Mentor/s
Brent Little Alicja Stannard
Participation Type
Paper Talk
Abstract
Society places significant emphasis on raising a student’s self-esteem in the classroom. Teachers and parents are constantly praising students for their work within and outside of the classroom and participation trophies and ribbons are handed out at most elementary-aged functions. Modern society has become so fixated on raising children’s self-esteem that students now do not know how to fail. Instead of solely focusing on raising a student's self-esteem, teachers instead need to help foster student self-efficacy, by encouraging mistakes and failures and letting a student learn these mistakes. Short-term student success comes from raising a student’s self-esteem, long-term success comes from fostering self-efficacy. To foster self-efficacy in the classroom, educators need to help their students cultivate a sense of intrinsic motivation as well as implement positive stress into the classroom. Pushing students to take an active role in their education at a young age sets the students up for academic success that will carry them throughout their education journey. Aiding students out of their comfort zones creates a healthy sense of stress, where students truly start to learn the academic material and about themselves. Implementing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education at the elementary level helps students get accustomed to constant trial and error and learning from their mistakes. STEM education teaches students to approach a problem with a variety of solutions and learn that failures are just a part of the learning process. STEM education helps students foster a sense of self-efficacy and confidence that transcends into every academic area in a student's education.
College and Major available
STEM, Education BA/BS, Interdisciplinary Studies BA/BS
Location
Digital Commons
Start Day/Time
5-5-2021 1:00 PM
End Day/Time
5-5-2021 4:00 PM
Prize Categories
Best Multidisciplinary Research or Collaboration, Most Scholarly Impact or Potential, Most Meaningful
Fostering Self-Efficacy in the Classroom
Digital Commons
Society places significant emphasis on raising a student’s self-esteem in the classroom. Teachers and parents are constantly praising students for their work within and outside of the classroom and participation trophies and ribbons are handed out at most elementary-aged functions. Modern society has become so fixated on raising children’s self-esteem that students now do not know how to fail. Instead of solely focusing on raising a student's self-esteem, teachers instead need to help foster student self-efficacy, by encouraging mistakes and failures and letting a student learn these mistakes. Short-term student success comes from raising a student’s self-esteem, long-term success comes from fostering self-efficacy. To foster self-efficacy in the classroom, educators need to help their students cultivate a sense of intrinsic motivation as well as implement positive stress into the classroom. Pushing students to take an active role in their education at a young age sets the students up for academic success that will carry them throughout their education journey. Aiding students out of their comfort zones creates a healthy sense of stress, where students truly start to learn the academic material and about themselves. Implementing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education at the elementary level helps students get accustomed to constant trial and error and learning from their mistakes. STEM education teaches students to approach a problem with a variety of solutions and learn that failures are just a part of the learning process. STEM education helps students foster a sense of self-efficacy and confidence that transcends into every academic area in a student's education.
Students' Information
Christine Thorp - Major: STEM Minors: Psychology, Global Studies, Honors Graduation Year: 2022
2nd Place, Campus Choice award.