GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Week 13 – Managing and Caring for the Self: Learning to be a better learner  Conditional Knowledge
 the knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy
Terms to Ponder
or when not to, information as to why a procedure works and
Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one's thinking. More precisely, it refers under what conditions it works, in addition to why one procedure
to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and is better than another
performance.
 Metacognition Regulation
 How you adjust your thinking processes to help you learn better
Metacognition
Types of Metacognition Regulation:
What is metacognition?
 Planning
 awareness of scope and limitation of your current knowledge and skills  Planning, goal setting, and allocating resources prior to learning
 thinking about thinking  Information Management Strategies
 keeping one’s emotions and motivations while learning in check  skills and strategy sequences used to process information more
efficiently
Aspects of Metacognition  Comprehension Monitoring
 Assessment of one’s learning or strategy use
 Self-Appraisal
 Debugging Strategies
 One’s personal reflections on one’s knowledge and capabilities.
 strategies to correct comprehension and performance errors
 Self-Management
 Evaluation
 One’s mental processes employed using what one has in planning and
 Analysis of Performance and strategy effectiveness after a
adapting to successfully learn or accomplish a task.
learning episode
Elements of Metacognition
 Variables that will affect your self-assessment as a thinker
 Metacognitive Knowledge
 Personal Variable
 What you know about how you think
 Evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses in learning
 Task Variable
Types of Metacognitive Knowledge:  what you know or what you think about the nature of the task
and what strategies the task requires
 Declarative Knowledge  Strategy Variable
 the knowledge that refers to the factual information that one  what strategies/skills you already have in dealing with certain
knows, and can both be spoken or written tasks
 Procedural Knowledge
 the knowledge or information on how to do something or how to
perform the procedural steps that make up a task
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 Accurate self-assessment
 necessary to make self-management and self-appraisal work
Types of Metacognitive Learners
 you must be honest about your knowledge and capability to find ways
to utilize your strength and improve your weaknesses  Tacit Learners
 are unaware of their metacognitive process although they know the
extent of their knowledge
Skills to help exercise your Metacognition  Aware Learners
 know some of their metacognitive strategies but they do not plan on
 Knowing your limits
how to use these strategies
 You cannot really make any significant advancement in using
 Strategic Learners
metacognitive skills without having an honest and accurate evaluation
 strategize and plan their course of action toward learning experience
of what you know and what you do not know.
 Reflective Learners
 Modifying your approach
 reflect on their thinking while using strategies and adapt metacognitive
 You should learn to modify your strategy in comprehending your
skills depending on their situation
material
 Skimming
 Browsing over a material and keeping an eye on keywords, phrases or
Week 14 – Managing and Caring for the Self: Learning to be a better person
sentences
 Rehearsing Terms to Ponder
 Trying to make a personal interpretation or summary of the learning
Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or
experience
emotions do or don't align with your internal standards.
 Self-test
 Trying to test your comprehension of your learning experience or the
skills you have acquired during learning
Why become a better person?
 Ask yourself questions like:
 What strategies did I use?  For Yourself
 How successful were my learning strategies?  For Others
 How can I further improve my learning skills?
 Other strategies you need to develop include: A 2013 study by the University of Exeter Medical School
 asking questions about your methods  Volunteering was connected to lower rates of depression, high reports of well-
 self-reflection being, and a significant reduction in mortality risk.
 finding a mentor or support group
 thinking out loud A 2005 Stanford
 welcoming errors as learning experiences
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 Those who volunteer live longer than those who don't. But helping others
means that you may need to be a better person.
If you need selfish reasons for becoming a better person consider these. The
effects of giving back are especially dramatic:
A 2011 Johns Hopkins
 Volunteering seniors were more likely to engage in brain-building activities,
which lowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
A 2013 study by United Health Group
 Employee volunteer programs increased engagement and productivity. The
study showed that volunteers were healthier and more productive in business,
more creative and collaborative and less prone to burnout and overwork.
 Over 75 percent of the employees who had volunteered said they felt
healthier.
 Over 90 percent said their volunteering had put them in a better
mood.
 Over 75 percent reported experiencing less stress.
 Ninety-six percent said that volunteering enriched their sense of
purpose in life (which in turn has been found to strengthen our immune
function).
 People who volunteered also reported improved time management skills and
enhanced ability to connect with peers.
What do we do to be a better person?
1. Become Self-aware
 Listen to yourself and pay attention to the interaction that you have with
others.
 If you pay attention you may start to notice that at some point in your
interactions things seem to go wrong.
 Try to determine what happens and how you can change that.
 Being aware of this can help you change it.
2. Kindness
 Something as simple as speaking in a kind way can improve your
relationships.
 Kindness promotes kindness.
 Over simplified; speak kind to others and they will speak kind to you.
3. Listen
 Listening is learning.
 When you listen to others they tend to gravitate toward your kindness.
 When you like to listen you will see a remarkable change in the relationships
you have with others.
 The change goes far beyond listening itself.
4. Learn to apologize
 Being a better person is not just about what we do for others it is what we do
together with others.
 It is important to understand that sometimes we are at fault, we were the
cause or we started an issue.
 Be aware of this, let go of the anger associated with this, smile and sincerely
apologize while telling someone what they mean to you.
 This can be powerful as it releases negative energy within you that hill
otherwise blocks you from achieving your goals.
5. Learn to walk away
 If a situation compromises your values it will eat away at you. You will be
negatively affected by these situations.
 First try to be positive and change the situation by telling others how you
feel.
 Tell them why you are not comfortable and what is bothering you.
 Listen to their response.
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
If you realize that the situation will not change then you need to walk away. 2. Observance
No one has the power to change every negative situation, once you determine that
 Observing those who practice high self-efficacy in their lives and who have
you can’t change it, it is ok to remove yourself. You will feel better for doing so.
reached their goals despite hardships can provide great motivation to a
person. Bandura notes that it is necessary to draw role-models from one’s
own social surroundings. In this age, the internet and social media can be big
sources of employing role models.

Week 15 – Managing and Caring for the Self: Setting goals for success
3. Social Persuasion
Bandura’s Self- Efficacy
 It is about finding the right mentor. Social Persuasion is about having others
Albert Bandura directly influence one’s self-efficacy by providing opportunities to master
experience. These social persuasions may be mentors that are
 Self-Efficacy Theory is part of his Social Cognitive Theory (or Social
knowledgeable and practice what they preach.
Learning Theory) which is a fundamental to positive psychology.
4. States of Physiology
Self-Efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a
goal or an outcome. It is the ability to influence events that affect one’s life and  Our own emotions, moods and physical state can influence our interpretation
control the way these events are experienced (Bandura, 1994). of self-efficacy. Having feeling of tension, anxiety and weariness can lower
our self-efficacy. Positive emotion can help build positive insight for high self-
 Students with high self-efficacy may be more likely to challenge
efficacy to a person.
themselves with difficult tasks and be highly motivated to achieve the task.
 They put a high degree of effort and will do everything in their power to meet
their commitments.
Dweck’s Mindset Theory
 However, students with low self-efficacy, believe that they cannot be
successful and will be less likely to make extended effort and may consider Carol S. Dweck
challenging tasks to be avoided.
 She is a psychologist from Stanford University that tries to explain the way to
 They have low aspirations and may result from poor academic performances.
understand the effects of learning and education to a person by her theory
Four Ways to Build Self-Efficacy (Mindset Theory).
1. Mastery Experience
“Mindset” is a term used by Dweck to explain the assumptions, methods, or
 Every experience will not always have a positive outcome. It may also bring notations held by one or more people or group of people.
failure. This experience will help us build resilience thru treating failure as
learning opportunity and chance to reach our goal with different approach.  It represents the cognitive processes activated in response to a given task.
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
There are two kinds of mindset, the fixed and growth mindset.  Feedback – Listen to feedback from people to provide opportunities to clarify
expectations, adjust goal difficulty and gain recognition.
Fixed mindset (before termed as entity mindset)
 Task Complexity – The more complicated and demanding the role would
 is an innate or in born personality of a person. It is basically “who you are”, give high level of motivation to a person.
how God made you.
And Growth Mindset (or the Incremental mindset)
 where people believe that training and an effort to learn can change one’s
qualities and traits.
It is then said that acquiring a Growth Mindset is much better kind of mindset
because it attributes success to learning and continuous practice. Thus, the Week 16 – Managing and Caring for the Self: Less Stress, More Care
individual is not afraid of failure, it only directs the person to need to practice more,
Terms to Ponder
pay attention, invest on effort, and master new learning. The person then is more
confident to face challenges and believes in him/herself that he will improve his Stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external
performance. stimulus or an event seen as causing stress to an organism.
Coping Mechanism is a psychological strategy or adaptation that a person relies on
to manage stress.
Goal Setting Theory
 Dr. Edwin Locke pioneers a research in 1960s’ about setting goals. This
theory was more known to work or industrial setting, much from where the Stressors and Responses
SMART goal originated. It was also then after several years he
Stress is a person's response to events that threaten them. A student can
collaborated with Dr. Gary Latham to a seminal work “A Theory of Goal
experience various kinds of deadlines like projects or exams, family problems, peer
Setting and Task Performance.
pressure to the complex stress such as ever changing environment or terrorist
attack. Even the pleasant events, such as preparing for a party or starting a sought-
after job can produce stress.
Goal Setting Theory states that there is a relationship between how difficult and
specific a goal was and the people’s performance task. He found that specific and The health psychology investigates the psychological factors such as stress
difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals. of different kinds and in different situations. It also includes coping mechanisms,
prevention, diagnosis and treatment
Five Principles of Goal Setting
 Clarity – Clear, measurable and unambiguous (specific) goals.
 Challenge – Set a level of challenge to beat yourself with. Stress Effect on the Body
 Commitment – The harder the goal, the more commitment is required.
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 Muscle Tension complex, continually changing system of meaning that is learned, shared,
 Tension-type headache and migraine transmitted and altered from one generation to another (Triandis, 1995).
 Difficulty in breathing
 Incidental stress can help enhance our concentration and execution, living
 Asthma with incessant stress can reverse discharge by causing uneasiness,
 Increased heart rate discouragement, and serious medical issues.
 Stronger contraction of the heart muscle
 Elevated blood pressure Stress affects the body’s immune system
 Heart attack  Filipinos experience stress and result in illnesses, physical and mental,
 Stroke fleeting and serious and life-threatening. This can also lead to depression and
 Inflammation of the respiratory system other maladaptive behavior that can be harmful to self and others.
 Elevated epinephrine and cortisol hormones
Stress can be mediated through culture
 Uncontrolled blood glucose level
 Heartburn or acid reflux For instance, Filipinos have various thresholds and ways to cope with stressors. At
 Ulcer the same time, men and women express emotion in different patterns.
 Severe stomach pain
 Women deal with stressful situations through tiis (endurance) and kimkim
 Diarrhea (repression).
 Constipation  Men are stereotypically less expressive than women and prone to confront
 Increased respiration rate “political economy of stress “(Tan, 2006).
 Dilated blood vessel in the arms and legs
 Affects testosterone production
 Sperm production Thus, culture influences how people react to stressors.
 Erectile dysfunction
 Absent or irregular menstrual cycle
 Difficult premenstrual symptoms Week 17 – Managing and Caring for the Self: Taking charge of one’s health
Terms to Ponder
Stress and Filipinos: The Social and Cultural Dimension of Stress Self-care the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health.
Stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demand placed upon it Self-Kindness/Compassion is extending compassion to oneself in instances of
(Selye, 1926). perceived inadequacy, failure, or general suffering.
Stress is an individual’s physiological and/or psychological reaction to the real Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present
and imagined demands of life. It is the way a person reacts physically and moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and
emotionally to change. On the other hand, culture is best defined as a highly bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
 GECC101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Acknowledging ignored or distorted
problems and
The Need for Self Care and Compassion shortcomings
Self-compassion is composed of three main components: (1) self-kindness, (2) a without judgment
sense of common humanity and (3) mindfulness.  Tendency to be
gentle when
confronted with
painful
experience

Think about what the experience of compassion feels like. Benefits of Self-compassion

 First, to have compassion for others you must notice that they are suffering.
 Second, compassion involves feeling moved by others ‘suffering so that your
heart responds to their pain (the word compassion literally means to “suffer
with”).
 Finally, when you feel compassion for another (rather than mere pity), it
means that you realize that suffering, failure, and imperfection is part of the
shared human experience.
1. Self-compassion enhances motivation.
2. Self-compassion promotes health-related behaviors.
3. Self-compassion benefits interpersonal relationships.
4. Self-compassion predicts happiness and optimism.
5. Self-compassion enhances well-being.

Main Components of Self-compassion

Self Kindness Common Humanity Mindfulness
 Being warm and  Suffering and  Nonjudgmental,
understanding individual receptive mind state
when she/he deficiency is in which thoughts
suffer, fail or feel part of human and feeling are
inadequate existence observed
rather than self-  Equilibrated stance
critical ∙ in terms negative
 Recognizing emotions, feelings
imperfection and are
consider life neither suppressed
difficulties as or exaggerated
inevitable ∙  Inadequacies are