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Running head: CASE 18 GIVING UP
Problem Based Learning Case 18
Giving Up
Asmah Hanim Che Ani (800433)
Nor Fazliana (--)
Zuwati (--)
Universiti Utara Malaysia
GDY 5033: Human Motivation
Professor Dr. Rosna bt Awang Hashim
September 26th, 2009

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Summary
Anne Sedgewick looked hopelessly out of the window. The scene was not unusual as it
was Mrs. Reynolds’ algebra class. Anne is a typical case of learned helplessness and she has all
the common symptoms. Anne exhibits her lack of attention to her school work and it can be seen
from her attitude in the classroom where she half heartedly attempt her task and hardly engage in
the group work. She has a mind set on her incompetency and at the same time refuse to seek help
from Mrs. Reynolds and friends.
Concerns with Anne, Mrs. Reynolds try to talk her out on the matter. She hoped that her
words could open Anne’s heart towards learning. After a month, the situation remains
unchanged. Anne clearly had strongly perceived her incompetency in the subject matter.
Gradually her low self efficacy becomes apparent. The teacher noticed that Anne persistently
demonstrates half hearted attempts in her work without really trying to apply herself. Anne’s
unchanged of hopelessness further seen through her day dreaming and avoiding to answer
questions in class.
Based on these circumstances, Mrs. Reynolds thinks that she needs to come out with
proper intervention in order to help learner like Anne. Inevitably, this situation should be curbed
from going out of hand. The solution of this problem can be analyzed from 3 theories view point
which would enable Mrs. Reynolds to pursue possible ways to help Anne. If this situation
persists, undeniably Anne’s future academic achievements in algebra will worsen. Consequently,
there is possibility that it might be contagious to other subjects as well as Anne’s internal well
being.

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Self-efficacy theory
In the light of self-efficacy theory, Anne’s learned helplessness could be attributed to not
having the belief that she is capable of performing well in her studies. Her past performance has
given a dramatic impact on her self-efficacy and driven her thinking that she could never succeed
in her studies, specifically in Mrs. Reynolds’ subject. This has led her to think that her failures
are insurmountable, things are out of her control and that there is nothing she could do about it.
In fact, her past performance has also caused her to become passive and depressed, thus
deteriorated her studies.
Mrs. Reynolds did try to prompt Anne’s vicarious experience in the hope that it would
help to improve Anne’s confidence in her studies. The teacher assumed that Anne’s self-efficacy
could be increased by making her aware of her friends who managed to accomplish the tasks
given. However, the problem is that Anne could not relate herself to her friends; simultaneously
it has affected the judgments about her own capabilities. Anne’s strong feeling of inadequacy
caused her to have no faith in herself, that she could never able to perform the tasks as her
friends do. Though she mentioned that she has tried, she easily gave up when her attempts did
not seem to turn out the way she had expected. In other words, she did not have enough courage
in herself in the face of adversity, thus gave in to difficulties and refused to take proper measure
to overcome the situation. Therefore, it is irrefutable that self-efficacy developed from
observing others is less stable because it will diminish rapidly if observers subsequently have
unsuccessful experiences of their own.

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In Anne’s case, she showed signs of anxiety when Mrs. Reynolds pass out the test papers.
This implies that she knew she had not done well in the test and would like no one to know about
it. If other students know about her bad grades, it would only make her feel embarrassed and
upset about herself. This is what she has been trying to avoid by reason of not being able to
contain the fact that her studies is deteriorating. Anxiety, to a certain extent, can be helpful in
boosting students’ confidence; yet, can be detrimental if it is uncontrolled. In this case, Anne’s
worry is due to the notion that she has not been progressing well in her studies and did not seek
help to counter the situation. Her worries accumulated and subsequently made her feel that she
was far behind others that there was no way she could catch up with the syllabus. Consequently,
she could not perform well in her studies. Anne’s strong belief of inadequacies has led her to
resort to not doing anything to ask for assistance because she feels hopeless and thinks that it is
impossible to disentangle herself from that situation.
Attribution theory
In assessing Anne’s issue, Mrs. Reynolds may choose to look at from the attribution
theory point of view. Pintrich & Shunk (2002) mentioned that the theory assumes that an
individual will use information such as internal and external cues to assign attributions to a
particular event. It should be noted however that individual often makes attributions whenever he
or she is in an unfavorable situation.
From the summary, we can understand that Anne attributed her bad grade to herself. It’s
demonstrated when she said that she is not good in algebra and there is nothing that she can do
about that. Attribution made to internal factor must be well addressed as it often affects
individual’s self esteem in the future. To further diagnose the problem, apart from the naïve

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assumption, it would be helpful if Mrs. Reynolds use factor analysis and multidimensional
scaling by Weiner in order to examine how Anne rates her attribution specifically. Each of the
dimensions has implications for individual motivation (Pintrich & Shunk, 2002) and it would be
useful to utilize in order to understand Anne appropriately.
Weiner proposed three dimensions of causal structure. They are 1. A locus dimension, 2.
A stability dimension, 3. A controllability dimension. In Anne’s case, her locus dimension is
internal as she blames her lack of ability. In the stability dimension, her’s was stable. She firmly
believed that she had no ability to excel in her studies as she mentioned of the series of bad
grades from other subjects as well. Therefore the ability factor is stable as it was fixed across
time. These further authenticate the uncontrollable factor in the third dimension.
Having determined the causal structure, Mrs. Reynolds will have a clear picture of the
problem and may use it to retrain Anne’s attribution in the manner which suits her best at her
current situation.
Goal orientation theories
Other method of diagnosis, we may one to look at goal orientation theory point of view.
Firstly we have to understand the theory itself. Goal orientation theory focused on the goals and
purposes of achievement tasks in contrast with Locke and Latham 1990’s goal setting theory
which suggests on specific and proximal goals only. According to Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck
& Leggett, 1988; Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998; Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000, goal
orientation theory suggests that when students engage in a class, they strive to reach one or more
goals. Two goals are related in this case which is primary crucial: mastery goals and performance
goal. Ames, 1992; Blumenfeld, 1992; Dweck & Leggett,1988 suggest that who adopt mastery

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goals are interested in learning the material in the class and strive to master that material. Whilst
according to Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Urdan, 1997: students who pursue performance goals are
interested in demonstrating their competence, especially relative to other students.
From Anne’s case, the evidence showed the lackness of mastery and performance
orientations. For instance, Anne clearly exhibited inadequacies of the subject content which was
Algebra subject. Moreover, she was not serious with her schoolwork and did not participate in
the group work. To relate with her low performance orientation, she was shy to show her grades
to her peers especially to her parents. In my opinion, Anne prone to have entity intelligence as
she showed the signs that if she believed that she was not very good at the task, she often tries to
avoid the task. If she could avoid the task, most likely to have more anxiety toward performing
the task, and will often give up quickly at the first sign of trouble. The entity view of intelligence
is related to performance goals because a student with performance goals is mainly interested in
proving that she is good at something, or trying to avoid letting it be known that she is not good
at something.
Self –efficacy theory: suggestions
To overcome this situation, Mrs. Reynolds can help Anne by nurturing self-efficacy
through consistent supervision on Anne’s progress and on-going emphasis on incremental
beliefs. Fundamentally, Mrs. Reynolds should have enough input on Anne’s background
information and try to identify Anne’s strengths and weaknesses as a basis to find the appropriate
measure to counter the aspects in which she has problem with. At this stage, it is crucial for Mrs.
Reynolds to develop a good rapport with Anne and affective factor is something that should be
taken into account throughout the process. Gradually, when trust is established between them,
Mrs. Reynolds can promote effort regulation by teaching Anne about metacognitive strategy use.

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This is because metacognitive strategy will enable Anne to plan her work, monitor and evaluate
her own understanding, simultaneously increase her self-efficacy. In fact, it will also motivate
Anne to concentrate on her learning and make her believe that the knowledge that she has
learned is vital, interesting and useful. In addition, Mrs. Reynolds could also inculcate the belief
that students’ ability can be improved and developed through effort and experience in order to
make Anne realize that the obstacles that she encountered in her learning are actually
opportunities to improve her ability. By reflecting on past effort and past accomplishments, Mrs.
Reynolds can help to make Anne aware of the appropriate learning strategies and how she can
regulate her effort investments in performing any tasks. Furthermore, Mrs. Reynolds can discuss
ill-structured problems based on daily occurrences with Anne in order to make her see the
importance and practicality of what has been taught in class. This is to make her understand and
appreciate the real-life applications of her knowledge and skills. Besides, this will also help to
trigger her curiosity to connect prior and new knowledge through decision-making process as
well as make her feel more confident of her own judgments.
Attribution theory: suggestions
Anne is a classic example of learned helplessness. She demonstrated procrastination,
withholding effort and blamed her lack of ability for her incompetency. Having evaluated the
attributions using the causal structure, Mrs. Reynolds can use attribution retraining to help Anne.
This strategy will involve modeling, scaffolding and practice exercise. The session must be done
continuously on personal consultation. The aim is to shift Anne’s attribution from a stable factor
to a condition that she can manage which would empower her in the subject matter.

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For a start, Mrs. Reynolds must withhold her reprimand to Anne regarding her failure. It
is understood that she performed badly in her algebra and we must not bring her self-efficacy
further down. The modeling strategy will take the second step. Mrs. Reynolds can prepare
worksheets or tasks that are accessible to Anne. The Krashen i+1 principle may be employ in this
modeling phase. It’s important for Mrs. Reynolds to identify the area of algebra that Anne
exhibit weakness and strength in order to devise suitable material for her.
When Anne displays some competency on her work, the exercises can be increase in
difficulty and at this moment scaffolding play its role. Scaffolding is crucial to further strengthen
and preserve self-efficacy cultivated in modeling phase. Some level of autonomy must be given
to Anne in order to instill some ownership and controllability of her new found expertise. Mrs.
Reynolds must then reinforce attribution remarks as to convince Anne that she is improving in
her work. Continuous positive attribution although in the form of remarks will influence Anne in
a subconscious way that she is taking up steps in improving herself and she is getting good at it.
This condition is important as to prepare Anne to the outcome that she will get whenever there is
another test. The outcome may be favorable or disappointing but Mrs. Reynolds can use the test
to see which area Anne is improving and work out on another strategy together so that she will
be able to excel in her forth coming test as well as maintaining her interest in the subject matter.
Goal orientation theories: suggestions
There are a variety of ways to help Anne overcome her learning issues. From the essay
written by Anastasia S. Hagen, The University of Texas, 2007 she suggests that the teacher
provides clear behavioral objectives at the beginning of the lesson. If a student with performance
goals knows from the beginning what will be expected of her, it could help to plan and
implement strategies that will help to meet her goals with less anxiety than she might feel if she

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is not sure what she will be required to do. Another suggestion is by providing the student an
opportunity to practice the material she will be tested on, but it is important that these practice
exercises not be graded. These exercises would allow the teacher to provide feedback to this
student before taking the exam, and because the exercise would not be graded, it may encourage
the student to try things (learning goals) that she may not be willing to try if the exercise was
graded. Another possibility is by giving several tests over the course of the semester or quarter,
which has small percentage as example 20% of the total course points in Algebra. It appears then
that if Anne finally accomplishes the task given, she would primarily interest to prove that she is
good at something especially in Algebra. In addition, if Anne is exposed frequently with these
ways in the classroom she would have a more positive mind-set towards the subject and believe
if she just keeps at it, she finally will accomplish the content in Algebra.

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References
Nilsen, H.(2009). Influence on student academic behavior through motivation, self-efficacy and
value expectation: An action research project to improve learning. Issues in Information
Science and Technology, 6, 545-556.
Pintrich, P. R., Schunk, D. H., (2002). Motivation in Education: Theory Research and
Applications 2nd Edition. Ohio, Merrill Prentice Hall.
Sungur, S. (2007). Modeling the relationships among students’ motivational beliefs,
metacognitive strategy use and effort regulation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational
Research, 51, 315-326.