P SYCHOLOGY A PPLICATION P ROJECT By: Meagan Kincaid

T EMPLE E LEMENTARY S CHOOL Subjects: Reading, Science, Writing, Math Grade Level: Pre-Kindergarten Students: 22 Students Demographics: African American, Hispanic, Multi-Racial, and White; Low-Income families Observation Hours: 20 Hours

P ROJECT F INDINGS Instructor: The instructor is really active in making students try and solve problems on their own. Instruction: Time is not taken away from instruction to focus on behavior problems. Students: Students are very good at social interaction and problem solving. Teacher-Student Interaction: Students have more respect for both teachers, because they are not constantly getting onto them and telling them to move a clip or flip a card.

P ROJECT F INDINGS ( CONTD.) Student-Student Interaction: Students work better together because they know how to use their words to express their feelings to each other. Still some tattling Class Management: stickers in agendas, redirection songs Assessments: Pre-K check-list (social interaction is included) and educational games Curriculum: Bright Start

P ROJECT F INDINGS One thing that I really loved about this class, is that the teacher tries really hard to help students work on their social skills with each other. If a problem between two students needs to be solved, she tells the children to use their words and talk it out with the other child. When students come up to tattle, the teachers always ask, ‘Is someone seriously hurt?’ They try to make students understand that a lot of issues like someone not sharing a toy, or someone who cut in line can be solved by using ‘their words’ and talking it out with that person. Or, if someone is doing something that bothers them, they can tell them nicely that they do not like that.

P ROJECT F INDINGS ( CONTD.) Discipline is something that is an on-going process with the teachers. They do not stop during lessons to make a child move a clip or flip a card. They simply address the inappropriate behavior and move on. Depending on how many times a certain student gets in trouble, then they lose their stickers for the day. Students who stay on task earn all 3 stickers, and if they have 8 by the end of the week they can get into the treasure box. While discipline is important in this classroom, I think that the teachers are more focused on making sure their students learn appropriate behaviors and self control, instead of just disciplining them without any sort of lesson.

S OCIAL C OGNITIVE T HEORY The social cognitive theory is where students learn by what other people do in a social situation. Reinforcements and punishments can be used to help these behaviors be better understood. The Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model

S OCIAL C OGNITIVE T HEORY ( CONTD.) Self-Control Self control is when a student is able to control their own actions even when they know that there is not going to be some sort of reward. I feel as if my supervising teacher really tries to work on her student’s self-control, because they do not know when they are losing a sticker. She may get onto them, but they do not know until the end of the day if their actions gave them all 3 stickers, or if they lost some as a result. Not knowing keeps most of the students on their best behaviors. Self-Efficacy Self efficacy is when a student feels capable to handle certain tasks. Since the children are learning to interact with others when there is a problem, they feel confident in social interactions. They work together with learning, and resolve conflicts together at this early age to help them develop a better sense of self-efficacy.

S OCIAL C OGNITIVE T HEORY ( CONTD ) Self-Regulation Self-regulations is when the student is able to consistently use their learned self-control skills in different situations Since Mrs. A enforces the rule that students should share with each other, when a new activity is introduced, the students already understand that they will need to share with each other.

M Y A RGUMENT I believe that as teachers, by allowing students to sort of figure out right and wrong behaviors by themselves, they will have a better sense of self- control, and learn to respect others more because they came across this idea ‘themselves.’ By observing the classroom, I have seen that students – even at a young age like 4 or 5 – are able to control their own behaviors and modify them without being constantly told to correct the negative behavior. Mrs. A’s class runs smoothly, and just by observing it gave me the confidence to try these methods in my own future classroom.

S OURCES Snowman, Jack. (2010). Psychology applied to teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Social cognitive theory. (2010, September 07). Theory Clusters/HealthCommunication/Social_cognitive_ theory.doc/ Self efficacy.(n.d.). robinson/SelfEff/index.html Hardin, Carlette. (2012). Effective classroom management. Boston, MA: Pearson.