This reminds me of a study out of Kentucky not too long ago where a new 
science teaching program was being tried out on two classes in a high 
school.   THe two teachers were given the same training and for all 
intents and purposes, the students were of similar background and 
education--they were not divided for the purposes of the trial of the 
program.   At the end of the year, one class had done extremely well on 
the program, while the other had done rather poorly.  Those studying 
the situation finally concluded that the only factor that differed 
signficantly between the two classes was the attitudes/expectations of 
the teachers-- the teacher of the successful class expected that her 
students would do well with the new program, while the other teacher 
had openly expressed her doubt that her students would be able to 
manage it--and they didn't.    This is known in psychology, I believe, 
as the Pygmalion effect-- you become what your teacher expects you to 
become.    Robin Lovrien Schwarz  ( I am in the throes of moving and 
cannot dig up that reference just now--will do so if anyone is 
interested-- try me in 2 weeks.  Robin )

-----Original Message-----
From: bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net
To: b.garner4 at verizon.net; focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Sent: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 9:13 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 492] Re: Low Self-Esteem: Myth or Reality? Some 
comments

This posting has jogged my memory about a study that
was done in Oakland CA with the teachers of Asian
students in Oakland High School.  As I recall,
students from families that were in the higher
socio-economic strata in their country of origin as
well as students from families in the lowest
socio-economic strata, in this case the grave diggers'
families, out performed their fellow students of all
racial backgrounds.  The study concluded this was
largely due to teacher expectation--teachers expected
Asian students to do well in school and interacted
with them accordingly, another factor to consider when
discussing student self esteem.  If I can find the
study, I will share with the discussion group.  I
believe it was conducted by the University of
California, Berkeley.  Bonnita

--- Barbara Garner <b.garner4 at verizon.net> wrote:


> 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

>

>

>

>

>

> =====================

> From: "Anastasiya A. Lipnevich" <ana at optimaltec.com>

> Date: 2006/09/25 Mon PM 09:17:44 CDT

> To: The Focus on Basics Discussion List

> <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>

> Subject: [FocusOnBasics 489] Low Self-Esteem: Myth

> or Reality? Some comments

>

>

> Dear All,

>  Thank youfor such a great discussion. Below I will

> try to address some of yourcomments.

> __________________

>

>  Andres,

> It lookslike we are coming from different research

> paradigms, and our views onresearchin general and

> measurement in particular somewhat diverge. Here is

> mytake onsome of the issues you raised.

> 1. I haveto disagree with your conceptualization of

> self-esteem. I believe thatwhat youdescribe is

> actually socio-economic status (e.g. possessions,

> wealth,jobstatus), a construct commonly regarded as

> conceptually different fromself-esteem. There are

> studies that show a high correlation

> betweenself-esteemand SES, therefore, the two are,

> in fact, closely tied.

> Is itreally possible and/or meaningful to tease them

> apart? I do think so.Scientific method and

> characteristics thereof drive us

> towardsconceptualparsimony when operationalizing and

> actually measuring constructs ofinterest.It doesn’t

> mean that self esteem (or motivation, or engagement,

> etc)stand ontheir own. They are closely related to

> numerous variables, however, acorpus ofliterature

> demonstrates that attempts to measure them as

> separateconstructs doyield meaningful results and

> help advance our understanding of humannature.

> Additionally,what immediately comes to mind is that

> some components ofsocio-economic status(i.e.

> financial well-being) of PhD students may be worse

> than that ofworkingadult literacy students. So, the

> findings of the present study do notnecessarily

> contradict your take on the matter.

>  

> 2. Inpsychological research, self-esteem is

> typically defined in terms ofhow weevaluate

> ourselves and our characteristics, the "personal

> judgment ofworthiness that is expressed in the

> attitudes the individual holdstoward himself,"in the

> words of Coopersmith, a pioneering researcher in the

> field. Itis afuzzy construct but a certain consensus

> has developed. Many seem toagree thatself esteem can

> be differentiated into global and specific self

> esteem.Globalrepresents a general attitude towards

> oneself, and can be considered atraitself-esteem,

> whereas specific self-esteems concern particular

> areas ofpeople’slives.

>  Self-affirmation theory (Steel,1988) suggests that

> people cope with negative outcomes in one domain

> byfocusing on their achievements in other, unrelated

> domains. This meansthat individualswith high global

> self-esteem would feel overall quite competent

> evenwhen theiracademic self-esteem is low.

> Low-literate adults who have failedacademicallybut

> succeed in other aspects of their lives may have a

> high generalself-esteemthat will allow them to lead

> full, not deficient, lives. Adult literacylearners

> often look at themselves as competent workers,

> parents, andcitizens,which may partially compensate

> for their lack of literacy. Talkingabout

> adultliteracy students in terms of their

> deficiencies and abnormally lowself-esteemjust adds

> to the existing stigma.

>  3. This study doesn’t suggest thatself-esteem of

> adult students is high. Rather, that it doesn’t

> differsignificantly from the self-esteem of the PhD

> students. Since we don’tconsiderraising self-esteem

> of the latter group to be our primary goal,focusing

> onraising self esteem of the former group represents

> a logical skew withpotential pernicious corollaries,

> with the most dangerous one being, asHal and

> Isuggested in our report, that it may strengthen the

> existing stigma.Self-esteem is crucial for success

> in academic settings for bothgroups; but perhapsit

> is best addressed through strong pedagogy by helping

> studentssucceed intheir academic pursuits.

>  ___________________

> Gina andVirginia raised a question about self-esteem

> of learners incorrectionaleducational programs.

> Unfortunately, I am not familiar with

> existingliteratureon the matter. However, during my

> recent presentation at the AERAconference,one of the

> attendees who teaches in a prison described her

> students ashavinghigh self-esteem. I cannot judge

> the validity of her conclusions sincetheywere based

> solely on her observations; it’s just interesting

> toconsider.

> ___________________________

> Thanksagain to everyone – I am really enjoying this

> discussion.

>  Ana.

>

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