References

1. Gave irresponsible suggestion

2. Imposed personal view 3. Changed teaching plan to please others

12. Attributed faults

4.Pitched at wrong teaching level

6. Inflexible to changes during lesson

7.Gawked at student (Joel) for wrong answer

10. Didn’t scaffolding the lesson

11.Attributed faults

5.Unprepared for class

9.Could not elaborate answer(Aisha)

8. Changed answer reflectively(Joel)

Mr Yeo Ms Rita Students


2. Imposed personal view


Mr Yeo Miss Rita

PROBLEM 1He did not find out the context and situation

before making suggestions

TheoriesDeductive Reasoning [Piaget]

Heard & Presume that class should be of higher learning abilities

Attribution theory [Weiner 1979] accused Ms Rita for not letting him know that

the class has no prior knowledge.

Selective AttentionHe’s engaging in selective attention, advising Ms

Rita generally, without finding out the specific situation [Santrock, 273].




Mr Yeo Miss Rita

PROBLEM 1He did not find out the context and situation

before making suggestions

TheoriesZPD [Vygotsky]

His proposed teaching strategies did not take into account the students’ ZPDs

SolutionHe should have added a disclaimer to his

suggestions that these strategies might have worked for his previous classes, but different

classes have different ZPDs.




Mr Yeo Miss Rita

PROBLEM 2Imposes his view on others : “must”

Establishes himself as an expert – narcissistic, too full of himself

Overconfidence Bias [Kahneman & Tversky 1995]; Overconfidence in his own experience,

trying to prove that he’s better than her




Mr Yeo Miss Rita



TheoriesPerformance Orientation

losing means losing face and reputation [Dweck 1990]

Develop a fixed mindset that he is always right [Dweck 2006]

Criticizingone of the barriers to effective verbal

communication [Gordon 1970]




Mr Yeo Miss Rita



TheoriesOvercontrol

Dictating Ms Rita what she should do thus destroying her natural curiosity of exploration

[Teresa Amabile 1993]




Mr Yeo Miss Rita



SolutionHe needs to engage executive attention, involve error planning and monitoring progress on tasks

[Santrock, 273].

3. Changed teaching plan to please others

Mr YeoMiss Rita

PROBLEM 1Insecure – too eager to please her peers, try too

hard to make herself look good – emotionally driven

TheoriesExtrinsic motivation

She wants to look good in front of her peers, and thus she takes their advice without much

thought.

Reduced intrinsic motivationThe overbearing Mr Yeo ‘forces’ suggestions for Ms Rita, causing her to lose some sense of self-

determination,“but I wonder whether the activities will help”.

This reduces her intrinsic motivation and sense of personal responsibility [Santrock 2008]


Mr YeoMiss Rita PROBLEM 1

Insecure – too eager to please her peers, try too hard to make herself look good

TheoriesTheory of neurotic need:

The need for affection and approval; pleasing others and being liked by them [Horney 1942]

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development(Kohlberg, 1971):

Universal Stage Model of Moral Maturity Level: Stage 3/Halo Level (Gd boy/Girl Morality /

Seeking for other’s Approval)


Mr YeoMiss Rita

PROBLEM 1Insecure – too eager to please her peers, try too

hard to make herself look good

SolutionShe needs more critical thinking before applying

their suggestions.






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 2She assumes that all the student have prior

knowledge

TheoriesSchema theory

According to the schema theory [Tan, 291], students require prior knowledge to learn

SolutionDo an online questionnaire to determine prior

knowledge






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 3She is not pitching her lesson at the right level

high expectations

TheoriesZPD [Vygotsky]

She has pitched her lesson outside of their zone of proximal development [Vygotsky], making it

very difficult for them to learn anything.






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 3She is not pitching her lesson at the right level

high expectations

SolutionAfter she has assessed their prior knowledge

(e.g. by using an online questionnaire), she can pitch the lesson within their zone of proximal

development.

Use hypothetical deductive theory to teach [Santrock, 46].

Inquiry-based learning: even if the student doesn’t know the answer, Ms Rita can lead them

to the solution.






Miss Rita

StudentsPROBLEM 4

She finds fault with external factors

TheoriesShifting Locus of Control [Tan, 2011: 335]

She attributes fault to external factors, and shifts the locus of control [Tan, 2011: 335] away from

herself towards her students

(caused by failure-avoidance [Covington 1984]).

This will reduce the incentive for her to put in more effort, as she would think that her work

would go to waste with such poor students anyway






Miss Rita

StudentsPROBLEM 5

Inflexible to changes during lesson - Pre-conceived notions of what was going to happen

in class

TheoriesEgocentrism [Tan, 2011: 82]

She thinks that her lesson is very good, thus expects her students to see it in a similar light

(repeated root cause)

PerfectionistShe thinks that mistakes are unacceptable, and

always expects nothing but the best results. Hence she takes the failures of her students to

answer to heart and is personally affected [Santrock]






Miss Rita

StudentsPROBLEM 5

Inflexible to changes during lesson - Pre-conceived notions of what was going to happen

in class

TheoriesSplintered development [Santrock, 33]

Good at preparation but bad with dealing with unexpected situations

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory [Santrock, 74]

Ms Rita has turned the classroom into a negative learning environment






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 5Inflexible to changes during lesson - Pre-

conceived notions of what was going to happen in class

SolutionShe needs to understand Bronfenbrenner’s

ecological systems theory, which states that the environment can influence the link between the

teacher and students,

and be careful not to make the classroom a hostile environment.






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 6She gawked at Joel when he gave the wrong

answer

TheoriesMoralizing [check Santrock pg522]

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory [Santrock, 74]

Ms Rita has turned the classroom into a negative learning environment

Pavlovstudents will come to associate classroom with

criticism [Santrock, 234]






Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 6She gawked at Joel when he gave the wrong

answer

SolutionShe should choose effective reinforcements

(both positive and negative) instead of punishments [Premack principle, Santrock, 239],

to encourage student participation.

She needs to understand Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which states that the environment can influence the link between the

teacher and students, and be careful not to make the classroom a hostile environment.

(Same as the previous problem)




Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 1Joel is not prepared for class

TheoriesExpectation value theory [Feather 1982]

He doesn’t see any reason to prepare for Ms Rita’s class




Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 1Joel is not prepared for class

SolutionMs Rita should give them a pre-activity to do.

This gives them a reason to read up beforehand, and raise their awareness and knowledge prior

to the lesson

PROBLEM 2She assumes that all the student have prior

knowledge




Miss Rita

Students

PROBLEM 2Joel changed his answer according to teacher’s

reaction

His answer was “Tsunamis are caused by high atmospheric pressure!” When I gawked at him in disbelief, he quickly changed his answer to “No,

its low atmospheric pressure.”




Miss Rita

Students


reaction

TheoriesDeductive thinking

“if its not high, it should be low”

DemoralisationHe was demoralized by Ms Rita’s gawking




Miss Rita

Students


reaction

TheoriesPiaget Concrete Operational Stage

As Singapore does not experience tsunamis, Tsunami remains an abstract idea in the

students.

Recent estimates upwards of 75% of children are still primarily concrete thinkers at 12, 13, 14 (Pg

89 of Tan.),

so the class may not be able understand abstract ideas that well




Miss Rita

Students


reaction

SolutionBronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory,

She needs to be careful not to make the classroom a hostile environment.

She should choose effective reinforcements (both positive and negative) instead of

punishments

PROBLEM 5Inflexible to changes

during lesson

PROBLEM 6She gawked at Joel when he gave the

wrong answer

References• Books and Journals• Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.• Santrock, John W. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York: Mc Graw Hill.• Kahneman,D,, & Tversky, A. (1995). Conflict resolution: A cognitive perspective. In K. Arrow, R. H. Mnookin,

L. Ross, A. Tversky, & R. Wilson (Eds.), Barriers to conflict resolution. New York: Norton• Dweck, C. D. (2006). Mindset. New York: Random House• Dweck, C. S., & Elliott, E. (1983) Achievement motivation. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of a child

psychology (4th ed., Vol.4). New York : Wiley.• Gordon, T. (1970). Parent effectiveness training. New York: Mc Graw Hill.• Amabile, T. M., and E. Tighe. (1993). Questions of Creativity. In Creativity. Vol. 4, edited by J. Brockman.

The Reality Club. New York: Simon & Schuster.• Tan, Oon Seng, D. Parsons, Richard, Hinson, Stephanie Lewis, Sardo-brown, Deborah. (2011). Educational

Psychology: A Practitioner-Researcher Approach (An Asian Edition) Second Edition. Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd

• Horney, K. (1942). Self Analysis. New York: Norton.• Covington, M. V. , & Omelich, C. L. (1984). Task Oriented versus competitive learning structures:

Motivational and performance consequences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1038-1050.• Feather, N. T. (1982). Expectations and Actions: Expectancy-value Models in Psychology. Erlbaum: Hillsdale,

NJ.

References

Education

choose effective

mr yeoproblem

changed teaching

imposed personal

wrong teaching

gave irresponsible

miss ritaproblem

changed answer