The content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.
Interpretation
Textbook knowledge can become outdated, but the ability to direct your own learning is timeless.
In this quote, Albert Bandura emphasizes that while the specific information found in many educational resources can become obsolete, the skills and tools that enable individuals to take charge of their own learning process are invaluable and enduring. This highlights the importance of fostering self-directed learning abilities that empower individuals to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might say, 'Remember, the content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.'
Moral justification is a powerful disengagement mechanism. Destructive conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it in the service of moral ends. This is why most appeals against violent means usually fall on deaf ears.
Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations.
A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
We are more heavily invested in the theories of failure than we are in the theories of success.
Humans are producers of their life circumstance not just products of them.
Once established, reputations do not easily change.
When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
I went to a segregated school; I was born a Negro, not a black man.
We in the media have been guilty about not doing a better job of making people understand how really simple cooking is. We've made everyone feel like they have to be a chef.
Instructors should not only be skilful in those sciences which they teach, but have skill in the method of teaching, and patience in the practice.
I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.
In my work as a historian and in my relationships as a friend, teacher, wife, and mother, I have come to think that the most useful way to understand the past and make it work for you is to look at the trade-offs and contradictions that, however deeply buried, can be uncovered in every memory, good or bad.
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