It’s good to remember how frustrating learning can be. It’s even better when you experience the frustration firsthand.
Posts Tagged ‘self-efficacy’
Attitude Affects Learning
Posted Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerWe know that what students believe about themselves as learners makes a difference, but sometimes a specific example really makes the point. Here’s a study that does just that. It involved beginning students taking a general chemistry course. At the beginning of the course they took a Self-Concept Inventory designed for chemistry students. Its five scales measure, among other things, a chemistry self-concept, a mathematics self-concept, and an academic self-concept.
‘Help’ Sessions and Struggling Students
Posted Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerA recent study published in the Journal of College Science Teaching found that poor students did not attend optional help sessions scheduled just prior to three exams in an introductory biology course. I didn’t find the results surprising, and I’m thinking you won’t either. Typically it’s the best students who show up for review sessions [...]
Mastery and Performance Orientations
Posted Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 by Maryellen Weimer“Students with mastery orientation seek to improve their competence. Those with performance orientations seek to prove their competence.” (p. 122)
It’s a quote that succinctly captures how what students believe about themselves as learners affects how they approach learning. A mastery orientation means that students believe that they have some control over factors related to [...]
Reasons to Participate and Reasons Not to
Posted Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 by Maryellen Weimer
I’m still working on updating my resources on participation and discovering useful findings. Here’s a study where 10 sessions of 16 different classes were observed and the teacher-student interactions recorded. More than half the students in those classes did not participate in any of the 10 sessions observed.
In response to survey questions, students said [...]