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Belief about intelligence and knowledge affects academic performance of learners (thinking and learning)
Two types of intelligence:
- Fixed(entity theory)
- Changeable(incremental theory)
The type of belief learners hold about intelligence – (1) or (2) – give rise to the following learning goals:
Those who believe that intelligence is fixed – hold and cherish PERFORMANCE GOALS = strong desire to demonstrate one’s performance and to achieve normatively (for name sake) high success in a domain (show off?)
Characteristics:
- Surface/superficial learning
- Less persistent
- Less apt to use learning strategies
- attribute failure toability and teacher
- May developlearned helplessness (defense against perceived incompetence – “anything I do will fail…so why try?”)
- Engage in external locus of control
Those who believe that intelligence is changeable – hold and cherish LEARNING GOALS = strong desire to improve one’s performance and achieve mastery in a domain; also called mastery goals (doing something for my own sake…for the sake of learning and improving as a person)
Characteristics:
- More persistent
- More likely to use learning strategies
- Attribute their success to strategy use and effort
- “I can improve if I polish my ways of studying and put in more effort”
- Engage in internal locus of control
Questions:
› How would you define knowledge?
› What is the origin of knowledge?
› It’s nature?
› What are some of the characteristics of knowledge?
How you perceive ‘knowledge’ affects the way you think and learn!Those who hold the following beliefs about knowledge engage in more sophisticated forms of thinking:
- Knowledge is complex
- Knowledge is relative
- Learning is incremental (change in quantity and quality)
- Ability to learn is not innately determined (Q: any real life example for this?)
Developmental Sequence that individuals pass through on their way to mature reasoning about ‘knowledge’:
- Dualist stage– right or wrong, quick learning, absolute, universally certain, accessible only to authorities, look for fact-oriented info, remember info becomes important
- Relativist stage– uncertain and relative, knowledge must e evaluated on a personal basis by using the best available evidence, look for context-oriented info, construction of meaning, gradual learning, tentative and subject to personal interpretation (Bruce Lee!)
Performance differences between the two orientations do exist…!!!
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