[Ous-lp-rp13] EDAD 6020, Response to Question #3

[Dusti Chapman]

Anthony, I enjoyed reading your examples. For the first example, I can
easily see how the collective efficacy (all teachers in the math
department) can be seen as held accountable for the students not having
much success. While reading, I instantly thought this could either motivate
teachers to a whole new level or where some teachers get in the mood of
just passing the time. For me, this would motivate me hugely! I would want
to be the change and show a difference. After all, if I only make one
difference to one student then I will be happy and feel successful. I hope
you will be encouraged in the same manner.

I can see how having no collective efficacy in sports can be a huge set
back. I personally play a lot of sports and I am very athletic. I have been
on both sides, the winning side and losing side. It can be hard to finish a
game with pride knowing you are going to lose. However, when we accept
losing as our fate it impacts the outcome that much more. For example,
recently I played in a women's basketball league. I was having a bad game,
I could not hit a single shot. However, I hustled and hustled and hustled.
Even though I personally felt like I had a bad game due to not scoring,
many people approached me with how they felt I played a really good and
strong game. These compliments were due to my work ethic and intrinsic
motivation to not give up.

I am happy to hear that your school has a high collective efficacy in
regards to being there for your students. This to me, means more than any
high test score. Being able to show students they are cared for and that we
as teachers strive to make sure their basic needs are met impacts students
far more than I believe we will ever truly understand. This in itself is
why I love teaching.

Original Post: Anthony Gillman



*The fact that I teach high school geometry will should immediately clue
most of you in to how I will begin to answer the question about the manner
in which self-efficacy and collective efficacy exist in my school.  I began
this past school year much like I have in the past years by asking students
to raise their hand if they normally struggle or haven’t been successful in
past math classes. Not including the honors course that I teach, I had
approximately 80-90% of my students to raise their hand.  As you can
imagine, this sets up a bit of a challenge when it comes to successful
results. I believe this to be an example of both self-efficacy and
collective efficacy. Unfortunately this group of students is not an
exception to the norm. This most definitely affects the math department
(teachers) as a whole and usually finds its way into many of our
conversations.  Personally, I understand that this is an absolute external
force that comes into play, but try to remain steadfast in my journey to be
an effective teacher for all my students. I am able to keep a high sense of
self-efficacy by remembering that I will always be able to improve on my
craft.Another example would be many of our athletic programs.  We have
developed a culture of expecting to lose and seems evident when watching
the students compete.  There are many times when the students showcase
their ability to equally compete or even outperform their opponents, but
when the momentum shifts to the other team we find it difficult to fight
through the moment and end up accepting mentally that the loss is
inevitable.  You can usually see it in their change in play as well as on
their faces. This is not for every sport, but many of them fall into this
scenario.On a more positive note, our school has developed a high sense of
collective efficacy when it comes to going the extra mile for students.  As
an organization, most of us have a belief that are school focuses on
student needs especially when their basic needs are not being met out of
school. This type of belief has a positive effect for our staff’s intrinsic
motivation to keep doing a good job no matter the academic deficiencies we
may encounter.*
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