WFRC #7: Explain the hypotheses about teaching

WFRC #7: Explain the hypotheses about teaching that you decided were MOST worth testing, and why...

(1)Am I promoting self-efficacy?
• Self-efficacy- Fortunately, self-efficacy is a psychological skill that you can foster and strengthen.  Learners  believe in their own abilities to deal with various situations, can play a role in, not only how they feel about themselves, but whether or not they can successfully achieve their goals in life. Strong self-efficacy learners view challenging problems as tasks to be mastered, develop deeper interest in the activities, a stronger sense of commitment in the subject and quickly recover from disappointments.

(2)Are my expectations/resources challenging enough for my students to get good grades (Merit or Excellence Endorsement)?

• As I mentioned in the blogs I have been working on each topic by digging deeper to ensure the students get good grades. And If they are not happy with the grade trying to give them resit opportunities as they are in the last year of school and all learning counts towards their rank score. Their rank score determines their career pathway.

(3)Am I Promoting self-directed learning to imitate the university environment and helping students to choose the correct carrier pathway?
• The research shows students are dropping out from university at an unacceptably high rate and one of the reasons is poor secondary preparation. Students are not self-directed enough to handle university the university environment so I am trying to imitate the university environment in the classroom.
• My learners and I have been working with tertiary providers and past students and the school's carrier department to identify the ideal pathway. I strongly believe that my learners need to choose pathways that provide both enjoyment and career satisfaction.

(4) Am I giving them enough practice for them to retain their knowledge?
• There are three internals and three external to the program. The three internal adds up to only 10 credits, University entrance requires at least 14 credits in a single subject as one of the entry requirements. Therefore to get entry every learner must be able to pass one of the external.Also, Auckland university engineering counts only externals which means learners must pass all externals(17 from Calculus). My challenge is huge, trying to find strategies to meet my learners' needs.