Social Theories Blog Post 2

Observation learning is key to the social cognitive theory, and models serve as the ones to observe. As teachers, we will be very crucial models for our students five days out of the week. There are several qualities that make models effective. One is relevance- the imitator must be interested in the model and what the model is doing. An imitator is not like to produce the behavior of someone who has nothing in common with them. Another quality is competence. The model must appear knowledgeable and capable of the behavior they are performing. A teacher who excels at reading can explain it well to his or her students would be seen as competent. High status is also very important in a model. High status models can include parents, older siblings, celebrities, teachers, and other powerful individuals. Imitators are also more likely to observe a behavior if the model is the same gender as them.

The teacher would be seen as the main model in a classroom, but there can be others. Students who succeed academically would be models for students who struggle with certain subjects. If students are more focused on sports, than those students who excel at sports would be models for those looking to improve.

Society and culture play a large role in learning. Teachers and symbolic models often don’t represent a minority, so students who are a minority may have a harder time observing and imitating their behaviors because the models are not relevant. Students from minority groups may also have a lower self-efficacy because they are not often represented by models. Gender can also be a factor. Similar to minority groups, girls had a lower self-efficacy than boys when it came to standardized tests. There are also few female models in certain professions, such as technology and math, so girls may be cautious of trying out those fields.

Large-scale cultural factors, such as men being more aggressive physically and women being less physically aggressive, will definitely influence students’ learning. Because I am a female, male students may have a harder time observing and imitating me because I am not relevant or of the same gender. As stated earlier, in our culture it is abnormal for women to go into certain fields, which may affect the way my female students think about subjects such as math and science.

One very important factor in my classroom would be hard work. This does not mean that I will load my students with homework and have them take several tests. What it really means is that I would want my students to have a high self-efficacy and attempt anything I give them, even if it is challenging and they think they will not be able to do it. I want my students to try hard on every assignment and to learn that giving up does not benefit them in any way. I also want my students to believe that they can complete every assignment, and have the confidence that they will succeed. This can be visible daily through my modeling. I can model to my students that I try hard in all aspects of life. It would also be very important to model that sometimes I make mistakes, and sometimes I get answers wrong or have trouble understanding problems. If students see that even their teacher makes mistakes, they will hopefully be less afraid of failure and of attempting everything.