Self-Defeating Student Behaviors

1. Self-Defeating Student Behaviors Baker College Effective Teaching and Learning

2. Force Field Analysis • Locate the flipchart for the course(s) that you teach • Write down the self-defeating behaviors that you see your students exhibit in your classes during the following events: • Activities • Homework • Tests ET&L

3. Objectives • Describe student views about ability • Discuss learned helplessness in students and provide strategies for combating it • Determine the difference between self-handicapping and defensive pessimism in students • Identify ways to combat self-handicapping behaviors ET&L

4. Ability: Entity vs. Incremental • Entity view of ability • Ability is “fixed, stable, and unchanging” • Ability and/or intelligence does not increase with time and effort • Develops around 10-12 years of age • Incremental view of ability • Ability and intelligence “change and increase with experience” -Pintrich & Schunk, 2002 ET&L

5. What can instructors do? • Position yourself as a “resource person” (Brophy, 1998) in the classroom • Ensure your students are focusing on their processes during learning rather than outcomes • De-emphasize grades when possible • Try to get students to consider errors as learning tools • Focus on effort rather than ability -Brophy, 1998 ET&L

6. Learned Helplessness • Can also be described as students with “Failure Syndrome” (Brophy, 1998) • Appear in classrooms as students who: • Rely on teacher for attention • Give up early in assignments when facing difficulty • Have low expectations for their success • Believe they lack ability for success • Believe in “luck” or external factors ET&L

7. Role-Play • Need 2 volunteers • While the volunteers are preparing, consider the following questions as you watch the role-play: • What did the instructor do well? • What could the instructor have done differently? • What are other solutions to this issue? ET&L

8. Strategies to Combat Learned Helplessness • Attribution Retraining • Focus students on appropriate strategy selection and success methods • Plan small successes in larger assignments • Analyze failures and determine causes related to items OTHER than ability • Efficacy Training • Help students set realistic goals related to effort • Strategy Training • Give students ideas about what they can do differently ET&L

9. Research Says To… • Pay attention to the classroom environment • Provide detailed feedback • Avoid public performances if possible • Not always an option • Arrange your test items carefully • Consider the fact that the mere anticipation of failure can affect those with learned helplessness • Place factual items before conceptual ones (or, go from the easier to the more difficult questions on the test) -(Firman & Hwang, et al, 2004) ET&L

10. Discussion • How can instructors contribute knowingly or unknowingly to learned helplessness in their students? • What other strategies can instructors use to combat learned helplessness in students? ET&L

11. Self-Handicapping • Defined as the creation of barriers by the student to prevent success • In this way if the student does not succeed, the lack of success can be blamed on the barriers. • If the student does succeed, then the success will be attributed to the student’s “exceptional ability.” • Garcia et al. (1996) • Performed in anticipation of evaluation event ET&L

12. Defensive Pessimism • Described as the exceptionally low expectations set by students for performance • Attempt to prepare for potential failure in evaluative situations • Used as a way to motivate themselves to work harder in high pressure situations and avoid that potential failure -Garcia, 1995 ET&L

13. “The affective consequences of evaluation are powerful: success leads to a joyous sense of competence, whereas failure translates to a humiliating sense of inadequacy…Effort paired with success is a laudable combination, but consider implications of low ability and incompetence.” - Garcia et al., 1996 Why Do Students Self-Handicap? ET&L

14. Why Are Students Defensive Pessimists? • Another anticipatory behavior • Actually a positive way to deal with anxiety over an evaluation situation • Gives the student some power over the evaluation situation • Has allowed the student to potentially see how he/she would feel if the failure actually occurs • Motivates the student to work hard to avoid the failure ET&L

15. Forms of Self-Handicapping • Withdrawal of effort including: • Procrastination • Not preparing for tests • Not following directions on major assignments • Taking on too many projects (classes) at once • Different aspects for adult and working students? • Addition of family/life/work responsibilities ET&L

16. Fish Bowl Exercise • Three volunteers needed • Discuss the following question: “What do you do when students tell you that they have not completed the necessary preparations for a test?” • Discuss for three minutes ET&L

17. Force Field Analysis • Go back to the sheet for the course you teach • Write down at least one strategy that you can use to combat some of the behaviors you identified in any of the following instances: • Activities • Homework • Tests ET&L

18. How Will My Teaching Change? • Take the handout from the facilitator • Write down the two or three strategies from the ones on the wall that you found most helpful to take with you on the top section of the form. • Identify two or three ways that your teaching will change as a result of attending this session on the bottom portion of the form. ET&L

19. Questions and Comments ET&L