Chapter 5: Fueling the Fire: Prolonging Student Persistence
The holy grail of teaching
“What we want for our students to experience in all of our courses – engaged, self-directed learning that results in a shift in how they see the world, and something that lasts for their lifetimes” (p. 145)
Control-Value Theory
Control: “to what degree students feel in control of the activities and outcome that are important to them” (p. 148).
Value: “to what degree the activity or material represents meaning or worth to students” (p. 148).
The earlier the better
“Students who have had several positive experiences in a given classroom then anticipate future enjoyment without the need for effortful appraisals of control or value – they come into the classroom with a habitualized appraisal or anticipated enjoyment” (p. 149).
Attributional retraining
“encourages students to attribute both their successes and their failures to factors they can control (e.g., degree of effort or quality of study strategies) rather than uncomfortable factors (e.g, bad luck, poor teaching, an overly difficult or easy test . . . ) (p. 164).
Fixed mind-set
“. . . you see intellectual and skill-based aptitudes as static, immovable, and determined by powerful forces likes genes and upbringing” (p. 167)
“I’m just not a math person.”
Growth mind-set
“. . . you see intellectual and skill-based aptitudes as . . . fluid, dynamic, and determined by the effort and practice you apply” (p. 167)
“I performed poorly in that race, but now I know what to do for next time .”
“. . . you procrastinate in the moment because it feels good, and you probably don’t anticipate the strength of the negative consequences for your future self – even when your future self is mere minutes away” (p. 172).
If – then
“implementation intentions . . . take the form of if/then statements, and help you clearly identify the behaviors you are going to change and the contexts in which you want to change them” (p. 174).
“When you make the link between the intention and behavior very explicit, it becomes automatic – you don’t have to put a lot of effort and thinking into it, and as such it becomes a lot easier to enact” (p. 175).