Social Theories Blog Post 2

The video relates to classroom instruction because it’s important to keep in mind how students view models.  In a classroom the teacher is the main model for students, if a teacher is aggressive towards something and exhibits inappropriate behaviors, students might start displaying these behaviors that they saw in their teacher. 

A model is most effective when the model has relevance toward the learner.  The learner must be interested in the behaviors the model is displaying.  The model must be viewed as excelling in their particular behaviors.  If a peer is not good at math, they will not be a model for another student because the other student wants to excel so will be more likely to model of a student who excels in the subject.  High status models are important, meaning they may be the older sibling within a family, or an authority figure.  It’s also important to consider how gender plays a role in an effective model.  Modeling is normally more effective if it’s a model of the same sex.

A student could be a model in the classroom for another student. Maybe one student excels in math; the other student might wish to model the same behaviors as the student who is excelling in the subject of math.

Society and culture influence learning through environment.  It’s important to consider the learning environment.  If a student grows up in a society where doing well in school is not important, and there are no good models to demonstrate behavior of excelling in school, the student is less likely to have a high self-efficacy or any models to learn behaviors from. 

Large-scale cultural factors, which include TV shows or movies, in which boys see other boys being aggressive may influence boys to show more aggressive behaviors.  This will influence the learning of male students in which they might be less willing to learn and have outbursts in class like what they’ve seen on the TV shows they’ve watched. 

In my future classroom I want to create a classroom culture in which students have a high self-efficacy and self-regulation.  I think it’s important for student’s to believe that they can succeed themselves.  If students aren’t able to install the factor that they have the ability to succeed they’re less likely to try hard or attempt at succeeding.  I think it’s also important to have self-regulation expectations because if a student has the ability to assess themselves and their own goals they want to reach, they’re more likely to succeed.  With high self-regulation skills students can more easily maintain a higher self-efficacy.  I can model this in my classroom by having students set their own goals for themselves, and what they want to achieve throughout the year.  I can also inspire students to believe in themselves by modeling my behavior of believing in my own success.  I think it’s important for students to understand that not everyone is perfect, and even though for example I might seem like I know everything, I still have many weaknesses and concepts I have struggle with.  I think it’s important to install the concept that hard work pays off and may help students to achieve the concepts that they struggle with.