Educational Psychology

A concept that is discussed in Chapter 12 is learned helplessness which is one type of belief about self-worth. Specifically, people who have learned helplessness believe that "the events are outcomes in their lives are mostly uncontrollable" (Woolfolk 460). As a result, students will believe that they can't complete certain tasks and will often ask for help without trying first. In one of my previous field experiences, there was a student who has a disability that affects his learning and who, therefore, would ask for help on simple tasks even if clear steps were given. For reasons like this, it is very important to teach students, especially those with disabilities, how to learn in order to increase their self-efficacy with school work. It is also important to teach students with disabilities how to advocate for themselves in order to increase their self-esteem as well as their self-efficacy. I'm not sure if the previously mentioned student has overcome his learned ...

In Chapter 9, there is a section about creativity which is defined as "the ability to produce work that is original but still appropriate and useful" (350). As an assessment of creativity, Paul Torrance developed two types of creativity tests that require divergent thinking which is made up of originality, flexibility, and fluency. For originality, "a response must be given by fewer than 5 or 10 people out of every 100 who take the test. Fluency is the number of different responses. Flexibility is generally measured by the number of different categories of responses" (Woolfolk 350). Although it can be difficult to identify original ideas in the classroom, the students' flexibility and fluency can be determined in any subject lesson. For example, my Elementary English Methods class last semester had us participate in a writer's workshop with elementary students on their stories. This was an application of what we learned about the different traits of writing....