Students learn many academic skills by seeing others demonstrate those skills.

For instance, they may learn how to solve long-division problems or write a cohesive paragraph or story partly by observing how their teachers and peers do these things. (Braaksma, Rijlaarsdam, and van den Bergh, 2002) In small groups with classmates, they may also adopt each anothers strategies for conducting discussions about literature, for instance soliciting one anothers opinions (what do you think, Jalisha?), voicing agreement or disagreement (I agree with Kordell because...), and justifying their points of views (I think it shouldnt be allowed,...). (R. Anderson et al.,2001, pp. 14, 16-17, 25). Often students learn academic skills more effectively when models demonstrate not only how to do something but how to think about something in other words, when models engage in cognitive modelling.

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How the environment reinforces and punishes modelling The observer is reinforced by the model.

General principles of social cognitive theory People can learn by observing the behaviours of others, as well as by observing the outcomes of those behaviors.

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A contemporary social cognitive perspective of reinforcement and punishment The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive process that promotes learning. As an example of a cognitive process involved in learning, social cognitive theorists maintain that attention plays a critical role in learning. And attention is influenced by the expectation of reinforcement. People are more likely to pay attention to someone elses behavior when they think they will be reinforced for modelling that behavior. P. 129-130 I have learned the hard way that when I tell my students they will not be held responsible for certain information, i am making a big mistake. All I have to do is say something like, Now I want you to listen carefully to what I have to say for the next five minutes, but it wont be on the next test, and students put their pens down and settle back in their seats; if Im teaching an early morning class, a few not the back row may start to nod off. People are less likely to say attention to information when they do not anticipate a payoff for learning it. P.130

Example, when the professor tells the students that they do not have to copy the lecture they just have to listen carefully and then they will say that it wont be on the next quiz, the students will immediately put their pens down and settle back on their seats.

Cognitive processing during learning Social cognitive theorists describe the cognitive processes that occur when people are learning. For example, they contend that attention is a critical factor in learning. Furthermore, they propose that people are more likely to remember information when they mentally repeat (rehearse) it and when they develop verbal and visual mental representations (memory codes) of this information. P. 130-131

How self-efficacy affects behavior Choice of activities Goals Effort and persistence Learning and achievement

Factors in the development of self efficacy Students hold fairly accurate opinions about their own self efficacy. They tpically have a good sense of what they can and cannot do. Ideally, it is probably best for students to slightly overestimate their competence; by doing so, they are more likely to try those activities that can help them develop new skills and abilities. Unfortunately, students underestimate their chances of success, perhaps because of a few bad experiences. For example, a girl who gets a C in science from a teacher with exceptionally strict grading criteria may erroneously believe she is no good in science. According to social cognitive theorists, several factors affect the development of self efficacy, including ones own previous successes and failures, the messages that others communicate, the successes and failures of others, and the successes and failures of the group as a whole. P. 143-144 Previous success and failures Students feel more confident that they can succeed at a task that is, they have greater self efficacy when they have succeeded at that task or at similar ones in the past. P. 144 Human learning 4th edition Jeanne Ellis Ormrod copyright 2004