Activity 7.5

Outliers: The Story of Success

What is the author's main point (or two points) here? Is he correct?

The main point of Gladwell's (2008) excerpts is how culture can affect our behaviors, and in this case how having a culture of hard work and effort ingrained in your society can affect your view and behaviors surrounding education. I do believe that Gladwell is correct though I did find myself slightly incredulous when he wanted to so strongly tie it only to cultivating rice. If I've learned one thing about human behavior it is that there is never a simple explanation and it is never one thing.

How do the factors discussed by the author fit into a social cognitive theoretical framework (if they do at all)?

When Gladwell (2008) discussed Asian cultures he discussed how the expectation that hard work and effort is the explanation for success and how in North American culture we have expectations that your skill in math is based on something unchangeable like how smart you are. Clearly, Gladwell is of a similar mindset as Dweck. Dweck (2006) discussed the fixed mindset such as the belief that you are either good at math or not versus the more malleable growth mindset in which hard work, effort, and challenges lead to gains in your abilities. He also discussed how rice farmers must "believe in the efficacy of their own work" (Gladwell, 2008, p. 237). Again, this confidence in your effort and competence is echoed in Parajes (2006) article. Parajes (2006) states that those who are self-efficacious "work harder, persist longer, persevere in the face of adversity, have greater optimism and lower anxiety, and achieve more" (p. 343).

Are the author's views consistent with any other views we've read this semester? How so? How are they different?

In reading Gladwell's (2008) chapters I couldn't help but be reminded of Vygotsky. Like Vygotsky, Gladwell is putting a great deal of emphasis on the effect of one's culture. Gladwell also began the chapter by a very intriguing anecdote about how one's language could even affect memory. I also believe parallels can even be drawn between self-efficacy and the ZPD. The ZPD is slightly above a student's level and as Parajes (2006) writes "Academic work should be hard enough that it energizes, not so hard that it paralyzes" (p. 344).

Which theory of learning (or whose views) would this author most align with?

From these excerpts, it would seem that Gladwell (2008) is more closely aligned with a social cognitive perspective.

What might the author say is the role of failure in learning? How would the theorists we've read describe the function of failure?

I believe this author would agree with Parajes (2006) sentiment on failure: "self-efficacy is not so much about learning how to succeed as it is about learning how to persevere when one does not succeed" (p. 345). If your culture has instilled within you the belief that hard work, effort, and challenges line the road to success you would be more likely to view failure through the lens of self-efficacy.

Is there such a thing as a "recipe" for success that we could offer to teachers and parents? What are the ingredients?

I think like any recipe we make, we make it depending on our tastes. However, most everyone follows similar procedures. I believe pathways to success can be varied. However, I believe there are some "procedures" that everyone's recipe should follow. Above all, it seems most important that we instill in our children the view that effort can lead to many things and that challenges are not reasons to give up but instead things to learn from.

One caveat that concerns me in all of this is when I think of my own future children. Will I be able to accomplish all of these things if I myself do not act upon them? Will my telling my children these things merely sound hollow and in the end they will model what I actually do? When I think of behaviors I have taken from parents I know that not all of them would be behaviors my parents would like me to have.

Additional Questions

One thing I was reminded of while reading this is a recent SAT cheating scandal that occurred in South Korea. How does cheating fit in with this heritage of hard work and effort? Are these individuals outliers? Or does this show a shift in culture based on current pressures?

http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/05/28/group-of-south-koreans-barred-from-sat/

Gladwell (2008) spends a great deal discussing a girl going to a KIPP school. Because she is going to this school she seems to do nothing but homework and is unable to get a  full night of sleep. While reading about her life I couldn't help but question the school's practices. What are possible alternatives to this KIPP school? Is the deal she made worth it?

Activity 7.4

My Mindsets

                                     Growth                                  Fixed

In undergrad I took a Science of Art class and we had to complete a weekly drawing based on a scientist's quote. This drawing is supposed to represent my mindsets. The areas I have more a fixed view of are growing off stunted branches, most stopped growing after knots occurred. The areas that I feel I have more of a growth mindset about are sprouting from long, winding, and complex branches. Clearly they took effort to grow in such a way.

*I should note that I put IQ on a fixed mindset but not necessarily intelligence.

Activity 7.3

Imitation is Flattery; Social Learning is Fitness

While reading the article "But What About the Gigantic Elephant in the Room" the quote "People cannot be much influenced by observed events if they do not remember them" (Bandura, 2011, p. 1) had me scratching my head. From what we have learned and know of implicit learning, implicit biases, and memory is it true that we are not influenced by what we do not remember? I think one example of observed events influencing our behavior without us being consciously aware of it is in the media. The media portrays many stereotypes; many of which go unnoticed by most individuals. Despite our unawareness of these stereotypes they are still floating around in our brains affecting the schemas we create and the behaviors we display.

I was also drawn to Bandura's (2011) discussion of the misconception that modeling can only produce imitation or response mimicry. As a social animal and owner of three social animals I know that there is more to modeling than just imitation. I have often found it interesting to observe these social animals learn the "guiding principle" of a behavior and then "generate new version of the behavior that go beyond what they have seen and heard" (Bandura, 2011, p. 2). Everytime my husband and I make the trip back to Wisconsin and our dog gets to observe my parents' two dogs' behavior I notice new behaviors that she brings back with her to Kentucky. For example, after the first time we came home our pup had picked up the behavior of barking at intruders. However, she generated a more urban version of this and barked at dogs who were far away at the dog park. My own memories and experiences of my pets learning behaviors from each other inspired me to do a general Google search to see what other examples of modeling occurred and in particular with dogs. From this I ran across these two rather recent articles. Interestingly, many of the articles I read described dogs imitating human behavior; usually animals model behavior after animals of the same species.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/07/your-dog-is-a-copycat.html

http://news.discovery.com/animals/pets-dogs-imitate-people.htm

As is to be expected both articles discuss dogs' behavior as being imitation. Perhaps as Bandura states the dog imitate the human behavior and then later incorporate it into their own behaviors.

Activity 7.2

In my life I've had several potential careers destroyed by the beliefs I held in my ability to accomplish the necessary tasks in these areas. As a child I was enchanted by great female authors like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Gail Carson Levine. Laura was the main reason I kept journals almost my entire life and I've kept a letter from Gail just about as long. It was my dream to write books similar to the fantasies I so cherished.

However, my confidence in my ability to write was quashed by a series of writing failures in high school. In particular, I prefer to point to a teacher who made it clear she hated all my writing and once called it "wishy-washy." When I think back on it now, though, I might have started the class with a bruised sense of competence. I took this class my freshman year of high school and the course required we pass some test to get into it. My score on the test was not high enough and my mom had to have me put into the class. I also had a best friend that I frequently compared myself to who was not only the amazing, quirky writer I longed to be but she was also the teacher's particular favorite. Parajes (2006) states that social comparisons help contribute to our own perceived capability and in this case that she was more capable was reinforced my feelings of inability. We also constantly completed these quizzes where we'd get sentences and have to fix the punctuation, grammar errors, and then label everything in the sentence. Not only a very stressful situation but one in which I quickly decided I was unable to perform adequately. I frequently thought to myself, "This is just something I'll never be able to do," and basically turned my mind off to learning any of the necessary skills for becoming a writer. My low self-efficacious feelings for writing were finally cemented my senior year of high school when I took a college credit English course and again I felt I was working as hard as I could but my effort was not shown in the grades and feedback I was receiving.

Even though I lack confidence in my skill as a writer I still have a reader's passion that pushes me towards the hope of someday writing some form of book. I guess it's as Parajes (2006) indicates "self-efficacy is not so much about learning to succeed as it is learning how to persevere when one does not succeed" (p. 345). I have accepted that I am not to be the great author like my childhood heroes but I have not resigned myself to fully giving up and never trying.

Activity 7.1

In completing this activity I couldn't help but be reminded of school psychologists' beloved Urie Bronfenbrenner's own Ecological theory of development. The Ecological theory of development seeks to see each individual within his or her whole environmental context, taking into mind individual factors such as personality and behavior as well the larger environment such as the individual's family, community, and culture.  I also decided to take a general educator's view seeing as helping the general student population to become better learners will be one of my main goals as a school psychologist.

With Mr. Bronfenbrenner in mind, I created this list, doing my best to think of the learner with an Ecological view in mind.

One thing I struggled with in brainstorming this list was separating personal factors and behaviors. I sort of felt like behaviors could have fallen under the hat of personal factors.

Activity 6.3

Much Virtue in If

Though this chapter was difficult for me to grasp, I found some of the quotes in it to be some of the most eloquent in the book and one of the quotes I was most drawn to was this one:

"If free will were true, it would be absurd to have the belief in it fatally forced on our acceptance. Considering the inner fitness of things, one would rather think that the very first act of a will endowed with freedom should be to sustain the belief in the freedom itself. I accordingly believe freely in my freedom" (James, 1983, p. 93).

I have to admit my favorite line in this passage is "I accordingly believe freely in my freedom" (James, 1983, p. 93). I liked it so well I immediately read it to my husband who was slightly less interested than I. This quote speaks to my own struggle with determining the nature of free will. Do I only choose to believe in free will for a sense of security and control or is the fact that I believe in free will proof enough that free will exists? Is it habit to believe in having control over one's actions?

"The aim of the teacher should then be to make him simply forget. Drop the subject for the time, divert the mind to something else: then leading the pupil back by some circuitous line of association, spring it on him again before he has time to recognize it, and as likely as not he will go over it now without any difficulty" (James, 1983, p. 89). This quote brings to mind one of my favorite concepts learned in an Applied Behavior Analysis course I took last summer. One strategy we learned in this course is called High-p, or high probability requests. In this strategy if you are particularly struggling with getting a to complete a more difficult task it is recommended that you first ask the student to do tasks he or she has a high probability of being able to accomplish. Then, after asking the student to complete these easier tasks you next ask him or her to complete the more difficult task he or she was unwilling to complete before. Frequently, because of the prior success the student is more likely to attempt the more difficult task.

Finally, in James' response to what a moral act consists of his answer resonated with me and reminded me of both his past discussions as well as what we are currently learning:

"You can say that it consists in the effort of attention by which we hold fast to an idea which but for that effort of attention would be driven out of the mind by other psychological tendencies that are there. To think, in short, is the secret of will, just as it is the secret of memory" (James, 1983, p. 91).

According to James thinking is both key to memory as well as to free will. I believe thinking also ties into problem solving, learning, and Piaget's disequilibrium. Therefore, for me this quote not only ties into free will but also to a great deal of the content we've been learning about.

I found myself struggling with this post and hoped leaving it to the end would allow incubation to kick it. I sure hope it did!

Activity 6.5

Despite my uncertainty of the implications of technology on humans, I do believe it is clear that technology touches our behaviors in clear ways. For example, some changes I have seen is in our ability to socialize and our ability to show patience. Frequently, when I’m out dining with my husband or walking around I will see a pair or group of people all with their devices out, no one looking at each other or interacting with each other. Another such time I’ve noticed this constant need to be entertained is while driving. Whenever I look at other people in their cars whether it be at a stop light or a traffic jam everyone has their devices pulled out, swiftly scrolling through some page or another.

As one of the few individuals I know without a smartphone, I have to ask how do you resist the pressure of obtaining such devices? Is it worth it to resist? What is it about American culture that makes us so busy and stressed? Are other cultures with as much technology dependency as America so stressed? If not, why?

I asked my husband about technology’s effect on cognition and I found that what he had to say rang true. My husband said that with the increase of technology we are better able to find information but less able to remember it.