The Phygmalion Effect is a mirrow of instructors who role model the positive attitude, self confidence and responsibility we want to see in our students.
I agree! I recently had a class that was very challenging. They did not seem to be too into learning for for my class or for any other class for that matter. The sad thing is that they started out with an instructor that belittled them, and kept calling them bad students. She went as far as to talk with other students about this particuluar group as well. The result was disasterous, as the instructor ended up leaving the company, and the students are still recovering from all the negativity. My concern now is that they may not be able to get it together before they graduate and have a licensure exam they will need to pass.
Even in writing this post, I can see that I, myself, need to apply the Phygmalion Effect to my way of thinking about this particular group, and decide that they will be successful. I know that I will be teaching them in six weeks from now, so if I start practicing now, it may help in six weeks from now.
I agree. In a new class, I like to ask about the person, where they are from and how much experience they have had on the computer or the program we are going to use.
It opens up communication and makes them feel that i am interested in them and not treating them exactly the same as the next student since I know some of their particular needs.
IDA,
yes, sometimes the information we have can be a blessing & a curse. I agree with you that we need to be careful with what we hear from other instructors so we don't prejudge.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I feel that not having alot of information about students prior performance may remove my own prejudices about new students
I try to show my students a positive attitude even when they don't believe in themselves. I feel that when given encouragement, they will try to strive harder to do well. Many of my students don't have good support systems at home or have never had the encouragement to do better. No one has believed they could so why should they? Sometimes knowing that someone has confidence in you is a strong motivator to promote self confidence.
Carolyn,
yes & often many of these students need someone to demonstrate that positive attitude toward them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
A positive attitude towards your students can help them to achieve. Some are afraid to try, and positive reinforcement can help them to be the best they can be.
This reminds me of something my former dean always mentioned. He said always be "crazy positive." That means always give the students a positive outlook. If you always think the students will so well they will.
Our challenge is not only to avoid preconceived notions of how students may perform or to what level they may excel, but in many cases to attempt to undo damage done by the earlier influences in students' lives that have limited their thinking regarding their own potential. I have had many students who started out saying "I can't do this" or "I am not good at this" who, with a little effort and encouragement, realize they CAN do it and they ARE good at it.
The harder part is what do you do with the one student who begins the class with a very cautious attitude, afraid to be called out or called on for participation. Building confidence and not assuming the student will not be able to perform at a high level is difficult, you end up teaching to the lowest level and many other students become frustrated at the slow pace. The bring students up to the same level quickly I have a session where each student will present a PowerPoint on their family, 3 forms. Each student knows their family better than anyone else in the class, they get to talk about a subject they feel knowledgeable about and everyone seems to enjoy the spotlight for a minute or two.
I agree, discussions like whats your favoite quote and movie give great insight
I can saw I have witness this today in one of my classes. I had a class play games over the material that will be covered on the final exam. They had fun when most thought they were going to fail the exams. I re enforced how much they new about the subjects through fun activities and they recieved great results on their exams. I made sure they knew I had a lot of confidence in them and that they would do great on the exams and they did. Now I have a name for the activities or confidence I had in my students.
