Ch. 10 Case Study

1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with an example from the case study.

Mr. Kessinger is using vicarious reinforcement. Prior to his altercation with Robin he chastised Micki for admitting the truth that he didn’t know the answer to his inquiry. He followed this up with further humiliation when Micki tried to reason a response. So by the time it reached Robin, she was already nervous. Perhaps she knew the answer, but with Micki being treated substandard before her, the stakes became higher and so did the tension. She ultimately referred to her notes and was even more humiliated for having the answer but not having it committed to memory. After class she was blustered up by other students in the class who felt the teacher demeaning. These student too recognized what was being taught by Mr. Kessinger and are likely to not participate to the fullest of their ability due to fear and intimidation. Mr. Kessinger has now created an environment or perpetuated mediocrity due to his lack of discretion and teaching skills.

2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning.

Based upon his reinforcement and vicarious punishment encouraged and engaged in within the classroom, Mr. Kessinger is completely ignoring the ideas that behavior and environment are all intertwined with the individual themselves and therefore are cyclical in nature. Robin will not perform again which will affect his teaching environment and therefore the behaviors of her clique of friends who will retaliate in support … he has destroyed any credibility he might have previously had in favor of anger and distress.

3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning.

It appears that Robin might be engaging herself within Attention Control. Possibly not, but you can argue tat she created a concept map for the very reason that she knew she couldn’t regulate so many facts and dates together so wanted to interlink the ideas into a better form of note taking. She is already self-motivated enough to enhance her study and now needs the added form of recall and focus found within the complexities of a concept map.

4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience? Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study.

If individuals are more likely to engage in activities they believe they will be able to execute successfully, then Robin will no longer engage in class and not prepare. She put in great deals of effort and persistence (as evident by Ms. Yamashita’s praise). She wanted to learn, wanted to have greater understanding and knowledge. She wanted to achieve a sense of security (hence the detail in the concept map and the very idea of creating a concept map to link ideas and concepts together). This day will be considered a failure for Robin (again as evident by her running out of Ms. Yamashita’s class). Self-efficacy is based a lot on our ability to trust ourselves, feel successful and receive positive cues and message from others. Robin watched failure in Micky, watched an ineffectual teacher attempt to communicate through the basest of means, and ended up with low self-efficacy. She never again makes notes and has lost a sense of achievement and trust in herself. One teacher at one moment has broken this student for a very long time.