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Jessica Joiner Reflection Paper #3

Chapter 9 Question 5:Describe a learning situation in which you expect to find learners with low self-efficacy. First, how would you determine that they in fact have low self-efficacy? What behaviors and attitudes would you expect these learners to exhibits? Then generate an instructional plan that would help learners become more efficacious.

Public speaking is something that many people fear. According to some top ten

lists, this fear, or phobia, is more feared than death itself. As someone who has never

minded speaking in front of any size group, the idea of having anxiety due to speaking

in front of people is a bit baffling, and what I would like to explore further. The

learning situation that I will be using is that of a student’s self-efficacy of public

speaking. The scenario, is a class for senior year students in college who have begun or

are about to begin the career/job search process. This class will focus on some other

aspects of the job search, but a portion of it will be devoted to public speaking,

especially that of the job interview.

The first and foremost way that I would know that these student’s have low self-

efficacy towards interviewing is that they signed up for the course. This course is not

required of graduating seniors, so those that are registering for it must find the

interview process very daunting. One manner in which I would determine the students’

thoughts on interviewing is to have them complete a short questionnaire. This

questionnaire would include questions to help me understand how a student goes about

preparing for an interview and learning if they get anxiety or nervousness and how

nervous they get.

Another simple way of determining if a student has low self-efficacy towards

public speaking is by having each student introduce themselves on the first day of class.

During the introduction, the student is to stand before the class and clearly state their

name, where they are from, what major they are pursing, their dream job and some

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other tidbit/s about themselves. Students with low self-efficacy will tend to walk up to

the front of the classroom timidly, their voice will be low in volume and possibly shaky

and they will not elaborate on the “tidbit” information. These students will also avoid

eye contact and could possibly have a nervous habit ranging from playing with their

hair or a piece of jewelry to an awkward laugh or even using the word “ummm” quite a

bit.

In order to help these students to gain self-efficacy I will need to ensure that

these students are able to develop mastery experiences in order to help them to

motivate and believe in themselves. First, I would ask the students to establish their

own goals for the class. Because each student in the class has a different perspective of

interviewing, I want to be sure to understand what aspects they want to work on. I also

want to understand the students’ enactive mastery experience. To do this, I will ask the

student about any previous interview experiences and the outcome of them. If the

student should say that they have not had a successful interview experience, I will

explain to them that in telling me about their interview past, they are successfully

answering my “interview” questions.

Next, to help the students to build their enactive mastery experience further, I

will break them up into small groups. Within their groups, they will take turns being

the interviewee or part of a panel of interviewers. The interviewers will have a set of

questions to ask, which pertain to the interviewee’s own personal life. These questions

are meant to be non-threatening and things that the student should feel comfortable

answering, such as “getting to know you” type questions. This mock interview session

will also aid the students in their vicarious experiences because they will be able to

witness their peers being successful at an interview.

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In order for the students’ of the class to understand themselves and their

interview weaknesses, I believe that verbal persuasion from both their peers and myself

are important. To help with this, the students’ will breakout into groups of two. They

will each be given a set of possible interview questions that they will have to ask each

other. As they ask each other the questions, they are encouraged to give their partner

positive feedback such as, “that was a great answer” or even giving them some help

when they are struggling. All the while, I will be monitoring their progress as well as

giving my own positive feedback as I examine the room.

To help students to overcome any physiological states that they have about

interviewing, it will be important to learn how the students feel before during and after

the interview. Most students probably feel tense or stressed so explaining stress

relieving exercises may be beneficial. Also, it will be important to identify and nervous

habits that a student has while interviewing and how they can suppress that habit. This

may be the most difficult task of the class because each student has different levels of

physiological states and they could take some time to overcome.

As the class continues, I will provide the students with a mock interview question

of the day, that they will be able to answer via pen and paper. They will then have to

present their answer to the class. The class, as well as myself, will provide any

feedback to the student. This exercise will help the students to become more

comfortable with their speaking to groups of people as well as helping them to

formulate appropriate answers to interview questions.

Finally, myself, as well as two other faculty or staff members will interview each

student. This interview will be video taped, so that the student can review it

afterwards. When the student reviews their videotape, they will critique themselves,

but they will only be allowed to mention the positive things about their interview. This

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will help them to focus on the positive as opposed to the negative aspects of their

interview. In doing so, this is helping each student to integrate a higher level of self-

efficacy information. The students will gain a more positive outlook on the interview

process and have higher expectations and motivation for themselves.

Although each student in this class will be at a different level, I believe that these

exercises and instruction will help the students to have more self-efficacy towards the

interview process. It is also important that these students establish and achieve their

goals for the class with the aid of the instructor and their peers.