Steve Altstadt 1 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 When deciding which learner to choose, I weighed a few

options. Some of my friends have younger siblings who would have made fine choices, but I kept coming back to one person: my cousins son, Alex, whose name has been changed for confidentiality reasons. Alex made sense for a number of reasons. First, he met my main requirement. I am going to be a Secondary English teacher, so I wanted to find someone at the high school level. Alex is a high school freshman. The more appealing reason, however, was that interviewing Alex would give me a unique opportunity. As my family member, Alex is someone Ive known his entire life. Yet, I really only know him on a social, casual level. I have never seen him around peers, and I have no idea how he carries himself at school, what he likes to learn, or what his learning habits are. I know he is somewhat shy and reserved at family gatherings, but is he like that at school? I know he has been a good student in the past, but how is he handling the transition to high school? If he is still doing well, how does he find success? As a teacher, I will generally only have the opportunity to know a student in the school setting. Interviewing Alex gave me the opportunity to know both the school and personal life of a learner. For my interview, I chose to focus on the studies of Mary Belenky, Albert Bandura, and Urie Bronfenbrenner. Belenkys theory, as much as any we have studied this semester, immediately made sense to me. From my experience, a great amount of students prefer the active learning she advocatesand not just women. I know I do not enjoy listening to nothing but lectures while in class. I learn best through student participation, personal examples,

Steve Altstadt 2 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 and group discussion. I was curious to see whether Alex has a similar learning preference, and also, whether any of his teachers employ the style of midwife teaching. Banduras contributions to learning through behavior modeling, along with his work on self-efficacy, both were largely reflected in both the questions I asked and the answers I received. I was very curious to see how confident Alex felt at school, and what result his confidence level has on his learning. Finally, Bronfenbrenners Ecological Systems Theory became apparent as my interview unfolded. I did not originally intend to incorporate his work into my questioning, but some of Alexs answers led to follow-up questions that directly involved relationship systems. My interview with Alex went very well. It helped that it was with someone I knew well, as the conversation was free-flowing. Alex and his family moved to California a few years ago, so the interview took place over two phone calls (I did promise him lunch the next time I see him, however). I began the interview with some general questions. I asked what he likes most about school and what he likes least. These questions are not necessarily directly tied to a theorist, but they served as an icebreaker and a way to ease into the more relevant questions. His answers were interesting, however, and some conclusions can be drawn from them. When asked what he likes most about school, Alex said he feels teachers understand him more now that he is in high school. He enjoys the fact that he is expected

Steve Altstadt 3 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 to be mature. This seems to affirm what Bandura theorized about self-efficacy: children will believe they are capable if they are treated as if they are capable. I then asked Alex what his favorite school activities are. This was a way to start getting at the ways he likes to learn. His response is that he likes labs and hands-on activities, and he likes teachers who get the class involved rather than lecturing for an entire class period. He could not have been clearer that he does not like lectures. He said he has always felt this way. He went as far as to say he does not do as well in classes that include a lot of lecturing as he does in classes in which the students are more involved. Hes describing exactly what Paulo Freire referred to in Belenky (1986) as the banking model of educationthat the teachers role is to fill the students by making deposits of information which the teacher considers to constitute true knowledge. (p. 214). The students job is merely to store the deposits. The banking teacher takes few risks, composes his thoughts in private and hides the imperfect processes of his/her thinking. Intentions may be good, but results are often less than desirable. In Belenky (1986), Freir says, Banking education anesthetizes. It attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness. (p. 217). In other words, students cannot participate actively in the lecture, and therefore do not get a feeling of involvement in the class. On the other hand, when I asked Alex to describe his favorite teacher, he answered enthusiastically. My favorite teacher doesn't do any lectures, he said. What he does is he gives a little bit of an overview, then he goes around individually to the class to see if anyone needs help. He has the work for the day on the table in the front of the room; once you walk in you pick it up and know what we're doing. Clearly, Alex

Steve Altstadt 4 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 prefers a hands-on learning experience in which he is actively participating in his own learning. This is what Belenky (1986) describes as the teacher as a midwife. Midwife teachers focus not on their own knowledge (as the lecturer does) but on the students knowledge. They contribute when needed, but it is always clear that the baby is not theirs but the students. (p. 218). Going further, Alex admitted to actually working harder for teachers he likes. When asked why, he said he does not like teachers who struggle to get through to him (likely the banker-style teachers who lecture and fail to involve the class in the lesson). I end up looking in the book and not understanding, or doing the homework and not understanding, he says. I end up not doing the homework for that night and trying to figure it out the next day in class. I found this answer fascinating. Alex has always been a good student, yet in extreme cases he may simply not do his homework because the subject was lost on him in class. If this happens for students like Alex, how often is it happening for students who are not as motivated or confident? I also wonder how aware teachers even are that this is happening as much as Alex implies it does. I found links to both Belenky and Bandura in this answer. First, if the teacher is lecturing and not getting through to students, they are less likely to understand the content. This goes back to making the effort to actively involving students in the lesson rather than simply depositing the information. Secondly, there is an obvious link to Banduras theory on modeling. Alex likes this particular teacher because he allows the students to actively work on projects in class while the teacher can individually help

Steve Altstadt 5 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 students when needed. This teacher encourages students to complete the work themselves rather than having them watch him do it. When Alex sees this teachers confidence in him to complete work, he feels more capable himself. My next series of questions concerns motivation, particularly by grades. I was trying to get at the core of the grading system and what effect it might have on a learner. In my experience, some students put too far too much emphasis on the grade they receive than whether they sufficiently understand the content. Perhaps in the eyes of some students, if they do not get an A on their next test, they might not get an A in the class. If they fail to get an A in the class, their GPA will drop. If their GPA drops too low, they might not get accepted to their dream college. If they do not get accepted to a certain college, they may not have success in life. Immense pressure mounts from something as simple as a letter grade. This relates to Banduras theory on social factors. If the learners models within his/her social environment constantly reinforce the belief that grades are vital, the learner will share that view. As Sandra Graham (2005) notes, Bandura often treats social factors as both influencing and being influenced by personal determinants. (p. 10). When asked what motivates him, Alexs response was simple yet enlightening. What motivates me is knowing that if I do well in school, I'm going to do well in life. That's what really matters. That seems to be a responsible and mature answer, yet it is possible that he feels a certain amount of pressure to succeed in school. His response when asked about grades and homework was more eye-opening.

Steve Altstadt 6 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 My main motivator in that sense is if you check it, I'm going to do it. If you grade it for sure, it will be done. I did not force him to answer this question, but that seems to imply that if he knows the homework will not be checked, he may not always do it. From my own high school experience, I know this was the attitude of many students. At what point do we question whether grades are doing more harm than good? When students main concerns go from understanding the subject matter to simply appearing they have completed their homework, hasnt the system failed on some level? Barry Zimmerman and Timothy Cleary (2006) address this same issue. Adolescents success in making this developmental transition is complicated by a major increase in the difficulty of the academic work that is assigned in middle or junior high schools. If adolescents fail to regulate this demanding academic environment effectively, their academic grades will likely declineoften leading to a loss of self-efficacy about succeeding in school. As their self-efficacy diminishes, adolescents can become embedded in a downward cycle of academic achievement that may involve aligning themselves with peers who possess unfavorable views about the value and importance of school. (p. 46). This reinforces the idea that the emphasis on grades might have a negative impact. The final group of questions concerned Alexs support system and attitude on making mistakes. Once again, this alludes to Banduras self-efficacy theory, in the sense that children learn through imitation of models.

Steve Altstadt 7 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 Alex has an intriguing, and probably unique, solution when he has problems in school. Our school has Link Crew, which is like kids helping other kids, he says. Sophomores help freshmen. I like it a lot; it's helpful. On the first day of school they showed us around campus. If were having problems and we dont want to talk to adults, we can talk to our student mentors. This seems like a fantastic idea that could potentially be a big help to students. Adolescence is obviously a challenging time, and these students are going to have problems, whether personal or school-related, that they will not be comfortable discussing with teachers, parents, or other adults. It is a support system that I know I wish I would have had at my disposal at times during high school. When asked about making a mistake in school, Alex said, Usually I don't get too stressed unless it's on a huge test that could alter my grade completely. He also added that teachers usually understand when he makes a mistake, and that they do not expect students to be perfect. On one hand, it seems he is not too worried about being perfect. On the other hand, he once again alludes to the pressure brought on by the grading system. Finally, I asked if he is more comfortable making a mistake at home or at school. At home, because people won't make fun of you as much. At school if you make a typical mistake, barely anything can happen and people start making fun of you because you did one thing wrong. This opened up a new line of questions that I was not necessarily planning to ask. He is clearly worried about what his peers think of him and prefers to avoid any ridicule.

Steve Altstadt 8 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 In Bronfenbrenners Ecological Models of Human Development (1994), the innermost environment for a child is known as the microsystem. It is within the immediate environment of the microsystem that proximal processes operate to produce and sustain development, but as the above definition indicates, their power to do so depends on the content and structure of the microsystem. Most of the relevant studies of proximal processes have focused on the family, with all too few dealing with other key developmental settings, such as classrooms and schools. (p. 1645). In other words, the school and classroom division of a childs microsystem is arguably just as important is the family aspect. Being rejected or ridiculed by classmates can do serious damage to a childs self-esteem and self-efficacy. This is shown by Alexs preference to make mistakes at home rather than at school. He knows he will not be ridiculed for mistakes at home, where his parents do not expect him to be perfect. At school, however, he might be teased for making a mistake. In conclusion, I feel this interview was productive in many ways. First, it was successful in giving me an idea of what Alex is like in a school setting as opposed to his home environment, which was the only way I knew him before this interview. Secondly, it definitely reinforced the theories behind the questions I asked. It is important to note I did not go into the interview with the intention of proving these theories. I asked openended, unloaded questions, and his answers happened to support the theories. This interview has yielded many opportunities for further examination. With more time, I would like to further examine the impact of the grading system on students motivation. It seems apparent that some students are more concerned with getting a good

Steve Altstadt 9 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 grade than with actually understanding the material. What I would like to know is whether grades actually result in students learning more content, and whether they would work to learn as much if a grading system was eliminated. Another aspect I would like to dig into further is Alexs dislike for lectures. He seems to very much fit into Belenkys theory that banking teachers are not as effective for a large amount of students. I am very curious to get a better idea of how many students feel this way. Could possible results indicate that lectures should be fazed out even more?

Steve Altstadt 10 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 References Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Womens Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological Models of Human Development. In T. Husen & T. Postlethwaite (Eds.). The International Encyclopedia of Educaction (34d ed., Vol. 3). (pp. 1643-1647). Oxford, England: Pergamon. (Alverno Library info: Reference, 370.3: I 61; 1994; V.3) Cleary, T.J., Zimmerman, B.J. (2006). Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents, 45-69. Information Age Publishing. Graham, S. E. (2005). Developing Through Learning: A Review of the Work of Piaget, Vygotsky and Bandura. Alverno College.

Steve Altstadt 11 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 Interview Transcript What do you like most about school? To me school is about learning. I enjoy it because the teachers seem to understand what's going on. The teachers seem to understand students more at a high school. Teachers expect us to be mature, and if we're not they know how to take care of us. In middle school they were all over the place. They didn't know how to discipline. What do you like least about school? The way some teachers actually teach. Some of them don't know how to teach what they're doing. Sometimes they aren't prepared. It seems first period they're less prepared than later in the day. Do you think theres a reason for that? They realize what they have to teach rather than learning on the fly. They figure out what works after their first class or two. What are your favorite school activities? I like labs, activities and teachers interacting with their kids. Seeing teachers get up and help kids rather than just staying back and watching. How do you like to learn? (i.e. lectures, group work, projects, etc.) Why? I don't like lectures. Lectures just take up time and you don't have time to work on anything. Have your learning methods changed? How? I've always been this way. When teachers lecture or talk a lot, I don't do as well in the class. When the teachers are active and help students, I do a lot better. What are your study methods? That's a good question. I like having music on because it focuses me and I can sit still. If not I like to be moving around a bit. I like a lot of study guides. It gives you some direction as far as what you need to know. So if you have a test coming up, how do you study?

Steve Altstadt 12 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 I look at notes. I usually don't do flashcards. Like I said, sometimes for huge tests my teacher will give me study guides, which is really nice. Who are your favorite teachers? What do you like about them? My favorite teacher knows what they're doing. My math teacher comes to school late and unprepared. She's always forgetting something. My favorite teacher doesn't do any lectures. What he does is he gives a little bit of an overview, then he goes around individually to the class to see if anyone needs help. He has the work for the day on the table in the front of the room; once you walk in you pick it up and know what we're doing. Do you work harder for teachers you like? Why? Yes. I tend to work a little bit harder for people I like. Teachers that I don't really like are--they make no sense to me, so I can't really understand what they're teaching. I end up looking in the book and not understanding, or doing the homework and not understanding. I end up not doing the homework for that night and trying to figure it out the next day in class. What motivates you to work hard and do well in school? What motivates me is knowing that if I do well in school, I'm going to do well in life. That's what really matters. Are you motivated by grades? Are you any more likely to complete a homework assignment if you know it's going to be graded? My main motivator in that sense is if you check it, I'm going to do it. If you grade it for sure, it will be done. Who do you go to with problems? Our school has Link Crew, which is like kids helping other kids. Sophomores help freshmen. I like it a lot; it's helpful. On the first day of school they showed us around campus. If were having problems and we dont want to talk to adults, we can talk to our student mentors. How do you feel when you make a mistake in school? Usually I don't get too stressed unless it's on a huge test that could alter my grade completely.

Steve Altstadt 13 LTM 611 Take A Learner To Lunch 3/13/10 Are there teachers who understand? I think they understand. It's kind of hard because--sometimes they'll get mad if you're talking while they are. They never really get angry though. Would you rather make a mistake at home or at school? Why? At home, because people won't make fun of you as much. At school if you make a typical mistake, barely anything can happen, people start making fun of you because you did one thing wrong. Do you have conflicts with other classmates? Why? A little bit. Usually--I happen to be subject of a lot of people goofing off and bringing me in on it, and that's what really bothers me. Do you feel some students are treated differently than others? How? Why? Some students I would say are. Mainly because some like to goof off in class, and then they're treated like the person who always does that. The people who like to behave are treated like good students. When something goes wrong and roles change, the teacher is thrown off because they're not used to that.