Essay - Learned Helplessness in College Introduction Background Significant and Notable Problem...

Learned Helplessness in College

INTRODUCTION

***** significant and notable problem within higher education is the conditioned state of mind associated with learned helplessness. Challenges to educators are *****ten played out through the compounded years of this learning roadblock in a student's life, leaving many individuals with test anxiety so great that ********** are unable to test effectively on the concepts they have learned.

Learned helplessness (e.g., when someone learns from repeated, unpleasant, and painful experiences that he or she is ***** to control the aversive environment or escape, ***** person will gradually lose ***** motivation ***** change the situation) (Roberts, 1996, p. 7-8)

Challenge ***** especially high with r*****ard to math learning. (Tobias, 1991, pp. 91-93) The system design ********** creates a ch*****llenge to students and instructors, who ***** no other way, than *****ing to determine the level of k*****wledge a student has actually achieved during instruction. Any situation where an alternative to testing cannot be offered, such as math or statistics people with even a very high ***** of intelligence can be at risk for learned helplessness challenges. These students historically have very little trouble per*****ming in situ*****ions ***** the ***** ***** coarse material can be proven through creative means such as composition writing, yet with regard to functions that require sets of rote memorization the student appears not to have gained these concepts, regardless of their actual level of knowledge. (Maimon, 2002, p. 32)

Purpose

This work proposes to analyze the phenomena of learned ***** in college age students to increase the body of growing research on ***** subject and illicit ********** underst*****ing ***** its causes and possible solutions.

Logic Model greater understanding of the ***** ***** learned helplessness among college students will assist ***** in development of plans to better serve the needs of ***** *****, through *****itial recognition of the ***** and possibly alternative grading **********, or at ***** very least ***** testing environments for those who are effected. Logical solutions to test ***** and math anxiety will ***** students in their goals of combating the effects of learned helplessness ***** proactive treatments empowering students ***** break free from ***** psychological pitfalls of the phenomena, and eventually achieve success in troubling curricula.

Ultimately, the work ***** serve as a first step to *****sist educators in developing a comprehensive guide to intervene in situations where learned ***** may be present.

***** of Problem

The phenomena of learned helplessness has been met by many *****ories ***** many myths about the learning ability of ***** student, garnered from the work professionals do with students. Some of the real reasons have been gleaned from the answers students themselves give for their failure to perform in test environments, possibly recounting historical failures, despite their ***** or real competence ***** the material and some ***** observational for the instructor, ***** as competence on daily work, or in class work but failure on exams.

***** enormous failure rate now exists in college *****ematics courses. In fact, of approximately 600,000 students who take freshmen