Reflection Module 5

This week I came across the flow theory and topics of interest. Considering the term ‘flow’, I really like it. It is like when an individual is not stuck in the learning situation; accordingly, he or she has motivation to learn. When students know the objectives and status of what they are doing as well as are in the challenging condition, endeavor in learning is enhanced. However, I think this theory is only a part for the motivational models for there are many other elements to develop motivation. This theory focuses only on the state of individual being fully engaged in their action. The instructor will have to think further to keep learners motivated in the long run. Are more challenges, clear goals and feedback enough for learners to be motivated after present learning?

Speaking of interest, learning objectives of many instructions try to suit students’ personal interest. In the classroom, teachers should set some time to an autonomy atmosphere where students can select the materials or contents to match their interest. Teachers can ask students to do self-report of their interest at the beginning of the class or may check students’ interest by observation in some cases. However, what about students who don’t know what they are interested in or do not show any particular interest? There must be a kind of self-assessment questionnaire to help students explore their interests like the aptitude test which help students evaluate their domain skills. This might be done in the central hour such as counseling period and study skills period. The interest report of the students then is tallied and serves as a database for the teachers.

In a school I visited, they are famous for sports education. Students are exposed of a variety of sports in the first year of their junior high school and when they are in the second year, they select sports they want to study specifically. The bottom line is that in the first year, students might not know much about sports so the school supports them by giving them experiences on different types of sports but not in the extended learning. When they know what they like or are interested, they can choose for the next year to study further. I think this is a good idea to support students.

According to Krapp (1992), interaction of personal interest and situational interest produce the psychological state of interest in the individual. This sounds not easy to set the instruction to suit both kinds of interest. I will keep in mind here to at least find the common interest that is shared among students. A variety of activities and contents will also be the choice. The students will be interested in either one or another of resources and learning styles the class provides.

References:

Pintrich, P. R., & Schunk, D.H. (2002) Chapter 7. Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications. (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Merrill.

Susan O’Neill. 2011. Flow Theory and the Development of Musical Performance Skills. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40318998

Reflection Module 4

Locus of control is a personal perception about the underlying main causes of life events. The occurrences are believed to be caused by internal or external factors. Externals believe that the behavior is led by fate, luck and other external factors whereas internals believe that behavior is guided by personal efforts and decisions.  From the research about locus of control by Mamlin, Harris, & Case, 2001, older people and people in high-level of administration tend to have more of internal locus control. When designing instruction or training for these groups of people, we should create an autonomy environment in the instruction where learners have enough personal control. However, I will note here that the instructor should first analyze their learners’ competence and self-efficacy so that the instructional and motivational strategies do not mismatch learners’ personal experiences.

I think locus of control and self-efficacy are related in some ways. People with low sense of efficacy may think their success derives from fate. In the classroom, the self-perception has an impact on students’ motivation to learn. If the students think that they cannot do, they will not want to try. This point reminds me of failure-oriented people. Motivation to learn will be worse if the students avoid failure and also have low self-efficacy. Family background is an influence on the learners’ personal point of view on themselves. Past experience of students might be filled with mistakes and errors. Individual difference is getting complicated.

Nonetheless, I do believe that the instructor can at least do something to help uplift students’ self-efficacy or self-perception on competence. Modeling, corrective feedback, skill matching activity can be elements in the lesson. If the students see that other friends can do, they will be motivated to try. If the students see that other friends cannot do and the teacher gives corrective feedback with chance, they will not fear of failure but try harder. The activities in the class can be differentiated to match students’ abilities. Somehow the activities must not be too easy to overcome and must be challenging in a way. According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy requires experiencing through perseverant effort. How the teachers act towards students and classroom supportive environment will increase self-efficacy in students. The learning environment should structure self-comparison and not put emphasis on social comparison.

The so-called mastery aids conducted by the psychologists are applicable in classrooms in some ways. We can design the instruction to help learners gradually develop a sense of coping efficacy like the psychologists do with people with deficient coping performance. The idea of subtasks, working with an expert (competent peer or teacher), and short time exercise are activities in the classroom that imitate psychological therapy.  

Coming to people’s self-efficacy during transit to adulthood, I consider high-school activities in the school can be organized for students. Not only classroom activities but also extra-curricular activities do splash experiences to our students. Students can form their sense of self-efficacy strongly if they pass a lot of activities that demand problem-solving skills and social skills. Clubs, sports day, social events and many other school activities are the path to the real world when they enter adulthood. I always support students to join extra activities outside the classroom.

From these Module 4 readings, we found another motivation model. It is MOM the Motivating Opportunities Model developed by Patricia L. Hardre. The author combines main motivational theories and principles and develops them into 7 features for designers to refer to when creating instructions. The model is focused on the design of the instruction rather than the learner point of view. I feel thankful for such a ready-made set of knowledge for the profession of instructional designers and human performance technologists. The 7 features of the model are represented in mnemonic SUCCESS. S stands for situational, U for utilization, C for competence, C for contents, E for emotional, S for social and S for systemic. Every component is accompanied by design questions and motivational implications. The instructors can use this model as a checklist when designing motivational elements in their instructions.

References:

James Neill, What is Locus of Control?, 2006.

Albert Bandura. Self-Efficacy. Stanford University http://des.emory.edu/mfp/BanEncy.html July 2012

Patricia L. Hardre. The Motivating Opportunities Model for Performance SUCCESS: Design, Development, and Instructional Implications. Performance Improvement Quarterly; 2009; 22, 1: ProQuest Central. Pg.5

Reflection Module 3

The reflection from Module 3 readings on my practice includes:

1. When reprimanding students, I will avoid talking too much about grades, discipline or punishment. I will try to lay out something about students’ goals or consequences of their misbehavior. This practice aims to help students think about intrinsic motivation not just extrinsic motivation.
2. I would like to discuss with students about striving for success. I like the idea that the school should be in an environment which is not an ability game. The classroom is not a place to win points or overcome peers. Students should be instilled to think that success is when they can master skills or apply knowledge. The idea shall be dispersed to other teachers when managing their classrooms.
3. Teachers should not push students with a sense of competitiveness too much. In such an environment of competition, students’ relationship among themselves may lead to be against sharing and cooperation. Students must learn to work in teams, getting chances to be leaders, fellows and followers. This will help enhance their EQ. From many researches from my previous study, people who have a high degree of EQ tend to be successful in their careers. This is because they are capable of people skills also meaning can be good members of the team.

          I’m interested in the research done by Covington & Teel 1996, Teel et al
          1994 in which they study about the equity paradigm using a simple rule: “The
          better the grade students wanted, the more credit they had to earn, irrespective
          of how well others were doing.” I am in favor of the term ‘noncompetitive
          success.’

    4.  When having a chance to discipline students, I will indicate failure is nothing 
         to fear. Dare to learn, dare to perform and accept it. If the students choose to do
         only simple things just because to avoid failure, they won’t learn as much as
         they should. However, teachers have a great role to support this practice.
         Teachers should give corrective feedbacks and praise students when proper.

    5. According to the Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET), intrinsic motivation is
        enhanced by the feelings of competence and a sense of autonomy. At this point,
        to design the lesson, we can consider Kelller’s ARCS model regarding the
        strategies to assure students of their competence. This can be done by explicitly
        stating the requirements of the course so that students know what is expected
        from them. Then, the self-perception of competence is facilitated. In view of 
        autonomy, Keller’ ARCS model can be related also in terms of the learner 
        control. Teachers may design the lesson with choices or opportunities such as
        letting students select their topic of interest or their method of work presentation.
        However, the characteristics of tasks which do not hold individual intrinsic
        interest, we will have to consider using extrinsic motivation.

References:
Goal Theory, Motivation, and School Achievement: An Integrative Review. Martin V. Convington. 2000. California.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci. 2000. New York.

Flipped Classroom and Motivational Components (3)

A Critique of Flipped Classroom Video

5 selected videos include

1. Geometry: 4-4 Proving Triangles Congruent
2. History: The Black Plague
3. Descriptive Writing (Source: Troy Cockrum > English > Page 1)
4. Weather_Climate_and El Nino ( Source: Earth Science (103) > Page 1)
5. Nucleus Structure (Source: Brian Bennett > Cells (6) > Page 1)

The critique of the selections will be outlined through each category of Keller’s ARCS Model. The videos will be referred to in this following critique according to the subject areas which are 1) Geometry 2) History 3) English 4) Earth Science and 5) Biology.

1. Attention (A)

None of the instructions selected has clear evidence of attention capture at the very start of their lessons. History video begins with 3 pictures of organisms that affected the plague which can attract attention to a certain level but they are not very much striking. The Earth Science video begins with the question ‘How does El Nino affect climate and weather?’ It somewhat activates curiosity but is not that intriguing.
Some teachers use pen tool while they are lecturing. This helps add more movement in the instruction rather than just present plain information. Pen tool is used in the videos Geometry, Earth Science and Biology whereas English shows only a plain presentation.

Another attention-getting strategy that is different in each video is teachers’ tone of voice. Earth science teacher has the most varying tone of voice showing that the instruction very much welcomes the audiences. In the Geometry lesson, the teachers’ explanation is in a monotone style.
One element of humor is found in Biology video which the teacher says ‘cells commit suicide’ In other videos, the instructor’s style shows no sense of humor.
A bite of variability in format of teaching is only seen in Earth Science video. Other videos are embedded in the teacher’s explanation. This can help maintain students’ attention by not just listening to the instructor only.

2. Relevance (R)

None of the instructions clearly states why students have to study their lessons and how the contents relate to students’ life or goals. The English teacher says that the students can use descriptive writing in other pieces of writing but does not elaborate the point. The mathematics teacher points out that the lesson is prerequisite to other upcoming lessons; however, this is stated at the end of the lesson. It does not set forth goals of learning at the beginning. The biology teacher touches a bit of relevance of learners’ existing skills while the others do not. He mentioned about functions of cells previously learnt and today’s topic is control which is one function of cells.

3. Confidence (C)

Every instruction informs neither the requirements for success nor the evaluative criteria of the lesson. Some of them only outline the contents to be taught. All teachers do not state the skills or knowledge students will gain from their lessons.
Only the Geometry instruction provides exercise at the end of the instruction but very few. Students are not given the opportunities for success by showing their skills according to videos. However, in perspective of flipped classroom where application or task performance is mostly in the class, it can be assumed that students will have opportunities to apply their skills learnt in class. Confidence then is probably activated in class time not during self-paced period.

4. Satisfaction (S)

The meaningful tasks for students to exercise are not presented in any of the video instructions. Satisfaction component is not activated in any of the lessons selected. As stated above in the Confidence component, in flipped classroom teachers are likely to assign tasks for application in class time. Success from real-world problem solving and reinforcement from teachers which support satisfaction tend to be presented there in class time.

Flipped Classroom and Motivation Components (2)

Review of Flipped Classroom Video

1. Grade 11 English Lesson Adjectives

Attention The lesson does not have an element to grab students’ attention both in terms of perceptual and inquiry arousal. Teacher’s explanation is monotone so it does not support the point of maintaining attention. Interesting graphics can also be put in the presentation to make it more appealing.
Relevance Only the subject matters are informed in the objectives. Teacher does not relate the objectives of the unit to students’ goals and needs in real life.
Confidence The objectives of the lesson do not well contribute to expectancy for success. The presentation is that ‘we are going to learn…’ It will be better to say ‘you will be able to …’ to form confidence in students at the very start.
Satisfaction Some more questions/tests should be added at the end of the lesson to provide opportunities to exercise their newly-acquired knowledge. The one given in the lesson is too little and does not quite relate to real world situation. It makes sense in view of grammar but not in daily life situation. If the teacher is going to provide more drills in class, that will be good. Somehow more questions right after the lesson will be fresher for learners to touch the meaningful element of the lesson and will be motivated for further discussion or exploration.

2.Geometry: 4-3 Congruent Triangles

Attention The video clearly shows visual representations of congruent triangles. The pen tool accompanies the explanation so it is visually attractive.  However, the teacher’s tone of voice is monotone, showing no variability in fact description.
Relevance The teacher does not mention previously learnt units to make connections of contents. Also, the video jumps into the content of mathematics without informing any usefulness of the lesson to students’ life.
Confidence The teacher does not express any expectations of the unit or in other words, learning goals are not informed. However, there is exercise for student to do at the end supporting opportunities for success.
Satisfaction The exercise at the end is pure mathematics. It is not related to the realistic setting. The questions do not give a sense of satisfaction to students because students do not have a chance to solve realistic problem.

3. Geometry: 4-4 Proving Triangles Congruent

Attention There are few attention-grabbing elements in the lesson namely clear visual representation of fact presentation and pen tool which helps maintain attention. Students can follow the instruction easily while the pen is moving along the explanation.  Regarding the teacher’s tone of voice, it is monotone showing no variability in fact description.
RelevanceThe teacher pointed out at the end of the lesson that the contents will be used for the entire year so the contents are prerequisite to other future contents. This should have been stated at the beginning of the lesson so that students know why they have to study. It would be better if the teacher can inform the usefulness of the lesson in their future careers or real life application.
Confidence The instruction does not state learning requirements so students have no direction at the beginning about their competence to success. There is one question left for students to apply the knowledge learnt at the end of the lesson. This is an opportunity for students to show their ability and gain belief in their competence but it is too little. (I hope that there will more exercise following in the class.)
Satisfaction The lesson does not enhance satisfaction as it does not provide any opportunities for students to apply skills related to their real life. Also, students’ accomplishments are not seen in the video so satisfaction element cannot be traced.

4.History: The Black Plague

AttentionPictures of 3 critical organisms that affected the plague are presented at the beginning of the video. This can be considered an element to activate curiosity to learn more about the plague.
RelevanceThe contents of the unit show only the fact of the plague but do not have any contents showing relevance to learners’ life and importance of the information.
Confidence The video shows the outline of the instruction but does not state the expectation of the unit on students. In this case, students will not have a clear understanding of what they have to do after learning the unit so frustration to be successful or fail might occur. Meaningful tasks are not presented for learner to show their ability to gain a sense of success.
Satisfaction The meaningful application exercise is not presented in the lesson. Learners will not gain satisfaction because they do not have a chance to overcome the real-world problems. Also, students’ accomplishments are not seen in the video so satisfaction element cannot be traced.

Flipped Classroom and Motivation Components (1)

Brief Description of Flipped Classroom Model

The flipped classroom is where students spend out of class time studying lessons through different types of technological-media and spend in class time doing assignments, or hands-on activities. Students can bring in questions from the lessons learnt on their own to class to ask the teacher. In class time, students do collaborative works, concept mastery exercises, labs, etc. while the teacher acts as a facilitator giving onsite feedbacks and consults students as well as formatively assess students’ progress on their learning. Technological media used can be in a variety of forms depending on the teacher’s judgment of appropriateness to their class.  Time in class is conducive to differentiated learning which teachers can divide students in groups of interests or abilities and are able to assist students on an individual basis.

Motivational Strategies That Can Be Used in a Flipped Classroom and Its Relation to Keller’s ARCS Model

• Teacher can capture students’ interest by creating curiosity from perceptual or inquiry arousal in order to create knowledge-seeking behavior. This can be done either in class time or at the beginning of the technological media used. After the students are instilled with the knowledge-seeking behavior, it is a good start for them to be self-directed learners and study at their own pace in non-class time. This strategy is categorized in Attention (A) in Keller’s ARCS Model.
• During the class period which students work on assignments or perform tasks, teacher can design the format of classroom base on students’ personal motives. Teacher may set up a combination of cooperative group work and individual competitive environment to suit the needs of both students whose needs are for affiliation and for achievement. This strategy is categorized in Relevance (R) in Keller’s ARCS Model. Teaching style and students’ motives are relevant to support motivation to learn.
• Students who finish work first can help teacher facilitate the class. This is to set the role model for other students in class and also to match learners’ motive by providing appropriate responsibilities. This strategy is categorized in Relevance (R) in Keller’s ARCS Model in the part of motive matching.
• As one of the main components of the flipped classroom is technology, teacher should support students’ confidence in using technology by showing to students clearly how to operate the technology. This is to avoid frustration caused by lack of skills in technology. This strategy supports Confidence (C) in Keller’s ARCS Model. Students will have more confidence to success without any technological barrier.
• Teacher establishes expectancy for students by explaining goals, requirements, evaluative criteria and most importantly the format of study (flipped class) in the unit. This is to create confidence for success as students know what are expected from them. This strategy then falls on the Confidence (C) component in Keller’s ARCS Model.
• Students can select technology media that they feel comfortable to learn. The instruction should provide some forms of media such as podcasts, YouTube, contents on flash drive, and DVD. Students then have confidence and know that they can be successful upon their abilities on the use of media. Students’ choice supports the Confidence (C) in Keller’s ARCS Model.
  
• In flipped classroom where students spend lots of application time with teacher, it is very conducive for teacher to give students feedback on their work and learning progress. Receiving the corrective feedback, students learn from their mistakes and realize that ability is something changeable. Also, the teacher can give attributional feedback to reinforce relationship of students’ success and their ability. Giving feedback will enhance confidence in students when they perform any tasks. They will not be afraid of mistakes. This strategy then falls on the Confidence (C) component in Keller’s ARCS Model.
  
• Teacher designs task for students to use a newly acquired skills to solve a realistic problems. This will make students satisfied with their ability to solve real-world problem.  The strategy is then part of Satisfaction (S) in Keller’s ARCS Model.

Module 2 Reflection

Speaking of teaching in the technology-mediated setting, I agree with John Keller (1999) that it is more challenging for teachers to teach in the technology-based instruction era than in the traditional classroom. It is true that in the technology-mediated setting, it is convenient for students to keep up with their work and study at their own pace (in case of no technological problems) but how can we motivate them to be a self-directed learner? A guidance teacher and I once did a trial lesson using Facebook as a media of teaching Careers in grade 7. At first students seemed excited that they could use Facebook to post their work and to interact with teachers and friends on this online open space. The group posted the information about their careers of interest on Facebook on the week assigned. The information was on Facebook every week as scheduled but the amount of discussion was very low. I didn’t think it was a technological problem or accessibility because we did ask the students before. Every one could access the internet from home and knew how to operate Facebook. And we tried to apply all instructional strategies in the lesson. Somehow, after reading the research “The Effects of Technology-Mediated Instructional Strategies on Motivation, Performance, and Self-Directed Learning” by Donna M. Gabrielle, I think that my instruction can be improved by adding motivational strategies.

Next point from the reading to my experience is about expectancy. One day when I talked with two senior high students, they mentioned about one math teacher. They told me that the teacher always began the lessons with very difficult questions. They felt like they did not want to continue studying anymore. At that time I thought that the teacher may have wanted to draw students’ attention by giving challenging problems. However, after coming across the reading about expectancy-value model, this instructional strategy can cause the opposite result. From experiencing the difficult questions at the beginning of class, it can cause anxiety and fear in students. Students’ self-perception of competence drops and it will affect their achievement behavior. In this case, it can be worse if the teacher does not present any value of the lesson to students.

In some cases where students don’t see value in the content of the subject, we can motivate them in terms of skills to be gained from studying this subject. For example, some high school students don’t pay attention to math class, because they will not use it for their university entrance exam and will not study mathematics in the university level. They prefer to study in the School of Arts or Languages which mathematics course is not required. Motivation enhancement can be telling them about critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills they will gain from studying mathematics. These skills can be applied to many situations in their life. I think this will help increase their perception of values in learning mathematics to some point.

It is interesting to me that from some researches (e.g. Eccles, 1993; Eccles et 1998), students’ perception of competence dropped greatly when they are crossing from primary to junior high school.  This reminds me of phone calls from parents every year about their kids who just start their first year in junior high. The parents are worried about their kids’ study and the decline of grades. Even the students themselves ask me why their grades decrease from when they were in primary. Some kids also develop some negative study habits when they grow up. Perception of competence might play an important role on these cases and then it is worth to do further research in my school context. If the result repeats other researches, the school can find the way to increase students’ perception of their competence and we can see subsequent students’ achievement. 

References:

Pintrich, P.R. & Schunk, D.H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Merrill.

Donna M. Gabrielle. The Effects of Technology-Mediated Strategies on Motivation, Performance and Self-Directed Learning. Florida, USA.