AVReading

A sense of agency, or the belief that a given circumstance is within one’s control, is an important condition of self-efficacy.  Students who lack a sense of agency often feel powerless in the face of their academic struggles, while those who have a strong sense of agency typically feel as though their choices can make a difference in their performances.              Carol Dweck’s work (2016) on mindsets has helped us to consider these different levels of agency and how they can be fostered by choices we make in the classroom.  She defines the two types of mindsets as fixed and growth. A fixed mindset is one where students believe that their abilities are innate and immutable.  Students who believe they have a fixed mindset feel as though they are either good at something or bad at something, that it is either a gift they have been given since birth or something they simply cannot do.  Typically, stude...

   I know of a history teacher in a nearby school who is perhaps the most popular teacher in her building.   Her specialty is European history, and students of all abilities enjoy her class.   It is quite the production.   She uses a rich combination of storytelling, movie clips, visuals, and scaffolded notetaking that requires students to both copy down dates and names and draw pictures.   While students find her class extremely entertaining, there are some teachers who are a little more critical, pointing out that she focuses on the conspiracies of history, the graphic and gruesome deaths and battles, that she is largely asking students to consume her content rather than engage with it, and that the interest she generates in her classes does not seem to transfer over to other history classes.                   This is where it is important to delineate be...

  There is some truth to the oft quoted proverb, “Whether you believe you can or can’t, you are right.” While belief alone is not sufficient for task completion, it is necessary.   This holds true for both students, but even more importantly, for teachers and even schools. In one study, it was discovered that over the course of a year, students’ expectations of themselves often mirrored the expectations of their teachers. So teachers who expected their students to do well often did, and those who expected their students to struggle or fail often met with that fate as well (Midgley, Fedlauger, & Eccles 1989). Additionally, these results played out across entire school communities, which often compounds the effects of high-efficacy or even low-efficacy teachers.   And in one study, it was shown to be a greater predictor of success than the socio-economic status of the school’s students (Hoy, Sweetland, & Smith 2002). This is both an empowerin...