Hui Song

Track Hours 17-24

Source L:
APA Citation:
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and
performance. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(1), 33.
Validation: This source provides good research based advice on parenting a student.
Origin of Source: I found this source on Google Scholar.
Intended Audience: Teachers and professors as well as fellow researchers.
Arguments: Researchers gave a students a set of problems and after the students completed the first
10, the researchers told one half the students that they were smart, and the other half that they worked
hard. They found that when they praised students for their intelligence rather than hard work, they
developed a mindset that challenging themselves should be something thats avoided. On later tests,
students who were told they were smart did significantly worse than those who were encouraged by hard
work. As smart students became increasingly anxious about their credibility, they lost confidence and
suffered as a result.
Source M
APA Citation:
Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic
performance
of adolescents. Psychological science, 16(12), 939-944.
Validation: This source provides good information on what a student can do to improve academically.
Origin of Source: I found this source on Google Scholar.
Intended Audience: Fellow researchers
Arguments: The study found that self-discipline predicted academic performance better than IQ did.
Furthermore, Self-Discipline was also a better predictor of whether students would improve their grades in
school. The assertion that discipline is a better indicator for achievement than talent is is more prevalent
in report card grades rather than standardized tests. The researchers conclude that lack of self-discipline
is a main component in underachievement by students (instant gratification).
Source N
APA Citation:
Levine, A. (2006). Educating school teachers. Education Schools Project.
Validation: This source provides guidelines on how teachers should be taught to teach.
Origin of Source: I found this source on Google Scholar
Intended Audience: Teachers and schools that are hiring teachers
Arguments: As the world becomes more modernized, the US must have teachers who are more skilled
than ever before. However, this is difficult as fewer teachers are being created. The job of teaching is
more difficult than ever before because there are now minimum scores a student needs to achieve and
the student dropout can no longer find the low-skilled jobs previously available for them as they have
been moved abroad. The US lacks a common view of what to define how to educate a teacher. Many
Americans are unsure whether to have teachers who are practitioners or academic. A big issue with
teaching is that teachers are often underpaid and undervalued in society. The quality control for people
who become teachers are often inadequate.

Source L is an important source for me because it underlines small detail that can have a
massive impact on a students academic career. Its a very eye-opening experience when considering
these factors in my own life as they seem to be completely true. It gives a good idea of what the attitude
of an academically proficient student might be in the years after graduating from elementary school. It is
important to emphasize the importance for students and their parents the damage of calling their
classmates/children that they are smart. Even if they are, the effect of such a label can destroy their
academic careers. Overall, this topic is something I will definitely speak with my mentors about. Given the
20 page length as well as the two column print style, this paper took about two hours to read.
Source M is important because it shows a simple yet beneficial lifestyle choice that students can
follow to receive better results in school. I know personally that self-control is difficult thing to maintain as
there are more distractions than ever in our modernizing world. I also would like to look into ways that
students can maintain self-control at home and at school, as I personally cannot consistently do it without
fail. In addition, I would also like to look more into how much IQ factors into how well a student does in an
academic setting. This paper was a little more than half the length of Source L, so it took me about and
hour to read and process.
Source N is my most extensive source I have acquired yet, but the information and arguments
provided are of vital importance. I agree with the fact that teachers must be more skilled than ever before
if we ever hope to maintain an educated society, but the fact that teaching is such an unpopular
profession is severely limiting us as a society. The sooner that politicians and the public realize this and
come up with a solution to fix it, the better. Furthermore, I found it interesting that Americans had such
varying opinions about how to teach teachers and how extensive teaching has to be. I agree with the five
recommendations that the paper provides, especially recommendations two and three. I do believe that
the success of a teacher depends heavily on the results of his/her students rather than the process of
their teaching. In regards to recommendation three, I agree with the fact that there needs to be an agreed
upon focus in teaching and that the process of becoming a teacher should focus on preparation for the
real classroom rather than a spread out set of courses that will not help the teachers to deal with their
future students.
I further agree that the government should get rid of policies that support low quality teacher education as
it is ultimately detrimental for the teacher that graduate from there. Overall, given the 142 page length of
the paper, it took about five hours for me to read and interpret the data represented.