‘Imagine You're Clever’

Abstract

A series of four studies was conducted to investigate the influence of role enactment on problem-solving in 6-10 yr old children from a disadvantaged background. It was hypothesized that asking the child to enact someone 'clever' (and in one instance someone 'not clever'), would modify the child's performance on the Matching Familiar Figures test as against performance under standard administrative conditions. Apart from the 6 yr old sample, the findings supported the experimental hypothesis. In addition, the speech of 7 and 8 yr old impulsive and reflective children, and children previously administered reflectivity training schemes, was analysed in terms of a classification scheme of reflexivity. No differences were found between these groups on the measures of reflexivity used in speech. The implications of these findings and this approach for disadvantaged children are discussed.

Effects of Practicing Self-Monitoring of Mathematical Problem-Solving Heuristics on Impulsive and Reflective College Students' Heuristics Knowledge and Problem-Solving Ability

“…For example, a random practice schedule motivated impulsive students to behave like their reflective counterparts in a cursor-movement task more than a blocked practice schedule did (Jelsma & Pirters, 1989;Jelsma & Van Merrienboer, 1989). Even asking elementary students to imagine that they were "smart" prompted impulsive children to behave reflectively (Hartley, 1986). Therefore, in addition to predicting that practicing self-monitoring would enhance students' learning, we predicted that the enhancing effect would be greater for impulsive students than for reflective students.…”

Personal constructs and the enhancement of adolescent engagement in reading

“…Kelly's research into the importance of constructs is illustrated powerfully in Robert Hartley's Imagine You're Clever study (Hartley, 1986). Hartley does not specifically refer to Kelly's work, but his language and his results clearly support the tenets of Personal Construct Psychology.…”

“…Hartley also described one learner who would not accept her successful performance in role as 'someone clever', insisting that someone else had done it. Hartley discusses how individuals may refuse or distort feedback that does not correspond with their self-concepts (Hartley, 1986). These responses, which Kelly describes as hostility, demonstrate that knowledge which cannot be integrated into personal identity is rejected by the learner.…”

RESEARCH SECTION: The self‐esteem of pupils in schools for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties: myth and reality

“…In our primary sample, only one pupil scored in the ‘external’ range of scores, whereas ten pupils in the secondary sample were found to be in that range. According to the hypothesis put forward by Hartley (1986), one would expect a disproportionate representation of pupils designated as having SEBD and attending appropriate specialist schools to be found in the ‘external’ category. While this would appear to be the case for the secondary school pupils in this study, it was not the case for the primary school pupils.…”