These have been tough issues for me (not that the other topics have been particularly easy). It try to setup a situation where students feel that they have a safe place to ask questions and I stress (oops…not the best choice of words) that we are all learning from each other. Because my focus at CCNY has been to teach a large lecture hyflex class I have been grappling with the issues of inclusion and self-efficacy. I try to present the class from the perspective that we are all learning from each other (including myself) and that the natural process of learning is to explore and not always have the answer to questions (honestly, if we did life would be boring).
Based on the great comments and ideas shared by everyone I hope to start the Fall semester by having a discussion on Mindset as a segue into Cognition. I plan to relate issues that we have spoken about to Cognition and how our exploration of Cognition relates to our lives on a practical level. Finally, I also find that most of my students play it safe. This manifests itself by students wanting very specific instructions and responding with safe answers. I try to give students questions that don’t necessarily have a right/wrong answer but depends more on how they formulate the answer based on their beliefs.
Any additional ideas/thoughts are always welcome and much appreciated……..
One thought on “Topic-3: Reflections on Self-Efficacy & Belief Systems”
Topic 3 was an amalgam of what I learned in topics two and three, with some powerful new insights and information. A comment about Intent vs. Impact really caught my ear. I found it very important to accept and attempt to understand, through dialogue, when I say, do or imply something to anyone. Our purpose in this institute begins with our professorial duties and responsibilities, and with that in mind, I will continue to enhance my formal training in conflict resolution and mediation. The unknown message that is communicated throughout the semester requires me (us) to leave our minds open to anything that comes our way. This approach will help cultivate a student’s belonging and understanding of their own sense of purpose in the course. Since each student brings their own sociology and worldview, we must listen and explore their perspectives and feelings about what I (we) might say or how I (we) might say something. This in turn will build their social skills, within the constraints of the course construct and eventually, with the best of outcomes, increase motivation. I believe my conscious understanding of my own purpose, growth mindset, confidence, worldview and history, will naturally help each student with their individual growth mindset, wherever they might be in this process.
I am clearer about how so many these topics intersect and are subsets of some universal set. Dr. Joshua M. Aronson’s talk is already helping me prune what I am doing in the classroom. I am thinking of new ways to pique interest or start a path to being interested. I purposefully make errors during the first few lectures, and it gives me an opportunity to share that this will happen during our semester together. My hope is that someone will say something and make us aware of it. If not, then I will point it out eventually. I usually say, “You will have incorrect notes, and then when you reread them or someone in your family reads them, the error continues and continues.”. ( Jajajaja) This performance usually draws interest in how I will score exams and how it intersects with my pedagogical style. A “person-to-person” conversation begins, and our family starts to grow.
I took a course, taught through the Motivate Lab, during the pandemic. I am currently in training to become a CUNY Mindset Ambassador.