Social Cognitive Theory

Which of the learning activities/skills can you think of that lend themselves to learning through modeling?

I believe that both academic skills as well as interpersonal behaviors lend themselves to learning through modeling. I like the idea of verbal, descriptive explanations. While I am explaining, for instance, a math problem, I would model a very clear thinking process so that my students could see that led to success, and wish to copy the same steps. I might also talk out how I used the context clues in a reading to allow me to figure out what a challenging word meant. If students are able to interpret these processes as the road to success, hopefully, they will willingly choose to model these steps, and in turn raise their self efficacy. I believe by modeling acceptable and wise actions, students will respect that, and choose to imitate. In this way, they would be gaining a sense of what a respectable person looks like and acquiring much needed interpersonal skills.

How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

Sometimes by having someone other than yourself (the teacher) explain why certain behaviors are beneficial, professionals in their field are inspiration enough to raise students’ ways. In my case study, Lisa is extremely disruptive in her group, and will not allow work to get done unless she gets the job she wants. I think the idea of having a respectable person everyone is familiar with would be a great idea to raise my students (and in particular, Lisas) self efficacy, but I know that will most likely be possible. So, I would probably search the web for a good video of a famous person that emphasizes only by working together, and setting productive goals can we become successful. In this way, she would not just be hearing these words from me, but someone who seemed larger than life. This would hopefully allow her to redirect her behavior toward productivity. Once her self-efficacy increases, we could work on self-regulation skills and how to make her a student that is more in line with her success based on strategies she can do for herself.