What Parents Need to Know About School Success Myron H. Dembo, Ph.D. University of Southern California dembo@usc Irvine

1. What Parents Need to Know About School Success Myron H. Dembo, Ph.D. University of Southern California dembo@usc.edu Irvine Unified School District January 27, 2009

2. My Concerns About The Learning Behavior and Motivation Of My Children…

3. The Role of Parents in How Children Approach Achievement • Parenting practices—i.e. parents’ actions or behaviors, such as involvement in children’s schooling • Parents’ perceptions of children’s competence • Parental affect: relatedness between parents and children

4. Children’s Psychological Needs Children need to feel that they are : • Competent • Autonomous

5. Different Types of Parenting Has Different Effects on Children • Authoritarian • Authoritative • Permissive

6. Parental Beliefs Questionnaire • Competition is a great motivator. • Human intelligence is fixed by the time a students begins school. • Intelligence is the most important factor in predicting success in school. • The key to success in school is having good instructors. • The best way to remember and learn a new fact is to repeat it a number of times

7. Parental Beliefs Questionnaire 6. Children are more likely to be creative when parents allow them to make their own decisions without imposing many expectations and rules of behavior. 7. Corporal punishment, although often not popular, leads to better behaved children who are able to control their behavior later in life. 8. It is important that parents not allow their children to be bored.

8. Parent Involvement in School Benefits Students’ Learning and Academic Success • Parent-teacher conferences • Participation in school activities or functions • Engaging in academic activities at home • Keeping abreast of students’ academic progress • Reaction to academic grades • Imparting parental values

9. Strategies for Parents • Dealing with stress • Identifying signs of ego involvement • Keeping the focus on learning • Allowing children to take responsibility

10. Different Types of Motivational Problems • Defensive Dimitri – more motivated to avoid failure than to succeed. • Safe Susan – underachiever, plays it safe • Hopeless Henry – learned helplessness • Satisfied Sheila – does not seek high grades • Anxious Alberto – high anxiety, low self- confidence

11. Key Self-Beliefs that Influence Students' Motivation to Learn • Goals • Self-worth • Interests and values • Self-efficacy • Self theories

12. Do students know where they are going?

13. Possible Selves Hoped-for possible self we would like to become (e.g., teacher, attorney, professional athlete) Expected possible self we are fairly sure we can become (e.g., college graduate) Feared possible self we wish to avoid becoming (e.g., a dropout, homeless, unemployed) How one thinks about the self and the future

14. Possible Selves Intervention Program • Discovering –What are my strengths and weaknesses? • Thinking – Who am I? What are my hopes and fears? • Sketching - What am I like? • Reflecting – What can I be? • Growing – How can I reach my goals? • Performing – How am I doing?

15. Self-worth = ability = performance Covington’s Self-Worth Theory (1992) Excuses,procrastination • Self-worth is based on ability, BUT if one can demonstrate that his or her performance does not reflect on ability, then self-worth is maintained. This is why students often use failure-avoidance strategies.

16. Value orientation • Intrinsic value ( = enjoyment one gets from the activity) • Extrinsic value (=utility or usefulness in terms of future goal) • Attainment value (= importance of doing well on the task) • A student can have different value orientations for different tasks. • He or she can also have them all for the same task.

17. Self-Efficacy • Key aspect of self-regulatory strategies --Students with higher self-efficacy set higher goals and expend more effort --Students with higher self-efficacy use more cognitive and metacognitive strategies and persist longer

18. How Self-Theories Can Influence learning From Dweck and Master, 2008

19. Improving Learning and Instruction

20. Academic Toolbox “It is not that students don’t have the ability to succeed. The problem is that they have not acquired all the tools necessary to learn.”

21. What is academic self-regulation? The ability of learners to control the factors or conditions affecting their learning. “Learning is not something that happens to students, it is something that happens by students.” - Zimmerman

22. What are the major components of academic self-regulation? • Motivation (Why?) • Methods of learning (How?) • Use of time (When?) • Control of one’s physical environment (Where?) • Control of one’s social environment (With whom?) • Control of one’s performance (What?) From Dembo, M, & Seli, H. (2008). Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success (3nd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.

23. Why are some students less successful learners? • They have faulty beliefs about their ability, learning, and motivation. • They are unaware of their ineffective learning behavior. • They fail to sustain effective learning and motivational strategies.

24. Methods of learning • Types of strategies --rehearsal copying, taking verbatim notes, reciting words and definitions --elaboration summarization, annotation, elaborative interrogation --organizational visual representations

25. What is this material about? The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their makeup. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell

26. Using Headings to Generate Questions Federation vs. Confederation In a federation, the national government isfully sovereign; the states may not withdraw without the consent of the national authorities; and the people create both the national government and the state governments, delegate powers to both, and may restrict both through the written constitution. The national government may act directly on the people; it can tax and draft them. In contrast, in a confederation, the states are sovereign; they may join the nation or withdraw from it at will. They delegate specified powers to national institutions and reserve all others to themselves. The national "government" is a creature of the states and can deal only with the states, not directly with their citizens. Confederation is an ancient form of government; it has bound people together throughout history, from the time of the alliances of the Israelite tribes to the Renaissance and the confederacies which flourished in what is today Germany, Italy...Federalism is more modern; it was developed first in the United States and later was adopted by one-third of the countries of the world, including the Soviet Union, Brazil, India, Nigeria Mexico...

27. Using Headings to Generate Questions What is the difference between a Federation Versus Confederation? In a federation, the national government is fully sovereign; the states may not withdraw without the consent of the national authorities; and the people create both the national government and the state governments, delegate powers to both, and may restrict both through the written constitution. The national government may act directly on the people; it can tax and draft them. In contrast, in a confederation, the states are sovereign; they may join the nation or withdraw from it at will. They delegate specified powers to national institutions and reserve all others to themselves. The national "government" is a creature of the states and can deal only with the states, not directly with their citizens. Confederation is an ancient form of government; it has bound people together throughout history, from the time of the alliances of the Israelite tribes to the Renaissance and the confederacies which flourished in what is today Germany, Italy...Federalism is more modern; it was developed first in the United States and later was adopted by one-third of the countries of the world, including the Soviet Union, Brazil, India, Nigeria Mexico...

28. Mirror and summary questions • Mirror • If the information in my notes was an answer to a question, what would the question be? (Unlimited quantity) • Summary • What is one major question that reflects the purpose of today’s lecture? • (usually no more than 1-2 per lecture)

29. Main idea flushed to margin Federalism authority is divided bet. nat. and regional level Did not exist before 1787 US has been gov. as confederacy-- auth. given to states Unitary authority solely in nat. gov. Ex. Japan and Sweden What is the difference between a federal and unitary government? Mirror Question Indent examples and supplementary info

30. Effective notes will… • Start 3 inches in from left-hand margin • Use abbreviations & condense information • Have date and pg. number on each pg. • NOT record word-for-word • Use mirror questions in left-had margin • Use both lower & higher-level questions • Use a summary question