Social Cognitive Theory

Chapter 9: Summary
Social Cognitive Theory (social learning theory)- learning was based on the premise that neither spontaneous behavior nor reinforcement was necessary for learning to occur; new behaviors could also be learned by observing and imitating a model; this theory incorporate elements of both operant conditioning and information processing, and emphasized how behavioral and personal factors interact with the social setting in which the behavior occurs

Albert Bandura is generally considered the driving force behind social cognitive theory. He explains how learning results from interactions among 3 factors:

1. personal characteristics such as the various cognitive processes from information processing, self-perceptions, and emotional states
2. behavioral patterns
3. the social environment such as interactions with others

Triadic reciprocal causation- the process of interaction among these 3 elements; one's internal processes, behavior, ans social environment can affect one another to produce learning.

Bandura was interested in using social cognitive theory to describe how people become self-controlled and self-regulated learners.

The Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model: 3 elements

1. Personal characteristics- goals, anxiety, understanding of one's own cognitive processes such as planning and monitoring in learning, and self-efficacy
2. Behavioral patterns- self-observation, self-evaluation, creating productive study environments, and making changes in behavior to overcome or reduce perceptions of low self-efficacy, anxiety, and ineffective learning strategies
3. Environmental factors- individual's social and physical environment

Self-Control, Self-Regulation, and Self-Efficacy

1. Self-control- the ability to control one's actions in the absence of external reinforcement or punishment
2. Self-regulation- the consistent and appropriate application of self-control skills to new situations; self-regulating individuals set their own performance standards, evaluate the quality of their performance, and reinforce themselves when their performance meets or exceeds their internal standards
3. Self-regulation is both a cyclical and a dynamic process. Cyclical because the results of prior performance are used to guide and refine current efforts. Dynamic because personal, behavioral, and environmental factors are constantly changing.
4. Self-regulation is important because students are expected to become increasingly independent learners as they progress through school
5. Self-efficacy- how capable or prepared we believe we are to handle particular kinds of tasks; it helps influence whether people think optimistically or pessimistically
6. Students who believe they are capable of successfully performing a task are more likely than students with low levels of self-efficacy to use such self-regulating skills as concentrating on the task, creating strategies, using appropriate tactics, managing time effectively, monitoring their own performance, and making whatever adjustments are necessary to improve their future learning efforts.
7. Factors that affect self-efficacy: performance accomplishments, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal, adn vicarious experiences.
8. Types of behaviors affected by self-efficacy: selection processes (the way the person goes about selecting goals and activities), cognitive processes (using higher level thought processes), motivational processes (perseverance), and affective processes (emotions)

3 categories of self-regulatory processes: forethought processes, performance processes, and self-reflection

Forethought Phase: goal setting, strategic planning to achieve those goals, and motivational beliefs

Developmental Limitations in the forethought phase (younger children are more likely to be limited on these things than older children)

• attend to a model, such as a teacher, for long periods of time
• distinguish relevant model behaviors and verbalizations from less relevant ones
• encode a model's behavior as generalized verbal guidelines
• formulate and maintain well-defined long-term goals

Performance Phase: focus on task, process information meaningfully, and self-monitor

Developmental limitations in the performance phase (primary grade children will be more limited in these areas):

• ignore both external and internal distractions (such as self-doubts and thoughts of prior difficulties)
• perform the steps of a task more slowly and deliberately in order to avoid making mistakes
• provide themselves with verbal reminders of the steps needed to carry out a task
• select appropriate tactics for a particular task

Self-reflection phase: evaluate their performance, make appropriate attributions for success and failure, and reinforce themselves (self-satisfaction and adaptive inferences)

4 ways to self-evaluate:

1. students can adopt what is called a mastery criterion
2. students can compare their current performance against their own previous performance
3. students can use a normative standard
4. students can use a collaborative standard

Developmental limitations for the self-reflection phase (primary grade children may be more limited in these areas):

• compare themselves to peers as a basis for judging their own capabilities
• make appropriate attributions for their successes and failures
• accurately assess the leve of their own capabilities

Helping students become self-regulated learners

Self-regulating learning: thoughts, feelings, and actions purposely generated and controlled to maximize a learning outcome (may also be called self-directed, autonomous, or strategic learners)

Examples:

• prepares for an upcoming exam by studying for 2 hours each night for several nights instead of trying to cram all the studying into one or two nights
• uses memory-directed tactics, such as mnemonic devices, to accurately store and recall information for test items that will demand verbatim recall
• uses comprehension-directed tactics, such as concept maps and self-questioning, to deal with test items that will require comprehension, analysis, and synthesis of information
• creates self-tests to monitor the effectivement of study efforts and takes some time off from studying if the results of a self-test are satisfactory

Learning strategy- a general plan that a learner formulates for achieving a somewhat distant academic goal (such as getting an A on the next exam)

Learning tactic- a specific technique (such as a memory aid or a form of note taking) that a learner uses to accomplish an immediate objective

Types of tactics: (memory-directed tactics: contain techniques that help produce accurate storage and retrieval of information; comprehension-directed tactics: contain techniques that aid in understanding the meaning of ideas and their interrelationships)

• rehearsal: not a very effective memory tactic (rote rehearsal); cumulative rehearsal (involves rehearsing a small set of items for several repetitions, dropping the item at the top of the list and adding a new one, giving the set several repetitions, dropping the item at the head of the set and adding a new one, rehearsing the set, and so on) is a little more advanced
• Mnemonic Devices (memory directed tactic that helps a learner transform or organize information to enhance its retrievability
• self- and peer-questioning: self-questioning improves comprehension and knowledge integration
• note taking: taking notes and reviewing notes aid retention and comprehension
• concept mapping: helps sutdents identify, visually organize, and represent the relationships among a set of ideas

Conclusions to learning tactics

1. students need to be systematically taught how to use learning tactics to make connections among ideas contained in text and lecture, as well as between new and previously learned information
2. learning tactics should not be taught as isolated techniques, particularly to high school students, but should be taught how to use tactics as part of a broader learning strategy

Components of a learning strategy:

1. metacognition
2. analysis
3. planning
4. implementation of the plan
5. monitoring of progress
6. modification

Mnemonic devices include:

• acronym: word made from first letters of items to be learned
• acrostic: sentence made up of words derived from first letters of items to be learned
• Loci method: visualize items to be learned stored in specific locations
• keyword method: visually link pronunciation of foreign word to English translation

Mnemonic devices work so well because they meaningfully organize information, and provide retrieval cues. (Excellent example on page 289)

Observational learning (modeling)- observing and imitating the behavior of a skilled model

• observation- learners pick up the major features of a skill or strategy, as well as performance standards, motivational beliefs, and values, by watching and listening as a model exhibits the skill and explains the reasons for his behavior
• emulation-learners reproduce the general form of the model's behavior (inhibition- when we learn not to do something; disinhibition- when we learn to exhibit a behavior that is usually disapproved of by most people; facilitation- whenever we are prompted to do something that we do not ordinarily do; true observational learning- when we learn a new behavioral pattern by watching and imitating the performance of someone else)
• self-control: marked by the learner's being able to exhibit the modeled behavior in the absence of the model
• self-regulation: attained when learners can adapt the modeled behavior to changes in internal and external conditions

Why would they observe and try to emulate:

• if they are unfamiliar with the task at hand or if they feel incapable of carrying out the task
• if they admire, respect, and perceive them as having knowledge, skills, and attributes that they themselves would like to have
• if they judge their behavior to be acceptable and appropriate
• if they see that the model is reinforced for exhibiting the behavior and anticipate that they will be similarly reinforced (vicarious reinforcement)

Research on Social Cognitive Theory

1. self-efficacy, self-regulation related to each other and to achievement
2. Modeling is seen as an effective means of enhancing self-efficacy

Observing a peer model improves student's self-efficacy for math problem solving and math problem-solving ability.

Observing a peer model improves the quality of students' writing more than simply practicing writing.

Reciprocal teaching by Palincsar and Brown (RT): students learn comprehension skills by demonstrating them to peers (summarizing, self-questioning, clarifying, and predicting).

RT produced 2 general beneficial effects:

• the quality of students' summaries, questions, clarifications, and predictions improved
• the RT-trained students scored higher on tests of comprehension than before

TWA: how to think before reading, while reading, and after reading

Reciprocal questioning:

1. the teacher and students silently read a passage
2. the teacher closes his or her book
3. the students ask the teacher questions which the teacher answers
4. the students close their books
5. the teacher asks the students questions which they answer

TWA and RQ are both taught using modeling, direct instruction, and guided practice

Using Technology to Promote Self-Regulated Learning

Modeling: computers can help if teachers do not have time by providing a computer-based video model (Ex: Alien Rescue)

Providing Cognitive and Metacognitive Feedback: Summary Street can help teachers offer feedback precisely when it is needed by improving student's ability to summarize text by giving them many opportunities to summarize different types of text, by providing feedback, and by having them revise their summaries as often as necessary until they meet the standards built into the program

Providing Scaffolded Instruction: Decision Point! was used on 11th graders; it included 4 types of scaffolding such as interactive essays, a set of recommended documents, a student guide that provided categories to help them organize and synthesize information, and a journal in which students could note the effectiveness of their daily information-gathering strategies, the problems they encountered, and the progress they had made toward completing the task (it helped them to monitor their efforts). Of this 4 interactive essays was used the most and hyperlinks much less frequently

Computer programs that let students control access to information work best with those who have some self-regulatory skills

Summary of computer technology and self-regulated learning:

Computer-based instructional programs can play a productive role in the development and support of students' SRL skills, they can provide them with concrete examples of self-regulations skills and strengthen the skill of self-monitoring by reminding students at critical points to think about the nature of the problem being solved, similar problems encountered in the past, and appropriate problem-solving tactics, and provide a variety of scaffolds. So in short they can do many of the things that teachers can do, and then give teachers more time to work individually with the students who need additional help.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom

1. Include the development of self-regulated learning skills in your objectives and lesson plans: (1) emphasize the importance of SRL skills to learning and when they should be used (2) model SRL skills, including the standards you use to evaluate your performance and reinforce yourself (3) provide practice and corrective feedback for the SRL skills you want students to learn
2. Teach students how to use both memory and comprehension tactics and to take notes: (1) teach students how to use various forms of rehearsal and mnemonic devices (2) teach students how to formulate comprehension questions (3) teach students how to take notes
3. Establish the foundation for self-regulated learning in kindergarten and the primary grades
4. When teaching SRL skills, bear in mind the developmental limitations of younger students
5. Embed instruction in SRL in interesting and challenging classroom tasks
6. Help students develop a sense of self-efficacy for SRL
7. Use such effective strategy training programs as reciprocal teaching, but be prepared to make adaptations to fit your particular circumstances (1)strategy use problems (2) dialogue problems (3) scaffolding problems

Life experiences: (this also comes from my discussion board I felt it fit both areas)

Self-regulating is such an important part of speech therapy. The student must be taught how to recognize the appropriate way to articulate sounds. This is not something that they learn in a short period of time. It takes quite awhile for some students to ever be able to thoroughly grasp the idea of monitoring their own progress. Really young children can not do this; they are still in the teaching stage. Whereas, 2nd graders and up are more likely to have grasped the basic concept if taught correctly. With young children, I use a “speech phone”. This is a plastic piece of pipe that is shaped like a telephone. It is hollow so when the student places one end at their mouth and the other at their ear they can hear what they are saying much better than just regular speaking and listening. I use this technique to begin to teach the younger children how to listen to themselves. But as the kids get older, I switch to a different format. The students will read a selection to me from a book and I tape them as they read. This tape is then played back to the student so that they can hear the sounds that they made. I will then ask them to tell me the sounds that they did not articulate correctly. After they begin to grasp this technique, then I have them to continue this process by on their own at home when they read each night. By them continuing this process they are able to determine how they are progressing much better and they are also much better at correctly themselves when they are speaking to others because they have learned to actually listen to themselves talk. This process teaches them that self-regulation can help them to be better speakers.

I do not remember much about being taught SRL skills when I was in school. They probably did in some form but it was different. I was always a very good student and I taught many of my other classmates because the teacher just couldn't help everyone. I knew how to study just by teaching myself I guess. I do not now and did not then study way ahead of time so I guess in some ways I am not a self-regulated learner. My studying style is different than what the book suggests. But I do try to now help my children by showing them how to self-regulate their learning.

Journal:

Some chapters have more information that I want to remember for future reference than others. So I am able to just post the information that I want and the small details can be not included. It also allows me a way of studying. I type my blog as I read the chapter, by doing this I am able to remember the information much better. I used to write it down or highlight it but each of those caused problems sometimes. When I wrote it down, I either had to type it too or try to read my handwriting later. If I highlight the information, I have to go through every page to find the important ideas when I go back to study. So this blog as helped me in other ways than just saving information.

Weekly question: Find a school district's website outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you reside in). Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
1.) Would you want to teach in this particular school district?
2.) What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
3.) Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
4.) Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
5.) Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Salem, AR at http://salem.k12.ar.us/

No I would not want to teach in this school. There are so many on the internet, but I choose this school not by how it stood out on the internet but by how close it is to me. I love where I live and do not intend on ever moving again. So determining where I would work depends on how close the school is to me, besides other qualities. This school does have a better technology program than we do in some areas but they are a much bigger school than where I currently work. I would not ever apply for a job there unless absolutely necessary because I like working where I am today because I grew up there and I know most of the kids and parents associated with the school. I also went to school with many of the other teachers or had them as teachers myself. It is a smaller school but I has a more closely knit atmosphere in so many areas. Salem school is a good school too, but just does not have the things that I am looking for.