April 10

Model of Community Progression

• Pseudocommunity- "instant community", polite, differences are ignored and similarities are pointed out, major conflict avoidance, honeymoon and bonding stage
• Chaos- differences are no longer ignored, members listen to each other but don't understand each other, egocentricism is prevalent, role confusion exists,  members take the easy way out most of the time, very impatient
• Openness- authentic communication emerges, people listen and understand each other, barriers to communication including prejudices, expectations, beliefes, the need to control, and the need to solve each other's problems are resolved
• Closed- group chooses to avoid or ignore the conflict or to pass the responsibility to an individual or smaller group
• Health Community- not a static state, people sense personal benefit of contributing to the community, each community making experience is unique, just as each member of the group is unique, willing to accpet the challenges of open communication, want involvement

Intellectual Development in College

• Students' assumptions and expectations about teaching and learning change while they are in college and the changes follow a predictable pattern
• Student development can be put into four groups called Dualism, Multiplicity, Relativism, and Commitment in Relativism
• Dualist students view knowledge as truth- as factual information, correct theories, and right answers
• They expect to receive important information and right answers, and they become anxious and impatient if they are missing either
• They view instructors as having the right answers and students as knowing nothing. They don't want to learn from their peers
• Assignments that ask students to think independently and form their own opinions are another source of stress of Dualist students
• Multiplicity students view everyone as having their own unique opinion
• They want to claim equal status with their professors and faculty
• Students in late multiplicity still see knowledge as opinion or theory, but realize they must support an opinion or offer evidence to a theory
• As students in multiplicity gain skill in supporting their opinions, the transition to relativism occurs
• Students in the relativism position recognize that knowledge is contextual
• They realize that the more they analyze complexity, the less able they are to make a decision or draw a conclusion; they prefer exposing complexity
• Learning methods helps understand complexity
• Commitment to Relativism students seek to understand complexity and diverse perspectives not only as an academic pursuit but as a way to create personal worldviews from which they will make choices and commitments
• The progression through positions in this stage find students making an intial commitment in an area, then exploring stylistic dimensions of that commitment, and finally developing a sense of oneself in that context.
• Women's views of knowledge are similar to men, but women often differ in emphasis and voice
• Women in early positions viewed knowledge as factual and faculty as authorities who know the facts; they received knowledge but were quiet about it
• Subjective knowledge is the recognition that truth is not always known, and was expressed by both men and women
• Procedural knowledge is the uncertainty and complexity of knowledge and the need for systematic procedures for sorting things out

Motivation in the College Classroom

• There are three indicators of motivation: choice, effort, and persistence; achievement is an outcome of these variables
• Need for achievement can be characterized as an individual trait or disposition
• Human beings have a fundamental need for autonomy and self-determination
• Enhancement of students' sense of control by offering meaningful opportunities for choice and by supporting their autonomy, which in turn enhances motivationg
• What matters is is not only whether a student is motivated but also what type of motivation the student has
• Extrinsically motivated students are likely to engage in the course for reasons of external rewards
• Intrinsically motivated students engage in an activity for the value of the activity itself
• Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation exist not on a single continuum but on two separate ones, and students may often have multiple goals for the same course
• Extrinsic rewards are most beneficial when they contain informative feedback and enable students to focus on improvement
• Expectancy-Value Theory is when motivation is viewed as the outcome of multiplying their behavior towards activities that they value and in which they have some expectancy of success
• Students who adopt mastery goals are those whose primary desire is to understand and master the material
• Students with performance goals are more likely to focus on their achievement relative to the performance of others
• When individuals need to seek an explanation for unexpected outcomes, they make attributes about the probable causes, and these attributions have motivational consequences
• Typical attributions are effort, ability, or luck
• Fostering students' beliefs about the power of effort and hard work also reinforces the notion that intelligence is incremental and can be developed
• Feedback of teachers has dramatic effects on how students perceive their own intelligence and what mindset they adopt
• Most studies of the relation between social goals and academic motivation and achievement have been conducted with younger adolescents, certainly no college instructor would doubt that social goals are operative in the college classroom

I thought the presentations in class helped clear up some confusion I had from the readings. Michelle's presentation was very thorough and concise and broke down each concept that was being taught. I now understand more clearly the concepts from the readings.