Attitudes And Perception Essay

Attitudes help us define how we see situations, as well as define how we behave toward the situation or object. As illustrated in the tri- component model, attitudes include feelings, thoughts, and actions. Attitudes may simply be an enduring evaluation of a person or object, or other emotional reactions to objects and to people. Attitudes also provide us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about people and objects. Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person. Although the feeling and belief components of attitudes are internal to a person, we can view a person’s attitude from his or her resulting behavior.

Furthermore perception is closely related to attitudes. Perception is the process by which

For example, if the students view the classroom as an unsafe and disorderly place, they will likely learn little there. Similarly, if students have negative attitudes about classroom task, they will probably put little effort into those tasks. A key element of effective instruction, then, is helping students to establish positive attitudes and perceptions about the classroom and about learning. At a more general level, attitudes and perceptions have been described as part of the learner’s “self-system” which oversees all other systems (Markus and Ruvulo 1990; Markus and Wurf 1987: McCombs 1986,1989; McCombos and Marzano

LaBerge and Samuels (1974) provide a detailed explanation of this aspect of learning. In addition they say that for new information to be useful, it must be learned to such an extent that it should not be think much about it when it was in used. Acquiring and integrating knowledge, then, involves using what you already know to make sense out of new information, working out the kinks in the new information, and assimilating the information to be used with relative ease. Helping students acquire and integrate new knowledge is another important aspect of learning. When students are learning new information, they must be guided in relating new knowledge to what they already know, organizing that information, and then making it part of their long-term memory. When the students acquiring new skills and processes, they must learn a model or the steps, then shape the skill or process to make it efficient and effective for them, and finally, internalize or practice the skill or process so they can perform it easily.

5.3 Extend and Refine