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Confidence And Learning Assignment #3 PIDP 3100

The Cognitive Science of Confidence & Learning

When I started gathering information for a report I actually was looking for an article and information about motivation or more precise motivating students to learn. Motivating being a large part of my past of coaching team sports. In the process of gathering information on motivation came the realization that it was really confidence that was maybe the larger factor and that confidence would breed motivation. “I can do this because I believe I can do this, not just because I want to do this.” So this report came about not really from one article but more of a conglomeration of similar type articles. For in my search I found there are multiple upon multiple of studies ,books and research papers on this subject. A few of these are as listed below.

Confidence versus Self-worth in Adult Learning

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268375022

Bachkivora, T. (2000) Oxford Brookes University

Med, Msc, PhD, C Psychol, AFBPsS

Why Self-Esteem Hurts Learning But Self-Confidence Does The Opposite

http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/self-efficacy-and-learning/

By Sara Briggs (2014) B.A. In Creative Writing

The National Academies Press

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/firstday.html

Learning, Remembering,Believing: Enhancing Human Performance (1994)

Chapter: Self-Confidence and Performance

One of the first things that I realized in this search was that self-esteem and confidence are not the same thing. Where “Self-esteem is, literally, how favorably a person regards him or herself.” (Baumeister) to Confidence: the quality of being certain of your abilities. (Cambridge Dictionary).

In the realm of education we can refine the definition to: a persons belief in their capability to be able to perform specific skills, solve problems and retain new knowledge. This can also be termed as

'self-efficacy'. The difference between academic self-confidence and general self-confidence is that academic self-confidence can be “more easily influenced by elements of the situation (eg.surroundings,

people, and recent success or failure) Vrugt et al. (1997) and that academic self-confidence is a significant predictor of academic performance. Where as with self-esteem you may feel good about yourself and have high self-esteem but yet not be confident you could perform specific academic disciplines. The difference also shows up in actual academic performance. B.C. Hansford and J.A. Hattie, reviewed 128 studies of the relationship of high self-esteem and academic performance and found it only improved marks by between 4 and 7%. Another study of Engineering students showed

confidence influenced performance by as much as 12%. (Briggs). With this in mind the next question should be how do we as instructors induce academic confidence (self-efficacy) into our students so that they can become better learner's? “ Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. (Age old saying) What separates good teachers from the excellent ones? The excellent ones are handing out fishing poles.(Deneen) Self-confidence is considered one of the most influential motivators and regulators of behavior in everyday lives (Bandura, 1986).

Self-efficacy theory is also useful in guiding the development of motivational programs because self-beliefs of confidence operate in most of the approaches to cognitive theories of motivation, particular goal-setting theory and attribution theory (Bandura, 1990).

Albert Bandura is one of the most renowned psychologist in the field of social cognitive theory, therapy, personality psychology and theoretical construct of self-efficacy. For Bandura self-confidence

is a “complex process of self-persuasion,” processed by “ diverse sources of confidence information”.

These would include first and foremost “performance accomplishments” followed by exercised experiences, verbal persuasion and mental state. If one has repeatedly viewed these experiences as a success, self confidence will increase. With performance accomplishments it only stands to reason that the amount of confidence gained would depend on the difficulty of the task, how hard it was to do and how much help you got to do it. Compared of course with easy tasks with external help that took several attempts to accomplish.

Persuasive techniques are widely used by instructors, managers, coaches, parents and peers in attempting to influence a learner's confidence, motivation and behavior ( National Research Council,1994). This would include telling the student how good of a job they did, why what they did is good, that they met or exceeded the expectations of the task and other positive cognitive strategies. The stature of the person giving the praise or confirmation in the mind of the person receiving it will also affect the amount of confidence gained by the encounter. If the student doesn't hold the instructor in high regard the confidence gained could be minimal. With that if the praise is over abundant for the task actually performed confidence gained is undermined and can affect praise of accomplishments in the future. Thus it is wise for the instructor to not use praise to liberally or out of proportion.

Goal setting is another tool to promote confidence. The stronger the persons confidence, the higher the goals they set for themselves and the firmer their commitments are to them( Locke et al., 1984). If personal goals are not met, the amount of confidence the student has will determine if they will increase their effort level and persistence or give up. The lesson from this would be to not set goals that are possibly to far out of reach or if they are lofty goals break them down into a series of smaller goals to be accomplished one at a time. As goals are met the instructor can reflect with the student the amount of effort required and the ability's acquired to reach that goal. Thus raising confidence for the next higher goal. If a goal is not set the instructor needs to reflect with the student that maybe the lack of effort and practice time or the way that they tackled the task could be better. In other words factors that can be fixed with regained determination and thus cushioning the failures as to not reduce confidence but still staying positive. The instructor can also put emphasis on the skills that were acquired and the progress that was made even if the final goal was not met.

Modeling provides confidence information ( Bandura, 1986) through a comparative process between the model and the observer. George et al. (1992). If the model and the observer are of similar statues,with comparable traits and levels of achievement. The observer can gain confidence by seeing a similar peer to them accomplish a task that they themselves were not sure they could do. The attitude of “if they can do it then so can I” will create confidence and motivation to try the task themselves.

Taking Theory into the Classroom

The next step is to take this research and theory and use it in a classroom setting to enhance self-confidence for motivation and better performance. There is no one specific method to accomplish

this. It is more a conglomeration of activities implemented in different ways that best suites the particular group you are working with. The instructor can provide for maximum skill development through an instructional sequence of development or modified activities, breaking the skill into parts, providing performance aids, physical guidance or a combination of these methods (N.R.C. 1994).

How I would implement this into a class

These concepts would have to start with the first day in class. Maybe one of the most important days of the whole course. With the objective of the day to be not only me getting to know every student but every student getting to know each other. Before the first day I would inform each student to bring on their first day a comprehensive profile of their work experience and what ever personal information they feel comfortable giving, knowing I would be the only one to read it. The first task of the day would be for students to get to know each other. Along with bringing their profile on the first day I would have them bring a photo of themselves from when they were between approximately 6 to 10 years old. Each photo would be given a number. Students would be arranged in a circle with their name tag. They would also have a sheet with every persons name on it. The pictures would be passed around the circle slowly and each student would have to connect the photo to the person it belonged to by putting the number beside the name. The purpose of this first exercise would be to force each student to really concentrate on distinguishing features of each persons face and connect it to a name. After completing each person writes their name on each photo and they are passed around again for each student to not only check how they did but also do a reconnect of the picture, to the face, to the name. From this point on for the first week everyone wares a name tag. The purpose of this exercise is not only getting each student to have face and name recognition with each other but to also instill a humanistic feeling that we were all kids at one time, we all had dreams and family's and we have come here as a group all seeking the same knowledge. It's about making a connection. Students if they wished would be allowed to give a short little background or story to the picture they supplied

This would be followed by another exercise called the Dream Trip. Explained briefly: each person takes ten minutes to write down the itinerary of a dream holiday for one month with no budget restraints. The itinerary has as much detail that ten minutes allows. As in who's with them, girlfriend, boy friend, wife kids etc. How their traveling, airplane, ship, motorcycle etc. What kind of accommodation they would have and what kind of things they would do and things they would want to see. Each person would then stand in front of the class and reveal their dream trip. This exercise has numerous affects. Starting with the fact that we all have a dream of a prosperous future, and that's why were in this course. To acquire skills and knowledge so we can chase those dreams. It creates energy and is uplifting to hear everyone talking about what a great time they would have. It creates bonds with people with like dreams. The goal is to have your class room go from a bunch of strangers sitting quietly to a noisy excited chatter in a matter of two hours where everyone feels comfortable and at ease. http://www.innovativeteambuilding.co.uk/activity/dream-trip/

During these two exercises it is important for the instructor to observe the students closely as they participate. Looking for different traits via body language and how they are speaking in front of a group. As these exercises are about creating a profile about their students. Are they intimidated and shy or are they boisterous and loud. As peer mentoring will be a large part of the class.

The last step of these introductions is for the instructor to now stand in front of the class and try

to become one of the group but still be the leader of the group. This is a strategically planned speech

that requires certain elements. Number one is do not brag, do not ramble on about all the great things you've done, what you own, how good you are in this profession etc. This is your time to connect with your students, keep your history brief so as not to be long and boring with to many minute details.

Try and reflect when you were in the same place as they are today. Have a couple quick stories of really interesting projects you worked on that were maybe a little different than the norm ( this can help students in vision opportunities in the future that are exciting. ). Be funny if you can ( for some people this is sometimes the hardest part.) Be sure to have at least one story where you either made a mistake, did some thing wrong or maybe didn't use the best judgment in a work related scenario. But how you gained knowledge from it. Be expressive and enthusiastic. Demonstrate your interest in them and that you are approachable. Instructors should map this introduction out and try it on someone they know to give them feed back. You need to tweak this to be the best that it can!

Why is this so important? Again this comes down to confidence. You are trying to start the first day with the most positive, confident and motivated group you possible can right out of the gate. If your introduction is done well students not only feel this about themselves but feel this about you to!

They need to feel this from you so that all your future communication with them has integrity. There are other elements of the first day in class of course but for this report I concentrated on the confidence building components of it.

To be able to use the tools and methods as were discussed on page two to the up most value. The atmosphere and and mind set of page three and top of four must be established.

Repeated from above:

Persuasive Techniques: The stature of the person giving the praise or confirmation in the mind of the person receiving it will also affect the amount of confidence gained by the encounter. If the student doesn't hold the instructor in high regard the confidence gained could be minimal.

Modeling: The observer can gain confidence by seeing a similar peer to them accomplish a task that they themselves were not sure they could do. The attitude of “if they can do it then so can I” will create confidence and motivation to try and master the task themselves.

Goal Setting: As goals are met the instructor can reflect with the student the amount of effort required and the ability's acquired to reach that goal. Thus raising confidence for the next higher goal. If a goal is not set the instructor needs to reflect with the student that maybe the lack of effort and practice time or the way that they tackled the task could be better.

If the student believes in the instructor and is comfortable with their relationship they will be able to handle these goal setting setbacks or what I call regroups. They are confident the instructor is on their side with no feelings of being belittled. The feed back from the instructor is necessary to enhance self-confidence. All negatives need to be sandwiched between two positives. Positive communication by an instructor has been shown to be very helpful in reducing the negative affect that occurs in failure situations (Smith et al., 1979). Positive communication is performance contingent, but it focuses on positive aspects of performance while acknowledging mistakes, provides instructional feedback, and emphasizes the learning nature of the task (Eden, 1990; Jourden et al., 1991).

Parts of this first day scenario I found confirmed by 9Things to Do on the First Day of Class

http://teaching.colostate.edu/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=93 and Make the Most of the First Day of Class

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/firstday.html

David Couture

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