The social cognitive theory revolves around acquisition of knowledge through observation. It also talks about an individual response to the acquired knowledge. So it's basically learning by observation where one acquires a given knowledge by means of observing related models.
Q.1
Annie's behavior can be explained in a concept of this theory called self efficacy. Self efficacy according to Albert Bandura is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situation (1995, p. 2).personal attitude, skills, abilities and even beliefs determines their response to diverse situations that they find themselves in. so Annie might be having problem with her abilities where writing is concerned or she could be having what is called weak self efficacy.
Q.2
Self efficacy is when a person does not believe in their ability to positively respond to given situation or tasks that face them. Ann's sulky attitude is a reflection of this. This can have different causes as listed below.
- She might be avoiding it because it might be challenging unwilling to take the challenge
- It could be she has an attitude that her capabilities cannot meet the writing task
- She might have failed in the writing tasks before and this she feels she might fail again
- She could as well have developed the negative feelings towards the writing. This may be because of the attitude towards the teacher or just the strain
- She might be weak willed and the kind of a person who focuses on personal failings and loses confidence on her abilities.
Q.3
If the causes of Annie's attitude are any of the above, which is most probable, it can be solved through employing different strategies that are cited by different individuals who have given their time to research where fostering of cognitive theory is concerned.
- Ann could be led to set short term goals that will challenge her as an individual. Goals that are achievable and lead her in the process of achieving them.
- Ann can also be set to think positively about the writing task and be led to draw strategy on how to go about in achieving better outcomes where writing is concerned. she should be let to execute the strategy review it and verbalize the next step this way she is likely to see how much she is capable of handling writing (schunk 2002
- Bandura says that the student she be told to want to evaluate themselves according goals they set rather than compare themselves with other students. This way the students will not be tempted on focusing more on their failings and thus foster tier morale in a given task. This applied to Ann could help a lot.
- The teacher could as well use moderately difficult tasks to boost the morale of the student. For if easy tasks are used it would be boring but something that jogs the mind of the student as well as show them they are capable of handling a given task in a field they might not be so comfortable with. This edifies their self efficacy
- Ann can as well be given examples of her peers who are excelling at tasks that are difficult at them. This helps the student observe peers and the strategies they employed to achieve as they did. These peers can be drawn from groups defined as gender ,age-mates, ethnicity groups etc
- The teacher can also guide the students on specific ways of attacking questions. So if the teacher guides Ann on particular ways of handling the writing tasks Ann is likely to change her perspective on writing. It could be just being given assignment and let loose to the do the herself is the main problem and this might help her overcome it
- Ann can also be helped to tie her writing course to her interests such as sports, dancing or any other interest that she has. For instance she can be given tasks to write on given topics that are related to her interests this way she gets more interested and involved hence improving her skill of handling writing
Q.4
Self regulation is a deep internal mechanism that enables children as well as adults to engage in mindful intentional and thoughtful behaviors. Most of the time it is boosted by the self efficacy. When self efficacy is weak, self regulation is also, low but if a person is strong where self efficacy is concerned they are likely to have better self regulation. Now that Ann has weak self efficacy it could affect herself regulation. So Ann should be talked to and persuaded to have more positive attitude on how to handle writing on her own accord. She should be given space to express herself and how she could possibly solve the task on her own accord. She should also be appreciated on every good work that she does and the teacher give her more of suggestion on how to do it better than instruct. The motivational statements while Ann's about to handle the tasks. "Like you can do it"