Week 5 - Attribution Theory (Professional Blog)

Markus and I on board the Star Ferry.

This week at university we studied the attribution theory (Weiner, 1979, 1986) in our Engaging Difficult, Reluctant and Challenging Learners module. As a prospective teacher, I found this really interesting because this lecture reinforced the concept that pupils’ attitudes to their work influence how they perform and act in the classroom.

Weiner developed a theoretical framework that has become very influential in social psychology today. Attribution theory tries to determine why people do what they do, that is, interpret causes to an event or behaviour. Consequently one’s perception, in an educational context, of the causes of their successes or failures (their attributions) affects the formation of their expectancy beliefs and their behaviour.

Weiner’s attribution theory is mainly about achievement. According to him, the most important factors affecting attributions are ability, effort, task difficulty and luck. Attributions are classified along three causal dimensions:

1. Locus of control (two poles: internal vs. external)
2. Stability (do causes change over time or not?)
3. Controllability (causes one can control such as skills vs. causes one cannot control such as luck, others’ actions, etc.)

In our class we looked at two different types of learners – adaptive learners and maladaptive learners.

In terms of success or failure adaptive learners attribute more influence to stable, self-characteristics such as their own ability and the effort they put into the work which means that the locus of control comes out of their inner-self (internal factors within their control). If they fail to do well then this would be attributed to the fact that they didn’t work hard enough or didn’t pay enough attention.

On the other hand maladaptive learners attribute more importance to unstable, external factors such as ‘luck’ or that the test was ‘easy’. Reasons for failure are also often attributed to external factors.... looking for an excuse for their failure.

The lesson I have learnt from a professional standpoint is the importance of not emphasising success in the classroom in relation to one’s ability but instead to hard work and effort. By adopting this approach, I hope that all pupils feel that they can achieve and succeed, not only in school but in life outside of school by having a positive attitude and doing everything to the best of their ability.

In our class we discussed how to engage and facilitate children who are under-achieving in the classroom. The importance of setting realistic goals was particularly highlighted so that learners can experience success in their work thus building up their self-efficacy. This is linked to Vygotsky’s theory (1969) in relation to the zone of proximal development. Tasks for students should be designed to be challenging enough for success after putting in the effort to succeed.

On Wednesday we also had to do our presentation for Hong Kong history and culture – addressing the rich/poor divide in Hong Kong which I discussed last week in my blog. After working for much of the previous week together I feel that our hard work paid off with a well researched presentation. Indeed, despite some of the frustrations associated with group work, in the end it is very satisfying when you produce a good piece of work together as a team. Here in Hong Kong, a lot of the modules incorporate group work as part of the course. I feel that having this experience of working as a group is important especially as a future teacher as it is extremely important to be able to work collaboratively in the school environment and be able to get along with other professional colleagues.

For our assessment class our group has been working hard creating a short written assessment test which is due on Tuesday of this week. The professor is very approachable and allocates time for the different groups to discuss their group work with him. After meeting the professor on Friday, I feel that, with some small alterations, the assessment tool which our group has created will be valid and accurate.

Claire Annett and Claire Beacom flew out to Hong Kong this week and stayed for a few days before moving on to study in China so it was nice to be able to meet up with them a couple of times during the week. 

Stranmillis reunion!

Unfortunately this week, the weather has taken a turn for the worse out here in Hong Kong, with rain most days. During the cold weather the locals like to eat and share ‘hot pot’ and of course, I managed to grab a bowl or two!! Lots of people gathered around the simmering metal pot of satay stock at the centre of the table and while the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. The hot pot contained lots of vegetables – mushrooms, dumplings, different types of fish as well as some thinly sliced meat which I assumed was bacon! People can sit around and eat at their leisure for a few hours while ingredients are thrown in at will.   It is a really nice way to get everyone together and something which I’ll have to do again.

My first taste of hotpot!

 It is hard to believe that I have already been out in Hong Kong for nearly 5 weeks, time is going by so quickly which I suppose can only be viewed as a good thing!

Until next time...

Joi Gin (Goodbye)

Michael