Critical Reflection

Explanation of Outcome: 

The ability to reflect critically on one's own practice and professional development.

Critical reflection on issues of best practice and professional development is important because as teachers we need to examine as many ways as possible, to improve our methods, making them positive, effective and uplifting for learners who may be struggling. Critical reflection is the process by which we question aspects of our experiences, analyze and reconsider the broader context of issues pertinent to practice, such as learning theories, politics, culture, curriculum development, use of technology and social justice. Being able to reflect critically is something all professionals must do, in order to assure quality, transition in learning and methods and overall effectiveness as instructors. 

Being able to 'look back' on our experiences, as classroom facilitators, recalling our failures and successes is vital in any university, community college and/or penal institution setting. Being able to reflect properly provides us with the tools to improve communication skills and our singular methods of pedagogy. Reflection represents the manner that we construct knowledge about the complex social, economic and political world in which we live. We can break down the reflective process into dimensions which examine the various levels and uses of reflection into a system of workable compartments that we may use and benefit from. This includes engaging in solitary mental reflection, maintaining written journals and even participating in private discussions with mentors who may help us uncover hidden insights and perceptions about our approaches to pedagogy and how that evolves and changes for each of us over time. 

ARTIFACT: 

Professor: Andy Job 

Student: Theresa Kennedy DuPay 

Resources Paper Essay 

Due: April 28th, 2013 

ELP 522           

Resources Paper on Verbal Praise and its Complexity and Issues

For my topic, for the resources paper, I chose an area of study that I came about by reading an article on our required reading list found in the course reserve. I had never really consciously thought of the importance of verbal praise and how students may react to it and so after reading “Influencing graduate students' Classroom Achievements, homework habits and motivation to learn with verbal praise” by Hancock, I decided this would be my focus for the research paper for the final paper.

The importance of verbal praise in the classroom and how that dynamic relates to achieving student academic success is extremely important and also a very complex area of study for educators. The dynamic of creating and maintaining positive rapport with an instructor and student is very important, and can be sustained by offering consistent, sincere verbal praise, even if a student may be doing poorly. There can be more complicated issues that arise from instructor praise. For example, if students of color or other students feel excluded from positive verbal praise, due perhaps to their gender or sexual orientation, difficulties can arise. I chose four sources that I found of particular interest to me based primarily on how they will help to inform my research paper later in the term.

Source One: The first article I did a close reading of is entitled “Effects on Person vs Process Praise on Student Motivation: Stability and Change in Emerging Adulthood” by Kyla Haimovitza and Jennifer Henderlong Corpusa. Reed College, Portland Oregon, May 2011. Accessed April 20th, 2013.  Link to article is HERE... What I enjoyed about this article was the very matter of fact way the study was conducted and how praise of students and praise of the learning process differ. Most people presume that praise means only positive things for the student but there are other more complex aspects to verbal praise that can impact a young college student.

I learned how the pattern of praising a student personally, in other words, their attributes or qualities might not be as affective toward encouraging intrinsic motivation as is praising the process of problem solving that a student undertakes, to accomplish goals. Praising personal qualities, as opposed to hard work or problem solving on a project is not always the most effective means of offering positive reinforcement to a young learner. The article is full of lots of common sense empirically derived statistics and information regarding the process by which instructors and college professors offer praise to a student and how that process can be the most successful. 

“Several studies have now investigated how praise influences motivation when the attributional message within is directed at the whole person or at some aspect of the underlying process (Cimpian, Arce, Markman, & Dweck, 2007; Corpus & Lepper, 2007; Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998). Process praise focuses on generally controllable and temporally unstable attributes such as the use of good strategies or effort, whereas person praise comments on the ability or more stable, often uncontrollable traits within the person such as intelligence.” (Haimovitz, pg 2). Accessed April 20th, 2013. This essay goes into interesting detail about the complexity of praise and how it effects motivation to learn. Praising the individual’s personal characteristics may not be as effective as praising the process by which the individual is able to problem solve.

Source Two: The second article I read and thought at length about is entitled “Pervasive Negative Effects of Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation: The Myth Continues” (2001). By Judy Cameron and Katherine M. Banko, Et Al, from the University of Alberta. Accessed April 20th, 2013. Link to article is HERE... This article examines, critically, the role that praise plays when a reward is given, other than simple verbal praise, used for its own sake. The student will begin to strive, if only to receive another physical reward, as opposed to intrinsic motivation.

This is the danger of praise or a reward system that is not based entirely on strengthening the inner core of self-esteem or regard. “When students are given a reward for performance, the claim is that they begin to do the activity for the external reward rather than for intrinsic reasons. As a result, perceptions of competence and self-determination are said to decrease and motivation to perform the activity declines. ” (Cameron, et al, pg. 1). 

Source Three: For my third source, I found a highly readable article on students’ perceptions of praise. This is an important element to understanding as completely as possible, the hidden dynamics of student/teacher rapport, based in large part on the distribution of verbal praise. This article is entitled “College Students' Perceptions of Praise” (2007) by Heather Roberts, and from Texas Tech University. Accessed April 20th, 2013.Link to article is HERE...

One illuminating aspect to higher education that is touched upon in this article also corroborates that some of the other articles suggest, which is that innate motivation is diminished when too much verbal praise is offered to an individual student and in some cases, based upon age, verbal praise is actually unwanted. When considering youths, as in all those under the age of majority, and/or young college students, it’s possible and likely that not all college students want to be praised in the presence of their friends or competitors, for fear of being favored or thought of as differently. This is a complex and valid dynamic that requires attention.

“However, other researchers have argued that verbal praise can have potential negative consequences. Researchers have concluded that not all students prefer to be praised verbally. For example, Elwell and Tiberio (1994) found that while adolescents perceive praise to be important to academic achievement, they do not want to be praised verbally in front of their classmates. ” (Rodgers, pg., 4.)

Source Four: My fourth and final source for this paper, is an article entitled “Criticism or Praise? The Impact of Verbal versus Text-Only Computer Feedback on Social Presence, Intrinsic Motivation, and Recall.” (2004). By Cheryl Bracken et al, from Cleveland State University. Accessed April 20th, 2013. Link to article HERE... 

What I enjoyed about this article was the notion and real possibility that people can develop relationships with computers and that even when a computer or the instructor who is leading the class, provides praise, the student can respond as positively and pro-actively as if the computer were a real live human being. That students can be effected by on-line praise in a MOOK or other on-line, computer accessed class was very interesting to me. “Interpersonal communication research suggests that praise increases a person’s intrinsic motivation, and in turn increases the amount of attention and time the person devotes to the task, and thereby the amount of learning that occurs. The effect of this social interaction in the context of human–computer interaction maybe that praise motivates people to continue using the computer program and improve learning outcomes. ” (Bracken, et al, pg. 350). 

Doing this paper was instrumental in showing me the direction I will take when writing my own research paper on verbal praise, later in the term, and how elementally important it is to creating and maintaining good, supportive classroom instruction and to learners in general. I've come up with more than four sources, a total of six at present that I will use for the final paper (the research paper I will write) as our final project/paper. I'm looking forward to this process, because I think one of the most important and subtle skills a writing instructor can have, (particularly if that instructor is to teach incarcerated offenders) is the ability to offer verbal praise that is grounded in the formation of skills and self-determined behavior, rather than focusing on personal attributes or qualities that any individual may have and yet also have little control over. Being able to create a balance in this process if important, for not all learners may want this manner of positive attention.

                                        References 

1.) Bracken, Cheryl. (2004). Criticism or Praise? The Impact of Verbal versus Text-Only Computer Feedback on Social Presence, Intrinsic Motivation, and Recall, Cyberpsychology & Behavior. Volume 7, Number, 3.

2.) Cameron, Judy, et al. (2001). Pervasive Negative Effects of Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation: The Myth Continues, The Behavior Analyst. 24, 1-24. No. 1.

3.) Haimovitza, Kyla. (2011). Effects of person versus process praise on student motivation: stability and change in emerging adulthood, Department of Psychology, Reed College. Portland, Oregon. USA.

4.) Rodgers, Heather. (2007). College Students' Perceptions of Praise, Texas Tech University.