Teaching Self-Confidence and Self Esteem

The following information is from Unit 14 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.

• A student with self-confidence will stay with tasks and new learning situations
• He has self-confidence because he has been reinforced for what he already has learned
• And for working on previous tasks
• But you can’t teach self-confidence or self-esteem by itself
• You teach them in context of good teaching of learning tasks

• Definition of attitude: subjective idea referring to how someone feels about a class of stimulus events
• Subjective because an observer cannot SEE another’s feelings but you can infer
• You can infer a positive attitude from smiling, supportive words, or approaching
• You can infer a negative attitude from avoidance or defensive behavior, facial grimaces, and words that indicate dislike
• You can train students to talk and approach positively toward a class of stimuli and thus have positive attitudes towards it
• Likewise you can train the students to do the opposite
• “Attitudes are unseen products or results of learning encounters with reinforcers and punishers”

• Self-confidence and self-esteem are created through attitudes towards one’s own capabilities and one’s self as a person
• Taught through instances that make you appear capable
• It is unlikely that anything could be taught to a child without also teaching him attitudes toward himself or the task
• Attitudes can be taught directly or accidentally
• When taught accidentally, teachers often intend to encourage a student to work well, but instead she scolds him and gives him attention for not working
• When the student works, she acts as if she expects the behavior
• The student learns there is no payoff for doing the work
• The teacher infers he has a poor attitude or low self-esteem
• If a child is taught failure numerous times, he will develop an avoidance of the learning situation

• Procedures to teach self-confidence and self-esteem
• Give praise and demonstrate that the students are capable and successful
• The teacher must model how to be capable and successful as well
• Use an academic program appropriate for the students
• Where they can learn and have low error rates
• It must provide frequent demonstrations that the students are capable and successful
• It should provide skills for living successfully outside of school

• Teach persistence
• The student needs to stay with a task long enough to make the correct response OR make an error and learn from it to make the right response
• The student needs to know that persistence (staying with the task) will lead to success
• Otherwise he will quit and be reinforced for doing so (escape the task)
• Thus the teacher needs to reinforce success trials after error trials on new tasks
• The teacher also needs to teach the student to use persistence on ANY new tasks
• The procedures
• When a student has trouble on a new task, reinforce the student for persistence
• Example: “I know you can figure it out!”
• Early on use tasks that student can succeed at before harder tasks
• This is too avoid early failure and early quitting before success
• As the student succeeds, increase the requirements
• Early on also give frequent praise and attention
• Fade the praise and attention just as any other situation over time
• When a student shows mastery of a skill, the teacher relates his performance to the rule
• Example: “You figured it out because you stuck with it!”
• Indicate to the other students this is an example of the rule of persistence
• For some students a tangible reinforcer may be needed
• Tangibles help students who have not had success in the past
• When the student knows he can succeed, the teacher can teach the student to be confident about his responses

• Teach self-confidence
• Use a “fooler” game to get the students’ attention
• Example: “I’m going try to catch you. See if what I say makes sense. I’m going to name things that are animals. Tiger, elephant, dog, table, horse… I tricked you! You thought a table is an animal. However, Johnny knew that a table is not an animal. I couldn’t catch him.”
• Use the “fooler” games with tasks that are familiar to the students
• Do not use the games with new tasks or the students won’t know how to act in new situations
• Example: the students can add one-digit numbers
• The teacher writes on the board 6+2=9 and sees if she can catch the students
• If they catch her mistake, she tells them they were too attentive to be caught
• You can use the games for paying attention as well
• The students need to pay attention or they get caught!
• When the students have gotten used to the”fooler” games, the teacher tells the students they’re going to do something that might be hard
• When the students get it, she acts surprised and happy
• “Fooler” tasks must be carefully sequenced  so that the students can be successful and become confident

• Case study of a student with low self-esteem who was taught to like himself, school, and reading
• He was a six year old student with many attention issues while in the classroom
• Baseline showed he was off-task 87% of the time
• He was constantly moving, talking off-topic, and day-dreaming
• He also was tested to have a slightly lower IQ than the other students (learned slightly slower)
• The behaviorists taught the teacher to use praise and reinforcers and to ignore the disruptions
• The student’s off-task behavior changed to 51%
• A special tutoring program in reading was provided to the student for six weeks
• 21 hours of tutoring for 30 sessions
• It was based on the Ginn reading program and built up his word knowledge with slow presentation of new words and stories made of words he could read
• He also did comprehension activities and workbook assignments at home
• He was given points for doing well on his work, doing all of his work, and wearing his glasses
• With the points he was given praise
• The points were marked on cards divided into 50 squares
• 50 points equaled small prizes while bigger point amounts equaled bigger prizes
• His off-task behavior changed to 20% of the time
• His reading ability improved!
• He gained 6 months of skills in 6 weeks!
• He was taught competence and success
• He liked reading and going to school
• He liked going to school so much that when he was signed up for two hours a day for summer school, he cried that he had to go home
• So his mother decided to let him stay as long as the other students