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

How to reinforce students

The following information is from Unit 11 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.

• Types of reinforcers
• Social reinforcers: behaviors that act as reinforcing consequent stimuli
• Use the lists of examples to add more examples, link the reinforcers to appropriate classroom behaviors, and to role-play with the reinforcers
• Verbal praise examples
• “Thank you.”
• “That shows a great deal of work.”
• “You really paid attention.”
• “You should show this to your parents!”
• “Show the class this work/picture/etc.”
• “See how well that student is working.”
• “He got to work right away after recess; he’s going to finish on time.”
• “Let’s all give him a round of applause.”
• “That was kind of you.”
• Facial expressions examples
• Smiling
• Winking
• Nodding
• Looking interested
• Laughing
• Proximity examples
• Walking among the students
• Sitting with a group
• Joining the class at recess
• Eating with the students

• How to make praise work
• Some students need descriptive praise much more than evaluative praise because they need to hear how they did work well
• Example: “I saw you work on your math for twenty minutes. I checked all the problems and all of them were right. And your writing is neat and clear!”
• The students are not used to hearing people tell them they are successful and they are not sure of how to be successful
• The praise needs to explain how students show good working, good listening, good talking, good responding, and good thinking
• You can use phrases like “good” or “great” by accompanying the phrases with descriptive statements of what the student did
• Later on the phrases will not be empty if you pair them with explicit descriptions

• Activity reinforcers
• Behavior that occurs frequently can be used to reinforce behavior that occurs infrequently
• Use contingent reinforcers (privileges) to motivate your students to complete work
• Example: “She finished her work first so she can help me collect papers”
• Example: “You improved in your work today. You can pick the game for recess”
• Playing teacher as a reward to sustain attention through long and repetitive tasks
• Example: “If you work all the problems on your paper, you can be teacher and write a problem on the board”
• List of privileges
• Use the list of examples to add more examples and link the reinforcers to appropriate classroom behaviors
• Presenter for “show and tell”
• Group leader
• Go first
• Run errand
• Collect materials
• Excuse from test
• Help clean up
• Get to sit where desired
• Take care of class pets
• Lead flag salute
• Tell a joke to the class
• Be in a skit
• Supervise a group outside of class
• Play teacher
• Compete with another class
• Perform for parents
• Decorate something in the classroom
• Take the class pet home for the weekend
• Sing songs
• Be team captain
• Read to principal
• Be called on to answer questions
• See a movie
• Go to an assembly
• Read a book
• Watch TV
• Listen to music
• Play game in class
• Play game at recess
• Have a party
• Make puppets and puppet show
• Do artwork related to studies
• Build construction projects
• Go on a field trip
• Have outdoor lessons
• Choose game for recess
• Teach younger students
• Go home early
• Make puzzles
• Earn extra recess
• Set up equipment
• Study with friend in class
• Spend time in library
• Have extra lunch time
• Put up school flag
• Help another student

• How to implement token systems
• You need reinforcing activities, prizes, or food appropriate for your students
• Give each reinforcer a point value
• The cost should be high enough the students will work for the reinforcers but not so high they struggle
• Have the students help you with reinforcers
• Examples of reinforcers for token systems
• Reinforcers that parents can give at home
• Foods
• Candy
• Ice cream
• Popcorn
• Small dried fruits like raisins
• Play materials
• Toy animals
• Boats
• Cars
• Blocks
• Badges
• Marbles
• Jump ropes
• Airplanes
• Picture books
• Paints
• Crayons
• Coloring books
• Chalk
• Clay
• Paper
• Mechanical toys
• Dolls
• Kites
• Balls
• Puzzles
• Comic books
• Balloons
• Playing cards
• Games
• Bean bags
• Yo-yos
• Play dough
• Noisemakers
• Possible tokens
• Marks on the blackboard
• Marks on a paper or card on the student’s desk
• Star stickers
• Numbers on a paper
• Marks on a ladder
• Marbles in a jar
• Plastic chips that go on a ring
• Poker chips
• Pennies
• A counter with a light or buzzer
• Tickets
• Punches on a card
• Determine the payoff procedures
• Is the reward to be given when it is earned or at the end of the day?
• It might be better to give immediately depending on the need of the student before you give at the end of the day
• Is the payoff delay to be built up gradually or not?
• You might want to require the students to gradually work for longer periods (example: two, three, four, or five days) before the payoff
• Is the payoff based on group or individual performance?
• If you want to use a group performance, and you have a student or students who might punish the group by their behavior, then put the student or students on separate systems
• Is the payoff to be given to the group or to the individual student?
• One student can earn a party for the whole class
• Procedures to operate token systems
• Explain to the students how the system is to the operate
• Allow students to participate in the final design
• Keep records or a chart of who earns what so evaluation can be made to see if the system works
• Start out by attempting to reinforce all new successful responses
• Work to unpredictable intermittent reinforcement
• To reduce the need for special reinforcement systems in the future, pair tokens with social reinforcement

• Traps for using reinforcers incorrectly
• Example: the plan is to decrease thumb sucking
• The student is reinforced for taking his thumb out of his mouth
• Thumb sucking increases
• He was reinforced for putting the thumb in his mouth so he could get reinforced to take it out of his mouth
• Example: the plan is to increase washing dishes
• The student says he won’t do the dishes
• His mother says she’ll pay him if he does it
• The protesting increases
• He was reinforced to protest by the prospect of money
• Example: the plan is to decrease a student’s tantrums by decreasing peer attention on her
• The teacher gives candy to the peers who do not pay attention
• Some peers tease her to make her tantrum more often
• They were reinforced to antagonize her for candy