Education 391 - Week of October 23rd
This week we begin to talk about motivation. I’m going to start posting course-related materials on this site, because it’s also a place where my students can give me anonymous feedback and suggestions about individual classes. And I hope they will.
One of the things I’ve been asked for is a set of “guiding questions” for the voluminous reading assigned each week. Here’s a first shot this, related to the readings for this week:
Guiding Questions for Chapter 10:
1. What basic assumptions underlie social cognitive theory?
2. What three types of variables influence each other according to social cognitive theory?
3. What is cognitive modeling, and why is this part of both cognitive psychology (a.k.a., information processing theory) and social cognitive theories?
4. What is students’ self-efficacy? How does it affect student learning? How can you enhance it?
5. Why does teacher self-efficacy matter for student learning?
6. What is self-regulation and how do you foster it?
7. What does it mean to “learn” something according to social cognitive theory?
Guiding Questions for Chapter 11:
1. How does motivation affect students’ learning and behavior?
2. What are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? What happens to each type of motivation across K-12?
3. What are the different theoretical perspectives on motivation, and what are the educational implications of each? You might find Table 11.1 especially helpful.
4. What are people’s basic psychological needs, and how might we as teachers fulfill those needs?
5. What is affect, and how is it related to motivation?
6. What causes anxiety and how does it affect learning?
7. Where are there differences by sociodemographic background (e.g., gender, race, SES) for motivation and affect?