Ch. 10 Social Cognitivism

WHAT
In class we talked about social cognitivism. The two main characteristics of social cognitivism are; reinforcement behaviorism and motivation attention memory. We also learned that learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to a behavior change. People learn by observing others and, in the process, begin to assume control over their own behavior.
Reciprocal causation deals with three subjects: Motivating beliefs, perceptions, values, emotions, meanings, Environmental factors (reinforcers, punishers), and Behavior. These three things move in a cycle. The power of expectations are: The rewards or punishments a student receives in present or past makes them able to predict what will happen in the future. When a teacher is in the process of shaping a class. The teacher is acquiring a behavior they use continuous reinforcement and as time goes on in order to maintain the behavior the teacher's reinforcement is minimized. As a teacher we need to be consistent and build trust with the student.
Some characteristics of social cognitivism to look for are: Modeling-ARMM-attention, Self Regulation-goals/setting, Self Efficacy-How we achieve the goal- self challenging tasks in their ZPD, vicarious learning- monkey see monkey do, reinforcement/punishment, self instruction, vicarious reinforcement/punishment, and self evaluation.

SO WHAT
Now that we have learned about social cognitivism we can understand why children mimic adults and things they see on video games or television. We can see how much this can effect a child's personality, actions, and feelings. This is very key because when we teach we need to make sure we are being a good example and modeling good behavior. Also we need to make sure we are giving reinforcers to good behavior, cuing, using precision commands, and giving punishment to behaviors we don't want to see in our classroom.
I liked when Dr. Cox said, "Don't smile until after Christmas." because the statement is very true. We need to be stern and strict at the beginning to shape our students with the behaviors that we want and then later on we can let off and give them some slack. It is a lot harder to be "easy going" at the beginning and then try and change it to a strict, stern atmosphere later on. Making sure we are being consistent on the rewards and punishments is key because the students will then predict what will happen in the future. Therefore, they will do, or not do, a specific behavior because of what they will get in return.

NOW WHAT
When I become a teacher I am going to have to watch what I do and say because students will be absorbing all that I do and they will look up to me. I want them to have good attitudes, be respectful, and have responsibility. Therefore, I need to have a good attitude, be respectful to them, and show that I am responsible. Some ways of doing this are: Be excited about EVERY subject I teach, be courteous, give positive feedback, compliment them on specific things they did that impressed me, be on time, and always be available for them if they have questions on assignments or grades. Most of these things come naturally but I know I still need to work on all of them. Especially giving SPECIFIC compliments to students. Because I tend to generalize them.
I need to make sure I can remember to be strict and "not smile before Christmas" because I can see myself being to sweet and easy on them at the beginning. I want them to think I'm a fun/cool teacher. This will be very hard for me to do but that is my goal. I am going to have a strict, stern, and organized classroom so that the students will be angels by the middle of the year. I need to also make sure I am being consistent with rewards and punishments so that I will build that trust with my students. This will help them be able to understand the expectations that I expect from each of them.