Case Study 2 Sara is a personable student in Mr. El-Haj math class. Mr. El-Haj c

Question

Case Study 2 Sara is a personable student in Mr. El-Haj math class. Mr. El-Haj can see that Sara is popular with her peers. He regularly sees her conversing animatedly with her friends in the cafeteria and before and after school. on tests generally range from 85 to 100%. She regularly volunteers to work problems on the board or to and Mr El-Haj calls on her. "Sara, have a go at it." She does well in class also. Her homework is always on time and is usually well done. Her scores answer questions in class. In short, Sara is a good student who does everything that is expected of her One day Mr El-Haj asks for volunteers to complete a problem at the board. Sara's hand shoots up Sara approaches the board and examines the problem. She looks puzzled but begins to work it. es an error that will severely impact the final answer. Several other students begin to snicker. Sara's heart begins to beat faster. Her skin becomes flushed. She begins to perspire. The other That's enough," warns Mr El-Haj, "Let Sara finish in peace." he class begin to fidget. Some begin snickering again. After several seconds of standing at the board, but doing nothing, Sara runs out of the room in tears. I can't do this, Mr El-Haj, I just can't," she says through her tears as she leaves. Mr El-Haj follows Sara and manages to calm her down. He reassures her that all students make mistakes, that there is no shame in it. He then asks that she return to class, which she does. After this, Sara no longer participates in Mr El-Haj class. Once in Ms. Rima's class, she begins to answer a question and "freezes." The information seems to vanish from her head as she begins to talk. After that she no longer participates in any of her classes. When asked to do so, she simply looks down at her desk, refusing to say a word 1. What are the issues in this case? 2. Analyze this case from a classical conditioning perspective 3. Analyze this case from an operant conditioning perspective 4. Develop a plan to help Sara, using principles of both classical and operant conditioning and social cognitive theory

Explanation / Answer

Since Sara has always been an excellent student she has a high need for achievement and appreciation. She used to get all her answers correct and always do homework on time which lead to praising by the teacher always. The teacher also always tells the other students to learn something from the good and obedient one. Since she got used to being praised all the time and being correct all the time,the one time she could not solve the problem made under feel pressurized. The social pressure of what the other students and teacher might think,that how could she wrong made her nervous and she ran away from the classroom. And also the need for appreciation from others made want to perform well always that she is why always made sure to be correct all the time as well as participate in everything. Classical conditioning is a natural phenomenon which focuses on involutary behaviour. According to this case,since the maths teacher has created a postive environment for Sara by praising her,setting her as example for other students,asking students to appreciate her efforts therefore her confidence level in the maths class and for this particular teacher had risen as she got conditioned to it which is why the new stimulus of not being able to solve the problem made her anxious in front of everyone in the same maths class. Operant conditioning focuses on voluntary behaviour. By using postive reinforcement by the teacher of praise made Sara learn the skills of putting her hand up always to give the answer. Praise worked for her to develop the voluntray behaviour of always willing to participate in everything. So when she did not get the answer she wasnt praised for it which made her anxious. Classical conditioning can be applied to this situation as well to overcome her anxiety and motivate her to participate by pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings by asking other students to contribute as well helps the student learn new associations. Instead of feeling anxious and tense in these situations, the child learns to stay relaxed and calm. Operant conditioning can applied by making use of small rewards by the teacher to overcome her anxiety,like maybe calling anther student and making them solve the problem and doing it in the wrong way to show Sara that mistakes can happen from anyone. Social cognitive theory principles can applied to help her overcome her anxiety by creating an anvironment where she could observe other students making mistakes but still are postively handled and no other student makes any negative gesture. Modeling this behaviour would help her.

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