#1
When I was teaching my IADDIM lessons I noticed that my student was not seeming to understand quite as well. She seemed very nervous to give me the wrong answer, and was yelling out anything she thought could be a possibility without understanding why she was saying the answers she chose. It was not until we brought a little fun into the room and made her realize that wrong answers are not only ok, but helpful. Once she realized I was not there to judge her for being wrong she started to really engage. All it took was a few goofy minutes with me throwing fraction pieces for her to let go of reservations she had about learning.
#2
In my classroom interim grades were given out between first and second period. These are not final grades, but rather a way for students to see how they are doing about halfway through the quarter. I noticed that one student after receiving hers had her head down and was upset. She did not want to work, and we took a walk to talk about what was upsetting her. She told me about how she was upset about her grades and it made her shut down. We talked about how the grades she got were not bad, and if she wanted to improve them she absolutely had the ability to do that because she was very smart and still had time. I gave her a pep talk about how she is worth so much more than an A or a B, and when we went back to the classroom she got right to work and was completely engaged in the lesson.
#3
There was a student in my class who was clearly still in letter production stage. When doing interactive notebooks or writing any notes for the class he would fall behind and tell himself aloud that he could not do it. During my time in class I worked one on one with him to keep up while writing notes. Part of what I did was writing what he needed to write on my notebook so the teacher could continue without him missing information. The largest thing I did though was encouraging him to believe in himself and giving deposits every time he was giving good effort. By the end of the semester he was able to complete the notes without any help.
#4
“Self-Doubt and Self-Esteem: A Threat From Within”Hermann, A., Leonardelli, G., & Arkin, R. (2002). Self-doubt and self-esteem: A threat from within. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(3), 395-408.
This article talks about the differences between self doubt and self esteem. It also talks about the what self doubt and self esteem mean in our lives. For example They talk about how self doubt refers to a specific skill or area that you feel unequipped to handle where as self esteem tends to be more of an overview of yourself as a person. They did psychological research and found that certain mental cues can cause people to self identify with a higher or lower self esteem.
#5
When thinking about my question in relation to my tutee I have to wonder how to sort out all other factors to determine if her struggle in other situations really is a self-esteem or testing anxiety problem. After a few weeks working together it seems like her progress it not as much as I had expected. Knowing that this is a situation where child study is being proposed it seems difficult to say that the issue could be testing anxiety. While that is a very real possibility and may be one of multiple factors it seems like maybe something else is playing a larger role.
#6
While in class today the teacher asked for a volunteer to read a paragraph from the notebook. My tutee volunteered and in her loudest and proudest voice read the entire paragraph with only one or two words that were corrected by the teacher. It was clear that she was feeling very confident and had high self-esteem in that moment.
#7
I feel like the one thing I am not seeing in research is what we can do to combat self esteem issues in students. We can’t give them self esteem, but we are certainly able to help them find their own self worth. It would be interesting to see more research on building self esteem and how that would affect test scores.
#8
It seems to me based on my experience teaching lessons in my placement as well as observing others that the reason self esteem has such an affect on academic achievement is because it allows students to really engage in what is happening. This really seems like it relates back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. If students have high self esteem it means their needs are being met, and they are in a place where they can learn and engage. The things that tend to take away from self esteem affect the hierarchy of needs. This would suggest that students would not learn as much in that head space.
#9
The Paradox of Low Academic Achievement but High Self-Esteem in African American Students: An Attributional Account”
Van Laar, C. (2000). The paradox of low academic achievement but high self-esteem in african american students: An attributional account. Educational Psychology Review, 12(1), 33-61
This article looks at the differences in self esteem between White and African American students. The author immediately mentions that theorists say a portion of the problem is that lower academic achievement can lead to a lower perceived self-worth. She splits the possibilities into two models; the self-esteem model and the external attribution model. The biggest difference in the models is that in the external attribution model there is a third spout which is controllable and allows them to see their self worth as not related to achievement because of a messed up system.
#10
After thinking about this research question and understanding that there is a relationship between self- esteem and academic achievement I wonder what kind of professional development could be implemented to help teachers learn how to better support their students?
The research memos I collected proved one thing to me that I think some of the research might have a more difficult time proving. There is a correlation between academic achievement and self-esteem. Having seen it first hand on numerous occasions I know that there is something about self- esteem and how we perceive ourselves that makes a difference academically. I wonder how much of the real problem is self esteem and how much of the problem is lack of the correct supports. I think it would be interesting to do further research on ways to most effectively raise self-esteem, and ways to know in a shorter time span that self esteem is not the problem. I also wonder how the self esteem of peers and teachers could have an effect on the class. My research focused more on self reflection, not on how low self esteem could change the experience of another person. I think it would be interesting to see how a teacher with lower perceived self-esteem impacts a classroom when compared to a teacher who have higher perceived self-esteem?