Transcript Slide 1

Encouraging students to persist
• Ames (1992) and Dweck (2000)
categorized students’ approaches in
terms of whether they hold either
mastery goals or performance goals.
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Students with mastery goals:
• Learning and trying hard for its own sake
• Such students
– tend to have a resilient response to failure;
– remain focused on mastering skills and knowledge
even when challenged;
– do not see failure as an indictment on themselves;
and
– believe that effort leads to success.
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Students with performance goals:
• Wanting to do well to please others
• Such students
– seek success but mainly on tasks with which they
are familiar;
– avoid or give up quickly on challenging tasks;
– derive their perception of ability from their
capacity to attract recognition; and
– feel threats to self worth when effort does not
lead to recognition.
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Some results from my research
• Student persistence
• A largish survey
• Some interventions
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7.3.1 Student persistence
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• 52 year 8 students from various
secondary schools in and around Bendigo
• Students completing a questionnaire and
undertaking up to six hierarchical tasks in a one-onone interview
• After completion of each task students were taken
through a protocol of questions relating to that task
• There were 3 English tasks and six maths tasks.
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About the Mathematical Tasks
• There were six maths tasks.
• All tasks related to the Measurement strand of
the CSF.
• The tasks were hierarchical.
• Each interview ceased after completion of
protocol for an incorrect answer, concluding
questions and vignette.
Mathematics Example: What is the area of this shape?
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The fourth area task …
The fifth area task …
Nearly all students were willing to:
• persevere in some circumstances
• struggle with problems
• overcome difficulties that they were
experiencing
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• frequently expressed a desire to be challenged
in their school work.
• often expressed the view that if they tried
hard in class they would be criticised or even
ostracised by their peers.
• felt that the absence of a challenge was one of
the reasons for their lack of satisfaction at
school.
• often sought external validation for their
efforts.
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In a survey
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Factors influencing learning
Mean
Learning at school is important
5.96
Often the main reason I work well at school is
that I want to please my parents
4.65
Often the main reason I work well at school is
that the schoolwork interests me
3.62
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Student ranking of influencing factors
• I want my parents to be proud of my achievement
at school
• I want to understand the meaning of the things I am
learning.
• I want to see the connection between what I am
learning now and my future.
• I want to get the school work finished quickly.
• I want my teachers to think I am doing well.
• I want my friends to think that I am smart
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Influences on effort
Mean
Sometimes I don't try hard at schoolwork so I
have an excuse if I don't do so well
2.63
People are either good at school work or not.
They cannot get better by trying
2.11
If I have enough time, I can do well in my
schoolwork
5.61
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… other students
Mean
In school I try my hardest no matter what
the other students say
4.98
In my class, … some students don't try hard
because they are afraid of what other
people might think
5.45
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Some patterns among students
• Self (and parent) motivated (n=88)
– This group has the lowest scores on class influences, they are least
performance orientated, strong parental influences, below mean on
peer and teacher influence, strong capability, below mean interest
• Positively motivated but needing affirmation by significant
others (n=78)
– This group is most influenced by parents and teachers, they have both
the strongest performance and mastery orientations, they are only
slightly influenced by peers,.
• Strongly peer influenced (n=98)
– Strongest class peer influence, strong performance orientation, below
mean on classroom climate, parental influence and mastery
orientation, just about mean on teacher influence
• Don’t care much (n=59)
– Lowest by a long way on parent and class influence, lowest on mastery
and performance orientation and teacher influence, most positive
classroom climate.
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An intervention
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Purpose of this intervention
• The hypothesis is that if a student becomes
more aware of his/her individual responses in
comparison with the group responses overall,
and if they consider possible implication of
their responses, this might allow more active
decisions on the connections between their
current effort, their learning and future
opportunities.
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The procedure
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Survey completed in class
Presentation of results as class graphs
Clarify interpretation
Class discussion with key elements recorded
Transcription of tapes
Selection of extracts
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In my maths class, there are some student who don’t
try hard because they are afraid of what other
students might think of them
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One of the groups connected effort and
ability:
• “Because if you try hard in maths, people
think you’re a nerd and then you get teased.
Because if you’re smart usually no one likes
you, as in they don’t not like you but they just
call you names because you’re smart, and
when you’re not smart they just…”
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“Wil Smith used to carry his books in a
pizza box”
• Cool.
• Awesome.
• They’ll smell like pizza.
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Some comments offered starting points for
some subsequent intervention
• “It’s good to be smart because then you know
stuff, and if you’re dumb just so your friends
like you then it’s really bad. Obviously they’re
not your friends if they make you be dumb to
be their friend.”
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Another one
• “…if you’re playing (sport) and you mess up or
something and you have a kick and it falls
short or it goes out of bounds on the full
where it shouldn’t, if you have someone on
your team that says, ‘You’ll get the next one,’
you’re more confident to keep playing, but if
someone is like, ‘What are you doing?’ …”
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7.4 What are some relevant teacher
actions?
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How could teachers help?
• Yeah, because you need to feel safe and not like
they’re going to yell at you if you ask them a
question …. If they’re nicer to you then you want to
please them because you have respect for them, but
if they’re mean to you, you think ‘oh well, they’re
mean to me so I’m just going to be bad with them’.
• And the ones that try, that might encourage the ones
that are self-conscious about being nerds to try
much more…so they might get stuff.
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How teachers could help
• There’s different people that have different individual needs,
so the teacher could go to one person, spend a bit of time
with them and then go person to person, and even though
when another person needs help they should still go and help
but then go back to the person that they were helping before.
• I reckon the teachers try their hardest for us and…, but I think
they’re doing pretty well and it’s probably not as easy as we
think it is for them, but we’d probably enjoy the lesson a lot
more if there were more fun and games and more rewards for
our hard efforts. But there’s need for strict teachers as well.
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Dweck suggested that teachers
(and parents) could actively model
desirable traits by:
• emphasising learning, challenge, effort, and choice of
strategies;
• delighting in things that are hard;
• indicating how achieving through effort feels good;
• searching for new strategies; and
• reporting on learning from failure.
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What does it mean to affirm?
• Affirm what we value
– What did you say last week were your aspirations
for your students?
– How would you affirm students when they
demonstrated those values?
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It is good that:…
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•
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•
•
•
when you are stuck you try something different
you explain what you did clearly
you keep trying even when it is hard
you try to work things out for yourself
you try to help others
you learn from your mistakes
you plan out what you are trying to do
…
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Strategies for meeting individual
learning needs
• diagnosing students’ unique needs, interests and goals
• helping students to define their personal goals and
relate them to learning goals
• relating general learning goals to students in these
interests and goals
• structuring learning goals and activities to foster
individual students success
• using modeling to instruct students in the value and
benefits of specific accomplishments
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A challenging example
Year 8
Investigate the concept of irrational numbers,
including π
Solve problems involving the use of percentages,
including percentage increases and decreases,
with and without digital technologies
Solve a range of problems involving rates and
ratios, with and without digital technologies
•
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Which card is better value?
Please explain your thinking.
(From Anne Roche and Doug Clarke)
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• What % of what can you work out in your
head?
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Add 1
3
5
7
8
4
2
9
1
6
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Say 10% of
30
50
70
80
40
20
90
10
60
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Say 50% of
30
50
70
80
40
20
90
10
60
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Say 10% of
320
450
870
820
440
230
910
100
690
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Say 20% of
60
80
40
100
20
70
80
90
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•  % of  = 200
• What might be the numbers in the boxes?
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• After 2 games, your favourite team as a
percentage of 120%. What might have been
the scores in each of the games?
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• You bought something. You were given a
discount of 10%. What did you buy, what did it
cost and what was the amount of the
discount?
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• When you bought something you received a
discount worth $300. What did you buy, what
did it cost and what was the % discount?
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• What is a % increase?
• The population of my suburb has increased by
5%. What did it used to be, and what might it
be now?
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• In December the amount on one of Adelaide’s
dams increases by 5%. In January it then
decreases by 5%. Is it more, the same or less
than what it was on 1 Dec?
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What would persistence look like and
what is its role?
• The price of a suitcase in a shop is increased
by 5%. The price is then reduced by 5%, after
which the price is $200.
• What was it to start with?
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Some other tasks
• How might these encourage persistence?
• Does persistence help?
Game of the year
• Using the digits from the birth year of either
of your parents, use all four digits in that order
and any operations to form expressions which
equal as many of the numbers from 1 to 99 as
possible.
• e.g., 19 + 78 = 97; 1 - 9 + 7 x 8 = 48
What Time Does this Clock Show?
This clock has been dropped on the floor and we don’t
know which way round it should be. What time is the
clock showing?
What would persistence look like and
what is its role?
• After 2 games, your favourite team has a
percentage of 120%. What might have been
the scores in each of the games?
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What would persistence look like and
what is its role?
• I can paint a room in 5 hours. My wife can
paint a room in 10 hours. How long will it take
if we work together?
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12 is half-way between two other
numbers. What could they be?
173 is half-way between two numbers.
What could they be?
UNDA 2010
What would persistence look like
and what is its role?
Design some paddocks in the shape of an L,
that have an area of 1 hectare. What is the
perimeter of your paddocks?
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(from Rich Learning Tasks in Number):
Canadian book—has pictures
Which country has the best coinage
system:
1, 5, 10, 25
2, 4, 8, 16
2, 3, 5, 10
UNDA 2010
What would persistence look like and
what is its role?
• The inside of a horse training track has an area
of 1 hectare. What might be the dimensions?
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Olympic medals
• If a country has won four medals, what could
they be?