Think about your own self efficacy as a learner. In which subject, if any, in your academic background have you judged yourself unable to succeed? Ho has low self-efficacy affected your academic performance? How does self efficacy affect your students reading?
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Throughout my entire school career I have always struggled with mathematics. It didn’t matter how much I studied, how much sleep I got before a test, or whether or not I went to my tutor. Math is a subject I just can’t grasp. In high school I received mainly C’s on my report cards; sometimes I got lucky and scored a B. My failure with math has resulted in my negative attitude and lack of motivation in studying and participating in class lecture. I go into class knowing I won’t understand and will probably need extra help. The night before tests and quizzes I glance over my notes knowing I won’t remember any of it the next day. My low self-efficacy has most definitely affected my academic performance to date. I don’t believe I will comprehend the information, I fear solving equations on the white board, and I’m unorganized and have no commitment or drive to study. Overall, I have given up on Math! I realize how childish I may sound, but years of humiliation and poor grades have taken a toll on my mental health. Self efficacy can either make or break my students reading capabilities. If they come to class expecting failure, most likely they will fail. As a teacher I must locate students who may be failing to thrive and help motivate them to achieve success in my classroom. Although I didn’t believe in myself, I will encourage my students by telling them how my low self efficacy failed to help me in school. I will attempt to practice what I preach and explain to my students that, “people with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered,” (Bandura, 1994)
Math is my worst subject. It took me two years alone to get through and finally understand Algebra 2 and geometry is worse. I believe the reason I am so bad at math is because most of my teachers believed in drills for practice. I remember getting so nervous that I would forget everything that we had learned or if I know we were going to have a test in the subject I would get physically sick in the bathroom before I took the test. Most teachers believe in teaching a lesson and giving independent work that day as a worksheet or problems in the book but I feel that doesn't work, how do you expect students to learn material that quickly? They will struggle or will not do the homework because they do not understand. This can ruin a child's self efficacy. They begin to lose self-confidence in a subject because they were not given enough guided practice. Since I am not good at math it meant that I would not be good at chemistry or physics, subjects that in my previous major, Pre-Vet, was essential and made up the majority of my classes. I hired tutors but to no avail I found it no longer reasonable to stay with my dream and therefore find a different career that I knew would be just as rewarding. It will be my responsibility as a teacher to be able to identify my students that are having a harder time grasping the material and make sure that they are given extra time. I also feel that it is my responsibility to give my students enough guided practice so that they can confidently do their independent work.
I struggled with reading when I was younger. Since reading plays a huge role in every subject my grades were lower because I had problems reading the material on the tests. I would stay up worring about tests the next day, reading in front of the class, and wondering if I will ever be able to read the material. As time went on I grew more comfortable with reading and now love to read. Since my low self-efficacy turned into higher self-efficacy my reading improved but at frist I just felt like giving up. The more I read the better I became. Not being able to successed in school brings down self-confidence, motivation, and determination. The more hands on, real world experiences in different subject the more students will have opportunities to build up their self efficacy.
I have always struggled with science. I am just not interested in the subject matter. I was unable to understand chemical formulas and the periodic table. In high school, I took biology. I never took chemistry becuase I knew I would fail. I hate science so much, I waited until this summer to take the basic biology class required by the university's core curriculum. Low self efficacy affected me because I thought I would fail, so I did not even try. Self efficacy affects students' reading because if a student believes they will fail, they might not even try. If a student does not try to read,they will suffer in other subjects because reading is necessary in every subject. In students can improve their self efficacy, then their reading preformance will also increase because they have faith in themselves.
During grade school, I never really had problems with school. It was not until my sophomore year in high school that I began encountering problems. When I took chemistry I had to really study and work hard for my grades. I ended up getting an A for the year, but I had to get extra help after school and review the material almost every night. I now am not a big fan of science and chemistry, mainly chemistry. I like the science methods courses here at SIU, thankfully. But I don't think I can take another chemistry course! I did not like chemistry because of the way it was taught. I am a visual/hands-on learner and the way this class was taught was not like that. It is my responsibility as a teacher to make sure all of my students can successfully learn in my classroom. If they struggle in a certain area and have a bad experience with it, they will never like that subject again. Which is what happened to me and the others in the class. It is important for students to have a positive self efficacy in reading. This is because they need to have a positive view of reading because reading is in everything in life. If they have a negative attitude towards reading, they will suffer in almost every subject and area of school.
During my years in elementary school I had great success in all areas of school. When I reached High School algebra became my obstacle. I felt I was dumb and not able to succeed because it was not easy for me to grasp. My teachers, back in the day, were drill and practice, drill and practice with little support and modeling. I worked hard and studied like I never had to before and made it fine. Because of these experiences my self efficacy as a learner toward math was not positive and is still not today. I want to make sure all my students have a positive self- efficacy about reading. I praise them often and teach them many skills and strategies so they can stay interested and cofident. We often have hands on involvement in learning these skills and strategies which I feel affects my students in a positive way. When a teacher can make learning fun a student will continue with a high self-efficacy about every subject.
I really didn`t experience any academic struggles until I encountered chemistry in high school.Initially I put extra effort into succeeding in the class, but it didn`t seem to help. I struggled the whole year and my low self efficacy toward the subject affected my effort and performance.Instilling confidence in a students own capability is the key to teaching any subject.If a students self efficacy is high it creates an intrinsic motivation that is necessary to becoming a good reader.It is human nature to continue to do something if we feel we are good at it ,but we tend to shy away from things if we have doubts about our ability.
I honestly have never struggled academically. I have always been confident about my ability to succeed in all areas and consequently, I have been successful. Self efficacy has a tremendous effect on academic performance. What a student believes to be true about his own reading abilities generally correlates with his reading performance. Additionally, when a student believes that he can't read, he loses the motivation to try. No one wants to fail, so that fear of failure affects motivation. This phenomenon creates the urgency for early intervention to remediate reading deficits. Early intervention can help students keep up with others and have successful reading experiences.
History. Ugh, history. Any kind; America, World, or even Illinois history, I was just bad. There is no other word for it. I could not remember when the war of 1812 was. Kidding...I think. As terrible as I was in history, I still cannot say that I struggled. I tried, but if I didn't get a good grade on a test, it wasn't a big deal to me, I didn't really care. I still would try the next time, and the next. I never let it get me down. I would try anything, and I think that is why I struggle as a Mom and as a teacher with those who fail to try. Some students already have it planned in their minds that they are going to fail, so they have given up before they ever began. Even though I cannot relate, I can try to overcome their fear with encouragement, understanding, patience and some extra time; especially in reading. Struggling readers get immediate feedback from their peers regarding their lack of ability just by hearing the differences in reading aloud. They don't see it as 'working on fluency' or 'modeling good reading'. They see it as I can't read. The self efficacy of a poor reader is one of the most detrimental things to his/her overall achievement. America Reads tries to alleviate that fear and self-doubt in order to create happy, independent readers.
There were few subjects in my academic background that I judged myself unable to succeed in. I have been fortunate to have been pretty successful throughout my academic career. Even when I was faced with subjects that were more challenging such as calculus or physics in high school or some of the literature classes I had in college, I was comfortable taking on those challenges. I realize that all students do not have high self efficacy, and teachers can play a key role in helping students develop a positive outlook about taking on challenges in the classroom. I think that self efficacy can have a huge impact on student reading. Reading is involved in so much of what students do in school so self efficacy can certainly impact academic success.
I would have to say that my worst subject is science. I have never been interested in the subject, therefore I don't try as hard as I should. I feel that I have excelled in all other academics, but science is my weakness. I never had a teacher who really taught science the way I learned to teach science. I took a class over the summer on how to teach science to elementary students. It was so much fun. I can say that is the first time I ever enjoyed science. But I believe this is because the teacher I had (Dr. Wise)was amazing. He taught me how to have fun and learn at the same time. I hope that I can do that for my students. If I can make reading fun for my students and include their interests, hopefully they can succeed.
I have always struggled with science and math. I have always had to work extra hard to grasp certain concepts and to obtain good grades. Through my years in school, I did have low self-efficacy but quickly turned it to positive self-efficacy. In the lower grades I did attend Chapter math which was extra math instruction. This often had an impact on my attitude towards math because I can remember feeling less of a person because I needed extra help. IN high school and college I recognized that those were not my strong subjects and learned I had to work harder to get passing grades. I also realized that I would never be a A student when it came to math and science. Self -efficacy does have a huge impact on reading. If students get an attitude of failure, it takes a lot of time to turn that attitude around. I want to instill confidence in my students and help them to believe in themselves. I am a big believer of "try, try, try again." Reading is the key to future success and I want my students to learn that it can be fun.
As a child and adolescent, I struggled with math in school. I truly believed I would never be able to succeed in math. After the first semester of my freshman year of college, I ended up dropping out because I could not pass my college math courses and I felt like I would never graduate from college for this reason. It wasn't until I went back to college in my late 20's that I overcame my fear of failure in math. Today, as a fourth grade teacher, my favorite subject to teach my students is math. I believe my struggles with mathematics as a young student has given me the compassion I need to help my students who are also struggling with this subject and other subjects, such as reading. I have observed students who do not feel confident when they read and it negatively affects their attitudes towards reading for enjoyment in the classroom. I work really hard to try to make reading fun in the classroom by encouraging students to read what they are interested in and by giving them time to do that on a regular basis in the classroom.
My worst subject was science. I hated science and still do. After about forth grade I no longer understood any of the science concepts. I took one year of science in high school because that is all I was required to take. I worked hard to barely pass the class. I also took what I had to in junior college and I had to have the instructor tutor me . I ended up with a C and it was earned. I have very low self efficacy when it comes to science. Since I don't understand most of the concepts I get frustrated and give up easily. It really affected my confidence. I have no hope of ever being able to grasp the concepts of science. I think self efficacy affects my students reading because they are already struggling with reading and because they are having problems with it it makes their confidence go down. One of the classes I am teaching is students who are on a lower reading level. They dont want to read out loud because they have a difficulty with reading. They have very low self esteem in class which we are trying to help them build.
My worst subject in high school was physical education. Since I was born in July, I was allowed to enter first grade at age 7, while all the German kids who were born in earlier months had to go to school at 6. It thus happened that I was the oldest, tallest, thinnest, and weakest in class, and that my classmates were - well, the opposite. Alas, the exercises were evaluated according to a chart composed of age and height. Thus, when we were doing shot-put, I always had to throw the huge 5 kilogram ball, while my smaller, younger classmates got the tiny 3 kg balls. I hardly managed to lift it, much less toss it, and let it fall right before my feet into the gym floor through the hole for the tennis net pole ;-( My physical ed teacher yelled, "The cellar ghosts are coming out!", and the others laughed. I hated sports, and in ball games the other kids never let me get close to the ball for fear their team would lose. I was never selected into a team; I was always left over and assigned to one who then complained. A low self-esteem in physical education ("I'm stiff, anyway") made it even harder for me to succeed, until the lucky time came when I could select my subjects in 11th grade, and got rid of physical education to focus on my five languages where I could get A's.
When I talk about my "students" I will refer to my third track students, 9th grade, whom I student-taught in 2006-07. We had an elevated chair for one child to sit on while doing a read-aloud in front of the class. It was a class of 17 low income, mostly minority students with little vocabulary exposure, learning disabilities, attention deficits and lots of behavioral problems. We had two children that could read aloud (the overall age level was 15!); the rest were still spelling out words, stammering, and asking for help when a word had more than 5 or 6 letters. We had one kid in there who had been in a bad car accident at age 5, and had to re-learn all his speech. He tested as a second-grader, the others as about fourth-graders. Their reading was a catastrophe, and I didn't agree with my cooperating teacher for pulling kids out on the high chair and having them make a fool of themselves in front of the class.
Some students would openly exclaim, "I can't read," or "I hate to read out loud," trying to avoid the assignment. It didn't help; all had to go on the high chair in a row. Some kids made fun of the process by reading extra slowly, with invented intonation and rhythm. Others tried real hard, and were laughed at by their peers who had no mercy whatsoever. Those with the lowest self-esteem read with a very low voice.
The strategy I used when I took over this class (a 6t hour, where kids don't concentrate any more, anyway!) was to use a textbook I had bought (after having read research about it) that contained lesson plans using rap music. The kids learned rhetorical figures, style, rime, prose, poems, etc. by using rap examples, and creating some themselves, performing them in front of the class. I found out that this strategy really worked, and they even had fun with it.
Furthermore, I used educational mangas in addition to their textbooks, in the belief that comic books would interest them more than the latter. This way, they understood the story of Helen Keller before reading part of the original drama, and before staging a scene of the story (which we put on video tape). Since the school did not provide this kind of material, I had to acquire it myself.
Another thing I tried with these struggling readers and writers was image poetry. The students had to illustrate haikus or other short poems, e.g. by e e cummings. They really liked to express their "inner image" that they got when reading the texts.
To sum up, singling out struggling readers or writers does not work, and exposing them to peer ridicule is damaging; meeting their needs with special learning material and teaching strategies does a better job, and is more motivating and less threatening.
I am a bit phobic of technology. I don't avoid it, but I don't have high expectations of figuring things out with it. I get a panic feeling when I need to respond to different activities using technology as I have had very limited instruction. I did take a continuing education class several years ago at Logan on using the internet when that became widespread. In contrast, I had the mindset that I could not do physics and never took a course in that. Similarly, low self-efficacy feelings can easily impact reading. If one thinks she is not good at it, motivation to try often decreases. If it is not practiced, one does not improve skills. Those students get farther behind and the gap between them and competent readers increases. As teachers we need to try many methods and monitor progress of those who struggle in emergent and beginning reading, so children don't label themselves as poor readers leading to a downward spiral. Being involved on a personal level with struggling students may increase motivation. Teacher and student may jointly decide what the reading goals are that would make the student feel successful. Following it up with a choice of interesting reading material and authentic activities may help.
I excelled in most subjects in school, but in 4th grade I struggled in social studies. I had trouble locating states on a map of the U.S., especially those boxy western states. I received a C in 4th grade social studies, and I was so mortified that I wouldn't show my friends my grade card. I don't know if I didn't believe in myself, but I do remember feeling like I wanted to quit and couldn't wait to get past that unit. As a child, I was good at many things and really good at a few, so I didn't encounter too many struggles. Yet, when I did, I quickly gave up. Even as an adult, if I feel like I'm going to fail, I may not try something (like golfing for instance).
I've noticed when students believe that they are not smart enough or capable enough, they often shut down or act like they don't care. Many have them have been sent the message, directly or indirectly, that they are stupid and incapable and they start to develop learned helplessness. I have to work really hard to provide them with opportunities for success. It's amazing to watch a student go from feeling hopeless and frustrated to realizing they can do something they didn't think was possible.
With reading, self-efficacy is definitely important. If students who have low self-efficacy encounter a difficult text to read, they often will refuse to read it. I see this happen all the time with my students in American Literature. If they can't understand the vocabulary or dialect or some other aspect of a text, they label it as dumb or pointless and try to fight reading it. I have had to work hard to offer them tools for when they encounter difficult texts, but it is absolutely an uphill battle.
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