Experiential learning, textbook learning, and the self-efficacy beliefs of below-grade-level readers in Title I DC public schools

This study examines the self-efficacy beliefs of below-level readers when learning from textbooks on the one hand and from academic trips on the other. More broadly, this study seeks to determine whether below-level readers feel different levels of academic confidence based solely on the instructional model being utilized, and not on the particular subject matter of focus. This study investigates this question in hopes of identifying instructional practices that could be expected to help improve educational outcomes for students from low-income homes and for students of color—two groups that test data demonstrate continue to lag far behind their more affluent classmates and their white peers. This study utilizes a mixed-methods approach to examine student self-efficacy levels. The quantitative portion of the study consists of a 28-question survey administered to students individually (with the administrator reading the questions out loud to ensure comprehension) and two survey questions asked of teachers. The qualitative portion consists of interviews with each of the 34 students and six teachers. Six major findings emerged from the study: (a) students disproportionately preferred to learn from an academic trip instead of from their textbook; (b) students reported higher levels of self-efficacy for learning from academic trips than for textbook learning; (c) students reported higher levels of performance accomplishment for academic trips than for textbook learning; (d) students reported greater levels of emotional and physiological stress for textbook learning than for learning from academic trips; (e) students reported higher levels of situational interest when learning from Live It Learn It trips than when learning from their textbooks; and (f) students and teachers described Live It Learn It’s learning model as effective and expressed concerns with textbook learning. The study also produced four minor findings: (a) some students described positive views of peer learning while the teachers at times emphasized the difficulties that some students have working with others; (b) some students suggested that Live It Learn It trips help them in ways that extend beyond the learning immediately at hand; (c) some students reported that verbal explanations play an important role in helping them learn; and (c) students valued vicarious experience more highly than verbal and social persuasion in each of the two learning models. This study suggests that the instructional model utilized does impact students’ self-efficacy levels for a given learning goal. This conclusion, in turn, suggests that students will feel higher levels of self-efficacy when they learn through an instructional model that is aligned to their skills and attributes and, therefore, that researchers seeking to understand students’ self-efficacy beliefs (and the sources of those self-efficacy beliefs) should also examine the appropriateness of the learning model being utilized to the learners in question