Since the blog assignment is the topics from mod 3 that could inform your practice, I will start with Student Commitment Depends on Teacher Commitment by: Ben Johnson (Edutopia.org). Who is responsible for learning in the classroom? Well, I know what my administrators would say...I know what the great NYS Education Department would say...and luckily, I agree; It's my job and certainly my goal that in my class every student will learn.
Teaching summer school is a good test of that proclamation. Ben Johnson writes, "When a teacher says, I am the one that makes learning possible in the classroom and I am committed to make it happen, along with students responding cooperatively, that is when learning really happens. At the end of every day in summer school, teachers are shaking their heads at how little the students care about learning. In all honesty, that is true. They all have a myriad emotional baggage. So, I will be sure to never give up on a class. Ben Johnson also writes, "We cannot be dependent on others to do what we know we can do as teachers". And, "We have to get to the point where the minimum is not enough." Parents are depending on summer school teachers to help pull their children out of the rut of failure and put in its place a fresh opportunity to do well in school. Students know when a teacher is doing the minimum. Students know if a teacher is passionate about what they teach, and if they care about their students. They know if the teacher takes personal responsibility for their learning. I need to continually design motivating lessons that attract their attention and trust, to cover what needs to be learned so the outcome is students growing in competence and expectancies for success. Hopefully when the summer school time is done, they have developed a sense of control over their educational outcome.
I enjoyed the Goal Theories in Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals, Eccles and Wigfield, a sub-topic to Theories Focused on the Reasons for Engagement. When students are engaged, we teachers are usually happy that they are participating. But the question is, "Why are they engaged?" If students have task-involved goals, the focus is on mastering a task and increasing their competence. This type of goal complements learning goals. If students have an ego-involved goal, it is similar to performance goals. Their focus is "Can I out perform others and/or I want to look smart". The outcome of an ego-involved goal is that the student doesn't truly enjoy the learning experience because they're focused on others and not on mastering the task. You can usually tell when engagement is for a student's ego. There can be strife within the group, communication that is too loud or critical. A possible way to inform my instruction is to have students take a self-evaluation inventory at the completion of the task: what was the outcome, what did the task teach them, did they contribute to the group, how could they have been a better help to the group, etc. This self-evaluation would redirect them to focus on their performance related to accomplishing the task; did they master it, do they understand it, where could you apply it in the future. I would then give them my score on how well they completed the task and where they could improve.
Theories of Motivation and Volition also in Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals, Eccles and Wigfield, refers to both the strength and will needed to complete a task. Every teacher has had the student that starts a task, but mid-way through, stops, puts their head down, gives up, etc. Assuming that motivation will guarantee an outcome is obviously not always a fact. The completion of a task comes back to volition. I would need to read more of Kuhl's (1987) motivation and emotion control strategies for suggestions in how to deal with negative emotional states. Students with negative emotional states lack a self-regulation when distractions deter them from completing the task. I do know that teachers need to talk one-on-one and work with students who lack the volition to complete a task. Probing for what the distractions(s) is/are is the first step. Sometimes the distraction is immediately solvable and the student can get back to completing the task; sometimes its a recommendation for counseling--ignoring the deficit is never the answer. I taught a study skills class where we (the students and myself) brain-stormed ways to fit studying for tests into their day and night schedules. Each developed a different strategy that fit their life-style. Hopefully a distraction was addressed and students could experience more success in test taking.
3 comments:
Hi Denise:
Thank you for your blog posting; I enjoyed reading your comments because you offered some very constructive ideas for dealing with the multiple problems and concerns that you have seen manifest in your summer teaching experience. First, I liked that you stated your present and ongoing commitment to designing motivating lessons to attract the attention and trust of students. This seems like a possible effective strategy for overcoming students'lack of interest in some academic subjects and the overall learning process. I think that many students today do not see what they are learning in the classroom as meaningful or relevant to their situated/lived experiences and cultural outlooks. Furthermore,in many respects, today's students tend to have tunnel vision about what they find interesting and tend to lean towards what is emotionally fun and satisfying. If a lesson is viewed as boring and/or focuses on high stakes testing and performance outcomes, many of today's students are going to tune out the teacher and the lesson for the day. The challenge that many teachers face in the public school system is triggering the intrinsic motivation of students, so that they will find classroom lessons pleasurable, interesting, and enjoyable; thus the idea of embedding motivating elements into your lesson plan is right on the mark.
Second, you recommended offering students a self-evaluation inventory at the completion of a task so that they develop a meta-cognitive awareness about what should be the important learning outcomes for the task and the effective learning strategies they to chose to employ in order to effectively complete the task. It is this type of self-awareness activity that will stimulate self-efficacy, self-determination, and intrinsic motivation in students.
Finally, your comments on volition, negative emotional states, self regulation, and distractions were very interesting. Your recommendation about holding brainstorming sessions with students in order to come up with effective strategies to deal with study requirements was excellent. I would add that a brain storming session on dealing with academic difficulties might be a good idea as well. Maybe some of the high performing students could share with low performing students their coping strategies that they employ when encountering a difficult academic problem. In addition, I think the advice coming from a fellow peer as opposed to the teacher might be a good way to get through to students who may be more resistant to individuals that they view as authority figures.
Who is responsible for the learning in the classroom? Ah, so much to take ownership for, such a load to shoulder for a teacher. Students expect it and school leaders expect it. But maybe it will help if we see it as every class being a different context, every class being a situation unique to itself. Ideally, engaged pedagogy, as bell hooks (1994) who I often quote, wrote, is about changing, reinventing and reconceptualizing to adapt to every new teaching experience. It is a tough act in a classroom filled with different individuals with different abilities and needs. So we talk about differentiated instruction, but I think that at the end of the day, teaching is about persistence and a lot of intrinsic instructor motivation and self-efficacy. :)
Hello All,
Denise, I also like how you used brainstorming to get students to share other ways to study. Also, this sort of activity engages students and helps them feel they can contribute (locus of control).
On who is responsible for learning? It is a heavy burden on teachers. Everyone (students, admin, parents) expect it, along with teachers expecting it of themselves. Teachers do need to be adaptable, and continually change as times change. I would say that, yes, teachers are responsible for learning in the classroom ... responsible for creating an environment where all students want to learn, which is where motivation comes in. Because I feel what ultimately needs to happen is students must take on some of the responsibility since in the long term (as students move up from K to 12, then into higher ed and the workforce) each individual has to become more and more responsible for their own learning.
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