Becoming - a Feeling Before a Result

Midterms are here and we get to pause and relax with spring break. But before the break, there is a mad dash to get everything taken care of. My students are taking their third exam right now on cognitive development and motivation. And I am almost finished reading Michele Obama's memoir, Becoming. The book is structured mostly chronologically beginning with a description of her childhood on the Southside of Chicago. She admitted that the public school teachers didn't always care and that resources at the schools were scarce at times. In hindsight, Michelle knows that she was fortunate enough to have a parent that advocated for her education and participated in the PTA. Her mother knew about the opportunities available and encouraged her academic success. Michelle described herself as an ambitious and competitive student from day one when her Kindergarten teacher tested her class on sight words. She misspelled white and demanded a retest the next day. She was determined and excelled. Her stories are intertwined with reflections on education. The following is the most memorable, as she repeats it throughout the book:

This is a quote I will make sure to include in my future lectures on the social cognitive perspective of learning because what we think and feel are shaped by others and REALLY make an impact on our behavior. The same goes for becoming. We have to feel success, self-efficacy, before we actually become successful. Above all other self-beliefs, Albert Bandura, believed that self-efficacy was the MOST important.

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The Writing on the Wall: Arguing Against Spanking

It's the 5th week of school and by now we have covered behaviorism and operant conditioning in all three of the classes I teach. I teach that we reinforce productive, desirable behavior before punishing undesirable behavior, and that removal punishment (taking away a privilege or object) should be used before resorting to presentation punishment (scolding or a negative consequence). This is counterintuitive, especially because many of us were raised in environments in which corporal punishment was normative. Discussion is always freeform in my classes and comments are encouraged. I present concrete situations from real life, like my daughter drawing on the wall or a student not being able to stay seated during on-task time. Inevitably spanking comes up in these educational psychology discussions. "If you just pop them, then they will stop immediately... If I got hit, I never did the thing again... little kids are too young to understand other consequences..." As a mot

On Fridays We Wear Red

Today is the last day of the first week of the spring semester at Valdosta State University . Every Friday we wear red to show school spirit. I went ahead and just bought red glasses to make things easier! This semester I *get to* teach two sections of an introductory educational psychology course, called Exploring Learning and Teaching, along with an online section of Educational Psychology for Teaching Adults. These are not new preps; in other words, I have taught these classes before and get to have fun with them. This first week is just an introduction so I chose to try out this empathetic syllabi review exercise from the blog, Faculty Focus . In my face-to-face sections, I asked students to bring in their syllabi and critically review them for missing information, as well as mark important dates in their calendars (paper or electronic). This then facilitated a discussion about why some instructors may leave out due dates or points for each assignment. This is my attempt t

Gamification for ADHD: This week's experience with Forest

This week I learned about an app, called Forest , from an academic mom group and immediately had to try it. Here is a really good review all about the app by Amy French. I did spring for the $1.99 paid version that allows you to connect with friends... This is a perfect example of gamification applied to staying on task, which is a primary problem for those of us who struggle with ADHD. Elements of gamification that the app uses includes points (leaves) earned for minutes spent on task. This is measured by not being able to toggle to any other app on the phone. One of my friends already pointed out that a browser version would be more helpful for her and guess what?!? The developers of Forest have a free Chrome extension you can use. For every block of time spent on task/off your phone (25 minutes is the default setting), your forest grows a tree and you earn points . With points (leaves) you can buy ( unlock ) special privileges, background music/sounds, and different types o

Dr. Arrastía-Chisholm: Professor Mom

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