Well Said Bonnita. I agree that involving the student in goal setting and evaluation is an essential part of a successfull, collaborative educational experience. This has the added bonus of teaching goal setting skills at the same time as you teach your specific subject area. I also think it is important to celebrate success when goals are reached.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig Alinder
Escuela del Sol Montessori
1114 Seventh St. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87110
http://www.merchant-reviews.com 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bonnita Solberg" <bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net>
To: "The Focus on Basics Discussion List" <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:10 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 501] Re: Low Self-Esteem: Myth or Reality?Somecomments



> One way an educator can focus on success without

> unwarranted external praise is a collaboration between

> teacher and student to set individual goals for the

> student's participation in the program.  The result is

> a reasonable, definable and practical measure for

> success that is backed by a student portfolio which

> includes test results, samples of class work, ESL

> Diary, etc.  All this feedback, together with

> anonymous student evaluation of tasks assigned by the

> teacher. informs the instructional process, thereby

> insuring that teaching methods and goals are meeting

> the needs of the students.  We also give certificates

> when stduents are advanced to the next level and

> generally have a celebration to acknowledge their

> success.  Some students have commented that they have

> never received any recognition, including a

> certificate.  I for one use "smiley faces

> reinforcement" only rarely so the impact is greater

> than if used on a daily basis, although I do "smile"

> often during class and use humor as often as

> appropriate.  Bonnita  

> 

> --- Craig Alinder <info at gaming-pc.net> wrote:

> 

>> In my experience with Montessori education

>> unqualified praise will actually rob a child of

>> their efforts and lead them to believe they should

>> not do things for their own worth, but solely for

>> the external praise. Personally, I believe the same

>> applies to those educating adults. Any attempt to

>> falsely raise someone's self-esteem without any

>> effort or reason for the praise, will undercut any

>> real attempt at praise when something significant is

>> accomplished. Praise loses its worth when it is

>> doled out constantly. It must be reserved for those

>> moments of success through effort, even if the

>> successes are small ones. I have a feeling there is

>> probably a statistical bell curve of educators based

>> on what is considered a "successful moment"

>> deserving praise. It seems instincts and experience

>> are the guides at this point.

>> 

>> What I feel is important to point out, is that the

>> work that the educator must carefully consider what

>> level of work to give each individual to ensure

>> success is possible. In this sense, self-esteem is

>> taken into consideration, as the student must feel

>> they have a chance of success to even make an

>> attempt at completing the task at hand. Those are my

>> thoughts on the subject.

>> 

>> Craig

>> 

>> 

>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>> Craig Alinder

>> Escuela del Sol Montessori

>> 1114 Seventh St. NW

>> Albuquerque, NM 87110

>> http://www.merchant-reviews.com 

>>   ----- Original Message ----- 

>>   From: Anastasiya A. Lipnevich 

>>   To: The Focus on Basics Discussion List 

>>   Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 4:51 PM

>>   Subject: [FocusOnBasics 495] Re: Low Self-Esteem:

>> Myth or Reality? Somecomments

>> 

>> 

>> Hi Barb! You raised intriguing questions and I would

>> love to hear educators' thoughts on this matter. 

>> >From my personal observations, informal

>> conversations, and formal interviews with adult

>> literacy teachers, I noticed that educators could be

>> roughly split into two groups: those who believe

>> that one of the key concerns of adult literacy is to

>> raise learners' self-esteem because it's very low,

>> and unless they do it, students cannot succeed, and

>> those who think that teachers need to teach students

>> skills and knowledge, and that self-esteem will

>> naturally follow. If we look at Bandura's research,

>> he believed that the relationship between

>> self-efficacy (a concept, similar to self-esteem)

>> and achievement follows the latter pattern -- you

>> learn to do something well and your feeling of

>> self-efficacy goes up, which, in turn, affects what

>> you do in the future. Years of research showed that

>> attempts to artificially build up students'

>> self-esteem by praising every little thing they do

>> (playing a "cheerleaders' role", as Hal puts it) and

>> such, are very unlikely to lead to increas

>> ed sense of competence and self-worth. Therefore,

>> starting off from the assumption about learners' low

>> self-esteem would seem to be not quite as beneficial

>> to students as simply trying to help them learn. 

>> 

>> The study definitely needs replication -- we can't

>> really generalize our findings since only one adult

>> learning center was used as our research setting. I

>> have been recently contacted by a GED instructor

>> from one of the Illinois colleges, who is interested

>> in replicating my study. I am really looking forward

>> to hear about the findings. If they are similar to

>> mine, it will certainly make the case stronger. 

>> Thank you for your comments!

>> 

>> Ana.

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> This discussion is rich and fascinating. 

>> 

>> I'm very taken with Anastasiya's research,

>> particularly since her findings resonate with much

>> of my classroom experience. Of course, it is only

>> one study and certainly needs to be replicated with

>> similar and different populations to see how robust

>> the findings are. 

>> 

>> In the meantime, I wonder how tied we are as

>> teachers to the idea that our students have low self

>> esteem. What role does that idea have in our views

>> of ourselves as teachers?

>> Barb Garner

>> Editor, Focus on Basics

>> 

>>

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