Learning Log: Article on Self Efficacy and Motivation

 Afflerbach et al. (2013) stated that successful readers have high self-efficacy; "they expect to be challenged by different texts and tasks, and they expect to meet those challenges" (pp. 440).

 I focused on the part of the article that discussed a 1st grader (reluctant reader) and his teacher.  The teacher used both research-proven classroom strategies to guide her instruction plus she offered direct, formative feedback.  She helped the young student to realize his efforts lead to his successes.  All this combined resulted in an increase in motivation and engagement in reading.

I have worked with students who have struggled with reading and they, in large part, were not really motivated to read.  Moving them from a lower self-efficacy to a higher self-efficacy is certainly a struggle but it is possible over time and with patience along with the different factors discussed in the article.  It's amazing to me how much more students learn when they just believe in themselves.





References 


Afflerbach, P., Byeong-Young, C., Kim, J., Crassas, M. E., & Doyle, B. (2013). Reading: What else 

             matters besides strategies and skills? The Reading Teacher 66(6), 440-448.