Ch. 9 Questions:
1. Does Mr. Kessinger's class represent a community of learners as defined in Ch. 7? Why or why not?
It is not a community of learners because the students and teacher are not working together to come to an understanding of the concepts. The teacher just asks questions and either says it is correct or not. He doesn’t give feedback that would help them to think and to expand their understanding.
2. Does Mr. Kessinger utilize presentation punishment or removal punishment with Robin? Justify your response. I don’t think you can just pick one. I think that he showed signs of both punishments. He uses presentation punishment when he gives yells at her and gives her negative attention. He also uses removal punishment when he takes away her concept map and rips them up.
3. Explain Robin's reaction in Ms. Yamashita's class from the perspective of classical conditioning. She had been conditioned in Mr. Kessinger’s class that when a teacher came over to her desk, looked and picked up her work (stimuli) that then she would be yelled at and be made to feel horrible (response). Therefore when the teacher picked up her work she felt bad and had to leave.
4. How might Ms. Yamashita encourage Robin to create concept maps in the future? Include behavioral concepts such as shaping, reinforcement, etc., in your response. She can encourage and reinforce (shape) when Robin takes notes in class. Then move towards her make the concept map. By reinforcing her good behavior a lot at first it will help to break some of the barriers (bad conditioned habits).
Ch. 10 Questions:
1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with an example from the case study. Ms. Yamashita demonstrates vicarious reinforcement by telling the whole class how good Robin’s concept map is. By praising Robin’s work she is reinforcing that behavior for the rest of the class.
2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning. I do not think that he is considering it at all. Reciprocal causation is how the environment, personality, and behavior are interlinked and influence learning. If he had considered it then he would realize that his classroom environment does not promote learning. The stress level in the classroom is very high because of how he asks his questions and has no room for mistakes.
3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning. Self-motivation is the process she is using. She is motivated to learn the material and write it down in a way that connects the concepts to each other. She doesn't have to do this but as she said to the teacher is it about learning and that is what she is was trying to do.
4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience? Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study. I think that her self-efficacy has gone down in Effort and Persistence, and also Learning and Achievement. She never took notes again in Mr. Kessinger’s class which is a sign that has lost some of her self-efficacy in the area of effort. Her self-efficacy also went down in the area of Learning and Achievement. You can see this also by her not taking notes. You cannot learn things if you are not participating in that learning.
