I will teach special education and hope to work in the elementary setting. I believe a successful class is about using all theories in one way or another. However, I will specifically look at the principles of social cognitive theory. I will examine social cognitive theory through ideas such as modeling, self-efficacy, reciprocal causation, indirect reinforcement, indirect punishment, among others, and use them to build my classroom. Part One: Creating an Ideal Productive Learning Environment: General Classroom Management In this section I will look at how I will incorporate my personal learning theory into the classroom. I am convinced that children learn by observing others, therefore my personal learning theory is associated with social cognitive theory. I will see how this theory relates to my beliefs about how children learn and how they are motivated. Personal Learning Theory I believe that the main way we learn is by observing the adults and peers in our lives. I feel that by observing the behaviors of others we understand what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors are unacceptable. That said, the learning theory closest to my personal beliefs is the social cognitive view of learning. I will be teaching in a special education classroom and will have to model acceptable behavior for my children. According to Ormrod (2011) social cognitive theory “is a perceptual theory that can help us understand what and how people learn by observing others and how they begin to take control of their own behavior” (p. 323). My children will watch everything I do, and by modeling acceptable behavior, I can help them acquire... middle of paper... in Ormrod (2011) communication provides a means through which parents can give us information, which may suggest ideas how we can best assist or motivate their children” (p.480). Therefore, this meeting could be of great benefit to Lisa. Conclusion In conclusion, I feel that the most important thing I can do to create a positive learning environment is to model all the behaviors that I expect my children to learn and be able to model for themselves. My children should be able to learn appropriate and inappropriate behaviors from skills learned by watching models. My children need to be motivated and feel like they can learn and model the behaviors presented, otherwise they will never try to achieve any type of set goal. Overall, I want to increase their self-efficacy so that they feel they can achieve the goals I set before them or the ones they set for themselves.