Week 2 reflection

Sorry for the delay in posting! I am in New Jersey at my daughter's college orientation. Exciting.
On to the reflection...so much to say! First off, I was glad to see that in Chapter 2 (Expectancy-Value Models of Motivation), the relation of race and value constructs was mentioned. I was thinking of the same thing while reading Chapters2 and 3. I have done a bit of research on stereotype threat (Claude Steele is the pioneer in that field) and the issues that arise when students are asked to identify as a specific race or ethnicity (such as questions on a fill-in-the-bubble type test). The actual definition: "The experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has to potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group" (Steele, 2003). Once they are identified, many students automatically revert to the common stereotype for that race/ethnicity and a self-defeatest attitude takes hold. So for example, a student who identifies as black/African American may have some knowledge of the statistics showing that, in general, African American students perform well below that of their white peers. Possessing this information, then identifying as such, brings forth feelings of inadequacy before the testing even begins, oftentimes leading the student to confirm that stereotype. Stereotype threat came readily to mind in Chapter 3 (Attribution Theory) as well, page 100, second paragraph, that states "teachers are more likely to make attributions for a student's behavior that are consistent with prior beliefs about that individual student". So what is interesting to me is that the teacher forms an opinion and if the student is aware on that on some level, the student may act to confirm that attribution made by the teacher. This is where that brown-eye/blue-eye classroom study comes into play as well. I find it so interesting how they are all intertwined and lead to student performance issues. So again, in chapter 3 when the authors discuss 'effort'. While it is always easy to change the behavior and say "study harder", as in Roy's case, it is not always easy to change the mindset and the way of thinking. I wonder how many students attempt to turn over a new leaf but are put right back in their place by teachers passing judgments on them based on old information? As usual, these articles bring forth many questions for me!

On another note...I have this ongoing disagreement with my daughter who insists that I compare her to myself when it comes to grades. I tell her constantly that I hold myself to a different standard than she does. She is satisfied with an 85, whereas I am not. My point here is that the Expectancy-Value Models really resonated with me personally (low level of aspiration). It's as if a student goes in to a test or an assignment with a negative attitude that he/she may fail or do poorly on, and they confirm that attitude by not doing well. It's a vicious cycle.
My daughter (Ally) has this self-defeatest attitude with certain subjects, like math. She is "not a math person", "sucks at math", etc, which seems to justify her doing poorly on tests. Attribution Theory abound here! So here I sit, at Ally's college orientation, lecturing her on turning over a new leaf! Stay tuned!

On yet another note...I thought the study on the effects of test anxiety was informative but I wish Hancock would have asked personal questions of the participants (or if he did ask questions, I wish he would have published the results and compared them to the results of the TAI). I also wonder if one can accurately measure test anxiety through a questionnaire. One can claim to not suffer from test anxiety when there is no threat of testing. There are also issues that arise about the accuracy and validity of self-reporting by participants. I understand that validity and reliability for the TAI have both been established but there are still issues that arise when not conducting an actual test to check for test anxiety.