Empowering Teachers: Self-Efficacy & Inclusive Classroom Transformation

1. Teacher self-efficacy and case studies as a transformative tool in the creation of the culturally-responsive inclusive classroom Dr. Michelle J. McCollin Associate Professor 2018 Fulbright Scholar, Vietnam michelle.mccollin@sru.edu Slippery Rock University of PA Department of Special Education

2. A strong sense of efficacy is an essential characteristic of successful functioning within any given society, regardless of whether it is personal or collective.

3. Self-Efficacy

4. Where does Self-Efficacy come from? Think Pair Share

5. Self efficacy comes from… • Mastery Experiences • Vicarious Experiences • Verbal Persuasion • Psychological states

6. Self- efficacy is… • Self-efficacy is a content-specific assessment of competence to perform a specific task or range of tasks in a given domain~an individual’s judgement of his or her capabilities to perform given activities.

7. According to Bandura, 1997 • Perceived self-efficacy is defined as • ~ people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. • Self-efficacy beliefs determine • ~ how people feel • ~think • ~motivate themselves • ~behave • Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. • They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes.

8. Self-efficacy… • Self- efficacy … • ~enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. • People with high sense of efficacy/belief in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. • Efficacious people set for themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. • They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of adversity. • They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after major challenges or setbacks. • They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are easily acquired

9. In Contrast… • …people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks which they view as personal threats. • They have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they choose to pursue. • When faced with difficult tasks, they dwell on their personal deficiencies, on the obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse outcomes rather than concentrate on how to perform successfully. • They slacken their efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties. • They are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following adversity or setbacks. • Because they view insufficient performance as deficient aptitude it does not require much failure for them to lose faith in their capabilities. • They fall easy victim to stress and depression.

10. Teacher Self-Efficacy … In the past outcomes of the learning process where ascribed to the pupil’s potential, motivation and contextual factor’s. Teachers’ factors that where said to affect the learning process included: formal education, knowledge, and teaching abilities Teacher self-efficacy is defined as a sub-category of a person’s self-believes. It is a strong psychological aspect, at times sub-conscientious, that affects outcomes in the classroom. “the extent to which a teacher feels that she can bring about positive change and development among her pupils.” (Ashton and Webb. 1986)

11. Dimensions of Teacher Self-Efficacy A sense of personal accomplishment The teacher must view the work as meaningful and important Positive expectations for student behavior and achievement The teacher must expect students to progress. Personal responsibility for student learning Accepts accountability and shows a willingness to examine performance Strategies for achieving objectives Must plan for student learning, set goals for themselves, and identify strategies to achieve them. Positive affect Feels good about teaching, about self, and about students. Sense of control Believes (s)he can influence student learning

12. What is your level of self-efficacy in the different areas related to teaching? Please indicate your opinion to each of the questions below 1= strongly agree 5=strongly disagree • The amount a student can learn is primarily related to family background • When I really try I can get through even to difficult students • I have the tools to write up interesting as well as creative questions for my pupils • I can establish routines to keep activities running smoothly in the classroom

13. Related Links for TSE • complete scale for evaluation of teacher self-efficacy http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/ahoy/TES22.pdf • Self efficacy and second language learning http://www.nclrc.org/caidlr15.htm#BM1 • Affective strategies for developing a higher sense of self-efficacy http://www.nclrc.org/caidlr15.htm#BM2

14. 20th Century Teaching cannot meet 21st century demands

15. Culturally responsive classrooms are those that… Focus on whole child development n  Observation and feedback on practice by expert teachers and principals n  Examination of curriculum and student work n  Emphasis on collaboration and contributions to whole-school improvement Development of talent n  Support for sharing of expertise

16. Culturally responsive classrooms are those that…

18. Culturally responsive classrooms are those in which…. • Learning experiences allow the integrity of every learner to be sustained while each person is intellectually challenged in ways that allow them to attain relevant educational success and mobility.

19. Culturally responsive classrooms are … Focused on learning specific curriculum contentOrganized around real problems of practiceConnected to teachers’ work with childrenLinked to analysis of teaching and student learning Intensive, sustained and continuous over time Supported by coaching, modeling, observation, and feedback Connected to teachers’ collaborative work in professional learning communities Integrated into school and classroom planning around curriculum, instruction, and assessment

20. Culturally responsive teaching… • Is a pedagogical framework that respects the backgrounds and contemporary circumstances of all learners regardless of individual status and power, and employs learning processes that embrace the range of needs, interests, and orientations to be found among them. --Wlodkowski & Ginsberg

21. What does culture do for us? • It imposes order and meaning on all our experiences. • It provides a world view that includes values, ideas, beliefs, and assumptions about the nature of the world, and the way it works. • It provides a perceptual lens through which experiences are filtered and knowledge and meaning is made. • It allows us to predict how others from our group will behave in certain situations, but it is not effective at providing us ways of predicting how people from other groups may behave. • It provides us a language and imagery for talking about and explaining our world.

22. Culturally Responsive Framework • Establishing inclusion • Developing attitude • Enhancing meaning • Engendering competence • Wlodowski & Ginsberg (1995) Diversity & Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching

23. Building Cultural Capital in Academics • Create many and varied teacher-student interactions • Ensure high frequency of interaction between "initiated" students and “non-initiated” students • Pay explicit attention to use and development of academic linguistic forms--speaking, reading, writing. • Role model behaviors in various discipline-based and or other academically oriented situations • Develop a variety of ways that students can participate in defined and organized events with teacher and other academic group members

24. Developing Attitude • Norms, procedures and structures that create through relevance and choice a favorable disposition among learners and teachers toward the learning experience and learning goals.

25. Developing Attitude • Develop creative and effective ways to learn about your student’s lives and interests. • Conduct interest inventories both general and content specific. • Use “getting to know you” activities. • Organize regularly scheduled discussion topics (including current events) that allow students to connect course material to the “real world” • Design course in ways that encourages learners to make choices about class topics and assignments.

26. Enhancing Meaning • Norms, procedures and structures that expand, refine, or increase the complexity of what is learned in ways that matter to learners, includes their values and purposes, and contributes to a critical consciousness.

27. Enhancing Meaning • Examine the embedded values in your discipline that may confuse or disturb students, or may be challenging to their own cultural perspectives. • Have students identify their prior knowledge and understandings of key concepts, issues, or content or how it is understood in their culture/community. • Include readings/authors that reflect the diversity of thought and people within your discipline. • Encourage students to represent alternative perspectives or construct panels that can discuss issues from diverse perspectives. • Use language that reflects the disciplinary way of “knowing” or understanding”as one way, not the only or “right way.” • Explicitly address the embedded values in the discipline.

28. Enhancing Meaning • Critically examine the examples you use to illustrate key points to ensure they are meaningful and sensitive to your students. • Use analogies or metaphors from everyday life to help illustrate abstract concepts. • Have students suggest other examples, analogies or metaphors, or ones that illustrate other key points. • Systematically collect examples, metaphors, and analogies from students to use in the future--and give credit! • Use graphic organizers, and context-rich visuals or materials

29. Engendering Competence • The norms, procedures and structures that create an understanding for learners of how they are or can be effective in learning something of personal value.

30. Engendering Competence • Support student in goal setting for projects. • Create some learning activities and assessments that are suited to different multiple intelligences. • Provide clear and explicit criteria for assignments/assessments. • Use multiple forms of assessment that reflect the modes of teaching and learning you have employed.

31. Engendering Competence • Provide models of “high quality” work and discuss them with students. • Adopt a “cognitive coaching” stance to teaching; model and highlight in course readings & discussions the thinking, ways of making arguments, and use of academic rhetoric. • Provide frequent feedback that is based on agreed-upon standards, specific and constructive, and personally informative to student development and growing competence.

32. In developing your Culturally responsive pedagogy… • Proceed carefully and gradually • Learn with others • Create an action plan • Be kind to yourself, but don’t let yourself “off the hook” • Be prepared for doubt and anxiety, they are signs of change and growth • Share your work with others

33. Need • A strong sense of efficacy is an essential characteristic of successful functioning within any given society, regardless of whether it is personal or collective. • Teachers’ lack of competency in teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners correlates to students’ persistent achievement difficulties (Gay, 2000; Harry, et al., 1999; Irvine & York, 2001; Sleeter, 2001) • Preparing current and future teachers to teach students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse academic needs is one of the most compelling challenges facing teacher educators today (Futrell, Gomez, & Bedden, 2003; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Sobel & Taylor, 2006)

34. Continuing to expose ethnically, culturally, and/or linguistically diverse students who live in poverty to educators who are not adequately prepared to effectively teach them is likely to further exacerbate the existing achievement gap. More importantly, such practices will result in these children not receiving the high quality services that federal mandates guarantee them.

35. To engage in critical pedagogy requires a commitment to the construction of knowledge by sharing power and authority between students and teachers, challenging the hegemonic notions of what school is and should be, and giving up control of the curriculum and pedagogy of the classroom. Sharing power with students, and facilitating questioning of the political and social structures of school create a space in which students and adults broaden their understandings of themselves, the assumptions that society operates by, and the ways that the world works (McLaren, 1989; Giroux, 1997).

36. What Teachers Need • Socio Cultural-- teachers have an awareness of and understanding of the impact of social, cultural and historical influences on learning and behavior, ideas of social justice. • Affirmative Attitude-- teachers understand the impact of teacher expectation, developing caring relationships, ongoing reflection, respect for student/family/community cultures, and commitment to issues of equity on teaching, learning, and behavior. • Collaborative Skills—teachers have the skills to collaborate and problem solve with students, families, communities, and other professionals, and to understand their own areas of influence within the larger educational and social systems. • Pedagogy Diversity—teachers have specific knowledge and skills around culturally responsive instructional, accommodation/modification, management, assessment, and curricular strategies and resources. (Voltz, 2007)

37. Case Study as Transfomative Pedagogy

38. Replication of a real experience with problems to generate discussion • General structure of teaching a case study: • Instructor provides background information and data relevant to the case study (e.g., lecture notes, reading material or other resources) • Provide a series of questions • Students utilize resources to answer questions and prepare for in-class discussion. • During discussion, students explain their answers and instructors can reemphasize subject material.

39. Learning by doing • Development of analytical and decision-making skills • Promotes learning beyond rote memorization • Internalization of learning • Development of oral communication skills • “Spices up” the semester

40. Types of Case Studies • Directed cases • Review of course content in a setting of a story • Questions have closed-ended answers. • Analysis (issues) cases • Students will analyze the situation or the proposed scenario. • What are the facts? What happened? What were the events? How might the events have unfolded differently? • Dilemma (decision) cases • A decision has to be made by the student regarding the proposed scenario. • Students will decide on an action with knowledge of the consequences and the risks/benefits.