6.3.1: Preparation 1.8-SJ

Preparation 1.8-SJ: Race and Incarceration

(1) Which of the following represents 0.02%? There may be more than one correct answer.

(i) 2

(ii) 0.02

(iii) 0.0002

(iv) 2 out of 100

(v) 0.2 out of 100

(vi) 0.02 out of 100

(vii) 2 out of 1,000

(viii) 2 out of 10,000

(2) Which of the following is equivalent to 4%? There may be more than one correct answer.

(i) 0.04

(ii) \(\dfrac{1}{25}\)

(iii) \(\dfrac{4}{100}\)

(iv) \(\dfrac{40}{100}\)

(v) 2 out of 5

(vi) 4 out of 100

(3) Which of the following is correct? There may be more than one correct answer.

(i) A percent is one part out of 100 parts.

(ii) A percent can be converted into a decimal number by dividing that percent number by 100.

(iii) A percent can be converted into a decimal number by moving the decimal point two places to the left and removing the percent sign (%).

(iv) 50% means 50 per 100 or \(\dfrac{50}{100}\) = 0.5.

(4) Which of the following is the percent estimate of 1/3, rounded to the nearest hundredth of a percent?

(i) 0.33%

(ii) 3.3%

(iii) 33.3%

(iv) 33.33%

Criminal Justice Reform: Investigating Mass Incarceration

In March 2017, the nonpartisan Prison Policy Initiative published a report called “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie”.¹ The goal of the report was to spark a national conversation about criminal justice reform. The report includes information about percentages of people in the U.S. who are incarcerated, meaning that they are held in prisons, jails, or detention centers.

(5) The United States has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the world. There are many factors that contribute to this, including the types of ways in which people are incarcerated. More recently, in 2019, the U.S. incarcerated about 1.9 million people, of which 1,042,000 were in state prisons, 547,000 were in local jails, and 208,000 were in federal prisons and jails.

(a) What percent of people who are incarcerated are detained in state prisons? Round to the nearest percent?

(b) As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, prison populations decreased, on average, by 15% in 2020. Estimate the number of people in state prisons in the year 2020 after the decline due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

After Preparation 1.8 Survey

You will be expected to do the following things for the next class. Rate how confident you are on a scale of 1–5 (1 = not confident and 5 = very confident).

Before beginning Lesson 1.8, you should understand the concepts and demonstrate the skills listed below.

Self-Regulating Your Learning: The Work Phase

In an earlier lesson, you read in detail about what it means to effectively plan for your learning. That involved accounting for time and effort, your confidence (self-efficacy), study strategies, and learning goals. In this lesson, we will discuss the second phase of self-regulated learning (SRL), the work phase.

As the name implies, the work phase of SRL is where you are actually working on the problem or assignment. However, it is more than just getting the assignment done. In this phase, you monitor or pay attention to a variety of things. For example:

• What you are or are not understanding (and when)
• Which strategies you are using; which ones are working, and which ones are not
• What emotions and feelings you are experiencing, both positive and negative
• When you should seek help from others

Let’s explore each of these in a little more detail.

Understanding: Self-regulated learners monitor what they understand and what they do not. This is done by frequently asking yourself: “Do I understand this?” or “Could I explain this to someone?” The goal is to monitor your understanding so that you may adapt your strategies, especially if you get stuck. Being honest about your understanding is important because it can help you progress successfully on a problem, or make you aware of your learning strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, people talk about this as “thinking about your thinking.” Researchers call it metacognition.

Strategies: In learning about the SRL plan phase, you discovered that it can be useful to think about multiple strategies before you start working on a problem. In the work phase of SRL, having multiple strategies in mind (both those you have used before and those you plan to try) can help when you get stuck. You can stop, think about how the problem is progressing, and try another strategy that you think might work. Self-regulated learners often make mental notes about which strategies work in which situations, and which ones are easiest to use. Evaluating strategies allows you to become better at solving a variety of problems.

Emotions: Self-regulated learners know how to monitor their emotions—especially negatives ones such as frustration or anger—so that these emotions do not cause them to give up on a problem. When they start feeling frustrated, self-regulated learners often do things such as try new strategies, seek help, or engage in positive self-talk. This is saying things to yourself such as: “I know I can do this if I choose the right strategies and put in the effort, even if it is challenging.” The opposite is called negative self-talk, which involves saying things such as: “I am never going to get this! What is the point?” Monitoring and controlling your emotions, especially the negative ones, can be challenging and may require a lot of practice, but the benefits are worth it.

Seeking Help: With practice and experience, self-regulated learners know when it is beneficial to stop working and find someone else with whom they can discuss the problem. There is nothing wrong with getting help when you are learning something new. Some people think that asking for help means you do not have ability, but the truth is that knowing when to seek help is part of being an effective learner. Seeking help can save you time because you avoid the added frustration of making a lot of effort without making any progress. If you are spending a lot of time on a problem, you have tried several strategies without success, or you are not able to control negative emotions, stop and write down your questions. Bring the written questions with you and discuss the problem with someone else as soon as you can. Help could come from your instructor during his or her office hours, a campus learning center, or other classmates.

During the work phase, you are required to juggle two things at once: (1) working on the problem or assignment, and (2) monitoring your progress (e.g., thinking about your thinking). This process takes practice; however, it is important to master if you want to become a self-regulated learner. Thinking about how you are working makes the work easier and gives you information for the SRL reflect phase. You will explore the reflect phase in an upcoming lesson. Until then, practice these work strategies while you are working on problems and class assignments.

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¹ https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2017.html