Chapter 4 EDPR 3121

1. Chapter 4EDPR 3121 Understanding Social Cognitive Theory

2. Social Cognitive View of Learning • Learning is the process of converting information from the environment into mental representations that guide behavior (Bandura, 1986) • Like Cognitive Development Theory but focusing on social/environmental interaction and achieving personally meaningful goals • Essential Questions: • What is the nature of the relationship between learners and their environments? • What personal and social factors affet the nature of the learning process?

3. Learners and Their Environments • Reciprocal Determinism: behavior determined by three key factors: • Internal mental representations • Behavior and its outcomes • Environmental influences • Each factor influences the other factors and is influenced by the other factors • Example: How I Teach and How you Teach and How does What the School Community Believe Affect How We Teach?

4. Learners’ Social and Personal Characteristics • Learners have the capability to represent their experiences symbolically • Translating experiences into mental models • Imaginal- translates experiences into enduring mental images • Verbal- translates experiences into verbal codes • Learners have the ability to learn vicariously • Learning through their own experiences (enactive) • Learning by observing the experiences of others (vicarious) • Learners have the capability to self-regulate • Intention • Forethought • Self-reactiveness – setting personal standards; self-evaluating; self-administered consequences • Self-reflectiveness – thinking about our own thought processes and analyzing our experiences

5. Social Cognitive Theory and the Teaching/Learning Process: Bandura • The Role of Consequences in Learning: • Agreed with behaviorists in terms of the effects of reinforcement and punishment • Modified behavioral theory because new and complex behaviors are not the result of reinforcement • Also, he believed that the consequences create expectations for the future that affect behavior • Learners can use consequences as a guide to self-regulate their future behavior • Learners behavior can be affected not only by direct experiences and consequences but by vicarious ones • Consequences can be self-administered (examples p. 98)

6. Vicarious Learning • Model: “Any stimulus array so organized that an observer can extract and act on the main information conveyed by environmental events without needing to first perform overtly” (Rosenthal & Bandura, 1978, p. 622) • Live • Symbolic • Verbal

7. Modeling • Transmission process between learners and models that result in changes for the learners • Performance Effects of Modeling: Learners observe models to determine which behaviors are likely to be successful, appropriate or valued in a situation • Inhibitory Effect- modeling strengthens inhibitions (watching someone get teased for asking a question) • Disinhibitory Effect- engaging in an activity that was previously inhibited because of observed success • Response Facilitation- model’s behavior serves as a social cue for others to engage in the behavior (food fight) • Learning Effects- Observational Learning: modeling experiences resulting in learners acquiring new behaviors, cognitive processes, judgmental standards or rules that allow learners to acquire new behaviors

8. Self-Regulated Learning • “A major goal of formal education should be to equip students with the intellectual tools, self-beliefs and self-regulatory capabilities to educate themselves throughout their lifetime” (Bandura, 1993) • Social Cognitive Definition of Self Regulated Learning: • Learners self regulate through setting challenging but achievable goals • Learners select and employ effective strategies • Learners employ self-regulation strategies (self-observation, self-judgment, and self-administered consequences)

9. Self Efficacy • Learner feels that he/she has control over experiences that affect them • Sources for determining self-efficacy: • Direct experience with failure • Vicarious experiences • Verbal persuasion • Physiological reactions • Effects on Achievement/Implications for classroom (p. 108)

10. Key Components to Self-Regulation • Goal Setting • Selecting Effective Strategies • Self Monitoring • Self Reinforcement

11. Self-Instructional Programs • Problem definition instructions • Focusing attention and planning instructions • Strategy instructions • Self-evaluating and error correcting instructions • Coping and self-control instruction • Self-reinforcement instructions (p. 111)