Another way of describing Hannah's behavior is through self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief that one has about their ability to perform or succeed in a task. Hannah has a low self-efficacy, meaning she believes she does not have the ability to solve math problems. She has very low self-esteem to the point where she doesn't even want to try doing a problem, because she believes she can't do it, and if she does try, she'll do it wrong. Hannah's low self-efficacy could be caused by a number of factors. In earlier grades, she may have had a higher self-efficacy in math. She may have tried very hard at math, only to receive poor grades, causing her to have low self-efficacy. Hannah's parents may not have encouraged her to try different tasks or giver her much verbal persuasion, which also could have lead to her low self-efficacy. Her parents may have had high expectations of her to do very well in school and become a doctor, and may not have let her try other activities such as sports, art, or music.
One way to help Hannah would be to place students in heterogeneous groups during math class. This way, Hannah could get help from her peers, and maybe even help those who are having a harder time then she is. This could help her better learn the material and can also build her confidence in math. As a teacher, I could also help Hannah (and the rest of the class) by teaching them the skills necessary to succeed in school. Students do not just come up with these learning strategies by themselves, and it is my responsibility as a teacher to help teach and model strategies such as studying skills and note taking. I can also praise Hannah on her effort and when she answers questions right, because she was able to answer questions when the teacher helped her, so she does know what she is doing. I can also give her a math problem or a set of them that will not be graded, so if she does not correctly do them, there will be no negative consequences. This may eliminate Hannah's fear of not doing the problem correctly, allowing her to try to solve the problem. All of these techniques can help to improve Hannah's self-efficacy.
I really like your breakdown of the situation here and the ideas you suggest. I might also give her smaller short term tasks to build confidence and a feeling of competence.
ReplyDeleteI like your explanation that the skills needed to succeed have to be taught. I have not thought of this before. It makes sense that someone has to teach students these skills and if you are seeing a lack of these skills in your classroom, then it might be due to previous teachers not teaching these skills to their students. This is a good strategy to implement, before just blaming the student for their lack of success.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of giving her homework assignments that wont be graded, this way she'll be able to practice the problems without worrying about correctness and getting them wrong. Giving her practice will help improve her self-efficacy and she may begin to believe that she is competent in completing the problems.
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