficacy and self-determination can promote active student engagement in classroom activities because these motivational concept see empowering students' beliefs in their own capabilities and sense of agency as vitally important and essential to the learning process.
This weeks blog posting instruction asked us to discuss how this week's motivational concepts could inform either our current or future practice. Although, presently I am not a teacher, I do plan to teach adult online students in the future, so I would say that the motivational concepts that I outlined above would can stand in alignment and support of Tinto's (2011) integration theory which is the dominant and leading theoretical model for explaining how to help student persistence and achieve degree attainment at the post-secondary school level. Specifically, students must undergo academic and social integration in order to succeed in a college/university setting. Academic integration involves students adhering to and following up on all the various rules, regulations, and requirements given to them in their academic classes and select degree program. Social integration involves students seeking out various ways to interact with their fellow peers, teachers/administrators, and support staff on their school campus. For all of the above to occur students would need to have a strong sense of agency and belief in own abilities as a result of having adequate locus of control, self-efficacy, and self-determination. For students who fall short in any of the above areas, Tinto recommends students seek additional support from their peers, teachers, and advising (academic & counseling) staff.
For myself, I plan to design my online courses with motivational elements within the course assignments and online discussion board platform to promote student engagement and active, meaningful learning. The ARCS model is a great foundational instructional design model because it focuses on individual learner characteristics. Yet, I think an additional viable instructional design model that I would like to explore further is the MOM for Performance SUCCESS. Hardre (2009) states that (1). "Motivation is particularly crucial in adult learning because a higher degree of autonomy is desirable and appropriate for adults" (p. 5). MOM takes into account the motivational needs for both adult learners and human performance professionals. (2). MOM is "intended for adaptive implementation across a variety of environment and design contexts and for use with any model of design" (p. 6). This is a great model feature because many online instructors have not only academic/educational responsibilities, but also do consulting work in a variety of fields such as business, health, and government agencies. Since MOM is adaptive, it would allow me to do instructional design work in a number of varying settings.
References
(2008). Self-determination theory: An approach to human motivation & personality Retrieved from http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/theory.php
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V.S. Ramachaudran (ED.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 71-81). New York: Academic press. (Reprint in H. Friedman [Ed.], Encyclopedia of mental health. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998).
Johnson, B. (2011). Student commitment depends on teacher commitment [Web log]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-commitment-depends-on-teachers-ben-johnson
Margolis, H. & McCabeIntervention in school and clinic, 41(4), 218-227.
Reeve, J. (2002). Self-determination theory applied to educational settings. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 183-203). Rochester, NY: University Of Rochester Press.
Reeve, J. (2006). Teachers as facilitators: What autonomy-supportive teachers do and why their students benefit. Elementary school journal, 106, 225-236.
Reeve, J., & Halusic, M. (2009). How k-12 teachers can put self-determination theory principles into practice. Theory and research in education, 7, 145-154.
Tinto, V. (2011). A theory of individual departure from institutions of higher education. HED 700: Enhancing student success in higher education, (class handout), 1-47.
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Aja,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this great overview of the theories we read about! In thinking about how these new theories inform our teaching, I would say the key for me is to never be satisfied. At this point I am beginning to teach some of the same courses for the 3rd or 4th time, and thankfully that means a lot of the prep work for lectures and assignments is already done. However, I still need to make sure that everything I use is relevant to the students in my class at the current moment, in order to elicit those motivated behaviors and emotions you described. In order to do so, I have to be aware of the needs and interests of my students each semester, and spend time tailoring my pre-made materials to suit these needs and interests. It sounds easy, but I have found it a bit challenging as I juggle the variety in needs/interests of SU undergrads! But this is the part of the teaching experience that is enjoyable to me, because it prevents boredom and disinterest on my end!
I am a bit curious about how online teaching differs from classroom teacher in the teacher's eyes. Aja - what classes/topics are you hoping to teach online?
Aja, I like what you wrote about concerning Locus of Control and specifically, internal locus of control; students have fundamental roles to play in the classroom and teachers have fundamental roles to play in the classroom setting to work as a team in the learning process. My students, on the last day of summer school, for this week, matched what you wrote for student engagement (or is it really motivation?) (Reeve, 2002, p.194). Their behavior during learning was having attention, effort, participation, and persistence. Their emotions during learning were interest, enjoyment, enthusiasm, and lack of anger. By the end of class, they were tired and had given me all they could give me. I finished the content I had planned and then stopped. I only had about 2 minutes of down time, but they had earned it. The class and I were a team and learning took place. They respected me and I respected them. A win win team effort.
ReplyDeleteIn Bandura's (1994) Self-Efficacy, you mention the importance of encouraging students to be aware of their own capabilities to master academic content and complete classroom tasks. In my school district, we have an alternative school called "The Big Picture". The students enrolled in this school simply could not be successful in a traditional school setting. Rather than this school being a punishment, it is a promoter of self-efficacy. You write of (Margolis & McCabe, 2006) as to how teachers can counter-act low efficacy within low achieving, struggling students by planning moderately-challenging tasks; using peer models; teach specific learning strategies; capitalize on student' choice and interests; allow students to make their own attributions. This school is completely set up to follow all of these suggestions. Bandura (1994) writes that a third way of strengthening people's beliefs that they have what it takes to succeed is social persuasion. The students in The Big Picture school are daily persuaded verbally that they possess the capabilities to master given activities. They also shadow at least one day during the week individuals and/or business in which they have a personal interest. This allows them to promote development of skills and a greater sense of personal efficacy. Bandura (1994) writes that, "It is more difficult to instill high beliefs of personal efficacy by social persuasion alone than to undermine it." Since the school is a 4-year alternative high school, progress in student's belief's in their capabilities is observed each year the students stay in the program.
Hi Jessica:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your return blog posting. I agree with you that keeping things fresh, meaningful and relevant are key ingredients for sustaining student interest. Yin and Professor Pusch talked about differentiated instruction in Mary's blog. I am going to have to investigate this topic further because I think it might hold some important insights and strategies for tailoring instructional materials to the individual needs and interests of students.
I must admit that pretty much the majority of the readings in this class have been new to me and I have had to do a lot of extra background reading to adequately orient myself to some of the reading assignments. Yet despite the heavy reading, I am so glad that I have taken this course because I have learned so much about student motivation. I believe that if one is going to go into the teaching profession, then one has to have a basic understanding of students, so that when one encounters a particular type of student behavior, one can better understand the motivational standpoint of the student.
Finally, time is a big concern on both the secondary and post-secondary level. Sarah, in her blog posting talked about time release. It seems that many secondary school districts do not give their teachers adequate time to engage in the redesigning of lesson plans /instructional units. I think it is just amazing that you are teaching and taking classes. As a graduate administrator here at SU, I am currently feeling the burn because new graduate students are staring to arrive on SU campus, the international students are beginning to start their TA orientation and Dean Langford has requested a series of reports from my academic department which I am now working hard to complete.
I think think that the academic, social, and motivational concerns are greater in online classes than in traditional face-to-face classes. Researchers have done studies that have shown that some studies have found the online experience to be very cold and isolating; consequently, these students tend to withdraw from their online classes and/or degree program. I plan to be an online history and math instructor.
Best,
~Aja
Hi Denise:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your return blog comments. I am so glad that your summer school experience ended well. I know that you had some rough moments during the summer, but you seemingly handled it all well. Do you think you will teach summer school again in 2012?
The Big Picture school sounds absolutely great! The students in this school seem to be getting enriched instruction. I wish more traditional secondary schools could incorporate some of the motivational strategies into their curriculum.
Best,
~Aja
Hello All,
ReplyDeleteCouple of comments. First, somewhere, someone asked about measures of observational measures of motivation. (oh wait, that was Mary. :-)) When doing qualitative research, one would be using interviews or observations of behaviors. Denise gives a perfect examples of some observations in her comment above. (of course in qualitative field notes the there would be a detailed description of what was going on. You would tie the behaviors to motivation constructs. Engagement could be linked to Attention in the ARCS model.)
But let's take an example from Locus of Control.
Locus of control “an individual’s perception about the underlying main cause of events in his/her life.” Through interviews you could use statements from students such as "It's out of my hands." Or "The teacher gave me this grade." versus "I earned this grade." etc.
Next: online teaching and learning. There is a fair amt of research on this. From the teaching perspective, online classes actually tend to take more time that face-to-face classes. While many faculty may think "hey! I don't need to go to the classroom, I can be anywhere! That sounds great!" True, however to engage with students takes more time online. Having a 'discussion' takes longer since there isn't that immediate response time. (of course one could do synchronous online learning, but then students are bounded again by time, and there are other issues around that technologically.) In a classroom, think of how much faster a discussion of the content of all your blog postings would be?
The other issue, related directly to motivation is the distancing issue (in past years I had an article on that. I will try and locate it and place it in the Enrichment folder). Online one has to work much harder to create a sense of community amongst students, getting everyone engaged. This can be done on online threaded discussions, but I myself like using blogs. Everyone posts much longer, more thought out comments then I see in threaded discussions, and I (and hopefully all of you) get a much better sense of who everyone is.
Also, online courses... and this is me... I feel I must check in just about every day. I may not add a comment everyday, but I check in and read what people have said. In face-to-face classes I find I don't have the class on my mind as much.
So those are some of my thoughts on the teaching side.
On the student side: there is the issue of distancing (lack of being connected to a classroom community). Personally, I think there are some students who aren't suited to online classes. It takes more motivation because there is that set meeting time where you must show up and sit glassy-eyed looking at someone pace back and forth lecturing away. (okay, I know not all college classes are like that. ;-) ) Years ago I decided to speak to undergrads taking online classes (okay, this was 7 yrs ago so the technology and times have changed). They signed up because they liked the idea of not going to class. However, for them, without the set meeting time of a class they tended to forget to check-in. They would end up with late or missing assignments. Students are used to a particular way of taking classes. Taking an online class means having to change ones strategies. (For example, I recommend that they set aside a specific time at least 3 or 4 times a week where they login and look at the course, as if it was lecture time.)
Back to those not suited to online classes. In thinking about this, there is likely a huge shift now more and more people (particularly youth and young adults) spend more and more time communicating via technology, that may change. That could be an interesting study… (BTW, I can come up with a ton of diss topics if anyone is looking for one. ;-))
Hey Aja, I've been out of the blog-reading loop -- internet has been on & off because of my hubby's PC -- down. But I'm catching up.
ReplyDeleteTransactional Distance is a concept in online learning that is much discussed. Michael Moore -- distance education scholar, not the other one, :) -- has this Theory of Transactional Distance. Check out: http://www.aged.tamu.edu/research/readings/Distance/1997MooreTransDistance.pdf
For me, online learning consumes more time than f2f learning. Likewise, I think online facilitation requires more effort to engage learners, and to narrow the transactional distance. As Moore says, "psychological and communications spaces between any one learner and that person's instructor are never exactly
the same" -- and it's the same principle with different instructors. As instructors/facilitators, we have to think of how best we can narrow this distance with the best strategies without burning and crashing. Somehow, we are living in a period when we have fewer resources to be effective instructors. So we have to deal with the additional stress of self-blame and guilt.
Back to online learning. No matter the medium though, I believe that it is the facilitator that makes the difference. To quote Scheuermann, Associate VP of Instructional Technology Support at Drexel U: "F2F vs. Online Learning is NOT the issue - it is simply not the venue that determines the meaningful learning experience. Instead, it is and always will be - the instructor/facilitator. -- A great teacher can make a bad (or mediocre) course great!" On the other hand, "a mediocre educator cannot make a great course - a great course."
Hi Professor Pusch & Yin:
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your very informative and detailed return comments. They are very much appreciated. I wanted to touch on the remarks that you both made about the time commitments for online teach being more than with F2F class instruction. I totally agree with both of you and adult education research findings also support your position. Online teaching does require more time commitment from an instructor because for him or her to promote an interesting and engaging online class, students must "feel" or be aware of the presence of the online instructor on three levels: cognitive, teaching and social. So in this course, students are aware of Yin and Professor Pusch through the return commentary that we receive on the blog, discussion board, and wiki postings. We have an enrichment folder to follow up on additional readings on topics that we expressed in interest in to either Yin or Dr. Pusch. Also, through external emails and telephone calls, some of us might have interacted with Dr. Pusch and/or Yin. Finally, we have been given three assignments for Dr. Pusch and Yin to assess where we stand in the learning process of some of the various motivational theories and concepts that we have been reading about throughout the summer. All of the above activities have resulted in a rich and deeply engaging online course which all of us are happy that we decided to register for during summer session II.
Best,
~Aja
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References
Garrison, D.R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. New York: Routledge Falmer.
Garrison, D.R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Fung, T.S. (2010). Exploring causal relationships among teaching, cognitive, and social presence: Student perceptions, of the community of inquiry framework. Internet and higher education, 13, 31-36.
Meyer, K.A., Bruwelheide, J., & Poulin, R. (2009). Why they stayed: Near-perfect retention in an online certification program in library media. Journal of asynchronous learning network, 13(2), 129-145.