Sabtu, 10 Desember 2011 Increasing Students' Perception of Their Competence Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.12

Could all students be treated in the same way?

            On the previous meeting, my group performed a role play about some ways or factors that influence students’ perception of competence. I read the article and I felt that I experienced them when I was in school, even until now. Some of the factors that attracted my attention were ‘attributional statements’ and ‘praise and criticism’.

Attributional functions deals with how teachers give comments to the students when they face a particular situation to do a performance, or in order to perform well. I agree with the article that says it is motivating when the teacher says, “Keep trying. I know you can solve this problem.” I experienced this thing when I was in school. Although I did a difficult assignment, this kind of statement could motivate me. It was because I felt that my teacher trusted me to do it, then why did not I?

The next factor is praise and criticism. The interesting point, like what is written on the article, is teachers need to be careful to give students a praise or criticism to avoid their motivation getting lower. I think different students may also have different perception. In one case, one student may be more motivated by getting praise, while the other may not. If I reflect to myself, there should be praise to increase my motivation level because criticism only will not work for me. I will still feel uncomfortable if a teacher only says, “You can do a better work than this.” Although it could be good for other students, it is not motivating enough for me. On the other hand, I will feel that I do the assignment in vain because it seems the teacher does not appreciate it.

So, what should a teacher do, especially to motivate students with various characters? In my opinion, there are three ways to help teachers motivate them. The first way is: teacher should believe that their students can give a good performance. It will help teacher to give positive comments like the one on the first paragraph. The second one is: the teacher should know the students’ culture, not only looking at their origins, but also observing each individual’s characters. It will help teachers to choose an appropriate way to motivate them. The third one is: the teacher could keep the praise and criticism in balance. While criticism or praise alone may not work for particular students, teacher can choose a save way, such as giving both elements for the students. The example of teacher’s statement is: “It is great to know you can do this. However, looking at your ability, I am sure that you can perform better.” It could be better than just saying: “You can do better work than this”.

How about you, guys? Do you have any other strategies to increase students’ perception of their competence?