Medium Skill/Low Self-Esteem

     When teaching students who have acquired a medium skill level but who have low self-esteem and self-confidence, the instructor should help the student learn to assess errors by asking specific questions about the performance.  Once the student has identified the errors, the instructor show the student how to correct the errors.  The teaching of self-correction is particularly beneficial for these students due to their sensitivity to criticism because self-correction removes the instructor from the criticizing role.
     These students often tend to be more dependent upon external positive reinforcement so they also need to learn how to self-praise.  This can be accomplished by asking them to identify what they did well in their performance.  For these students, praise regarding their skills should be given on an intermittent reinforcement schedule which is to praise on a periodic basis rather than for every performance.  This allows the student to develop more intrinsic motivation for the performance.  Praise can be focused on specific skills to reinforce the student's accurate performance of those skills.  However, praise that focuses more generally on their ability to recognize errors should be given on a more frequent basis to reinforce this skill.  In addition, these students need to learn how to reframe negative feedback as guidance rather than criticism: "I think you are good enough and I care enough about your performance to help you correct your errors."