What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student’s motivation? How did you cope with it?
Years ago I had very smart learner who challenged me as an educator during three school years in a row (I taught her in second, third and fourth grades), so I really knew how she ‘worked’. She was extremely successful in all social relations (classmates, teachers, siblings and parents), and was caring, respectful, quick thinking, creative and very active. She was “street smart” and found inventive and unexpected solutions for many academic and social problems and issues that were brought up in the classroom. She was a good leader. However, when it came to doing the homework, staying committed to her responsibilities as a student, finishing her school assignments, studying for tests and other tasks, she would just ignore them. She did not study for tests and did not hand in most of her homework, or handed it in late. When I asked her why she was not committing to her obligations, she just would not respond. Nothing seemed to shake her – I could not find one single strategy that would unsettle this pattern in her behavior. I was impotent to shake her out of what seemed to me sheer lethargy. I was very frustrated as a teacher. She was steadfast and convinced that all she had to do was pass to the next year. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, she was extremely successful in sports, games and social interplay. Some reasons that I can think of to attempt to explain her behavior are: I was not inspiring enough for her as a teacher and did not provide enough challenges and interesting learning opportunities; I did not succeed in activating and nurturing her intrinsic motivation system; I failed to understand and unveil some of her internal mechanisms that were causing such attitudes; she was not having significant experiences in the learning environment that might have triggered her desires and interests. Although I tried to cope with this situation in several different manners, I did not manage to succeed. And even though at the time I kept blaming myself for what seemed to be my own incompetence in re-directing her focuses, over time I began to realize that maybe that was just the way she was and that the best thing would be to leave her alone and stop pressuring her in the direction I thought she had to go. It was a limbo-type situation. I spoke to my colleagues and supervisors about the matter, but did not get much helpful feedback. I decided to back off and stopped putting so much class work and academic emphasis on her. I still remember this student with a lot of affection and with certain puzzlement. Maybe schooling is a waste of time and all she wants is to become a great skateboarder or volleyball player – if this is the case, she will probably continue to act with a certain detachment and nonchalance until she finally finishes school and gets to do what she really wants to dedicate her life to. I dare say that she will be successful and outstanding in whatever endeavors she decides to pursue.
What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educater as a result of the lack of students` motivation? How did you cope with it?
The biggest crisis I had was when I taught fifth graders ESL in Japan. They did not have the motivation to engage in conversation with English. Once they learned their words they did not want to use it. A part of it may have been affective filter, but they had a sense of embarrassment and low motivation to use, over come their embarrassment. They were too concerned with their performance that it effected how they engaged in English. I coped with this by using different environments where they could use English which I hoped will make them relaxed and use English naturally. I made an effort to use English in natural context so that they would be more motivated to speak. I took them to stores, parks, and events. I would casually use English, or assign them tasks that included usage of English. They were still self-conscious, but would use certain words, and respond. I hoped that change in environment and using English in context will make the process require less effort to make it more natural. If the situation is desirable my students may be more motivated.
Although the research as repeatedly shown that a performance-orientation leads to fewer achievements and successes than a mastery-orientation, many students still develop this type of thinking. Part of this development may be due to political and socio-cultural norms. Many schools in the U.S. depend on performance scores to receive federal funding. This emphasis on performance and grades puts pressure on both teachers and students to focus on performance rather than mastery. Curriculums are also often designed to cover a certain amount of material, regardless of mastery. Students may infer from this that mastery is not important, as they are often not given the time they need to truly master the content before the class moves on to new material. Further, with such a large emphasis on grades, students may come to believe that the grade reflects who they are as a person, rather than their ability at that moment in time. This thinking makes a good grade seem extremely important and students may become obsessed with obtaining this grade. This is often reinforced by family members and parents, who might brag about the good grades that their children are receiving in school (rather than bragging about how much knowledge their children has obtained). Finally, performance-oriented students give themselves an excuse to give up and stop trying, as they believe their performance is tied to innate ability. A radical idea to combat this type of orientation is to get rid of grades altogether. This has been done in some private, progressive schools but has not taken hold in public school systems that still rely on grades for funding and to prove effectiveness. Some schools allow students to opt for pass/fail grades, so that they may take more difficult classes knowing that it won’t affect their GPA. Another idea is to make effort part of the final grade, although it is known that not everybody needs to dedicate the same amount of time in order to develop a deep understanding of material. This may unfairly penalize students who have learned the material well but did not need to spend a great deal of time learning it. Perhaps overall improvement could be incorporated into the grade, rather than final performance. Again, however, institutions can run into issues when a student passes a class based on improvement but is still not at the level necessary to move to the next level. One simple way that teachers can increase mastery-orientation is to give formative feedback and allow students to redo assignments. Teachers can also set a socio-cultural norm in their classroom that grades are less important than overall learning, which could hopefully lead students to internalize this concept. Teachers must also develop a rapport with students so that students trust them and will begin to see the importance of a mastery-orientation. Teachers may not see immediate benefits and changes, but must trust that they are planting the seed in students’ minds and helping them to eventually develop this new mindset.
Have you experience flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it? While reading the section on Flow, I had an “Aha” moment. Yesterday I was able to experience a Flow within a learning activity while partnered with Diana. In the learning activity we choose a poorly worded essay prompt and were required to rewrite the prompt in a clear and concise way. We were allowed to manipulate the prompt and make any additions as along as the general subject was similar. The prompt we chose was for a U.S. history course which asked the students to find a “federal issue” in terms of the “doctrine of powers.” We had no idea what the question was asking or what these specific terms meant. After reading the prompt over and over again we became completing involved and invested in trying to understand and create a new prompt. In our self-contained bubbled we threw ideas back and forth, contemplated picking a new prompt, and constantly revised new prompts. This challenge we were facing was huge but at the same time we were invested and we were having fun with the struggle. All of a sudden we only had a few minutes left to complete the activity, we had no idea how much time had passed. In the last few moments we were finally making our finishing touches on the prompt and we were PROUD. We knew exactly how hard this challenge was and we were not afraid to put in maximum effort so that we would be able to learn from this experience. From this activity, I learned the right amount of challenge can get a student invested and in a Flow. Giving students the confidence in their ability to overcome a challenge also plays a key role as our teacher kept reminding us to “keep working at this,” “You’re going to get there, you know what you’re doing.” It was a combination of the right amount of challenge, self-confidence, and motivation from the teacher that allowed us to learn from the Flow experience.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
I experience flow all the time when I am doing a challenging math questions, or when I use to have math homework. I could hours on a few questions, and one answer would take about 3-4pages in my notebook to solve, and I would be enjoying it so much that I wouldn’t even realize the time going by. I enjoy harder levels of math like Calculus or Logic, and it excites me. So when I get a challenging question that I know I can solve I just have to take the time and put in the effort, I begin and time just flies. I finish the problem, feeling accomplished and happy and then I realize that 45mins have passed. I don’t know really what exactly happens, I just get “in the zone” and block everything out. I know what the goal is in mind and I usually do not stop until I complete it. I have learned that there is a certain level of challenging questions that I am willing to put the effort into and not give up. However, there have been some instances that the questions have been too hard for me and I felt that I could not do it, and I would just give up after a while. I would feel disappointed and frustrated if I could not answer the question. I think as teachers we have to be aware of that level of challenge that we give our students. I feel that making things too hard causes them to get discouraged and then making it too easy causes them to become bored. I think if we find a medium then our students will put the effort in and see that the results can be worth it.
STUDY QUESTION: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of students’ motivation? How did you cope with it?
When I was teaching a class of 30 eleven year olds in China, I was frustrated by students’ lack of motivation. As a class of 30 students, only a small portion of them (less than five) paid attention to me. At that time, I was a total rookie for teaching. I tried student-teacher conferences to analyze their needs and interests. I found almost all the boys were interested in computer games and the girls, they each have their own romantic imaginary world to take care of. And that drives me crazy. But for them, learning English is obviously meaningless. I remembered the conversation with a young boy who kept asking me,” What’s the point of learning English? I can live well without meeting any foreigners.” I was speechless at that time. I thought that could be his life choice and I don’t want to force him. Now the problem seems clear. And I could have done more. First of all, I can help build the contingency and construct new value of learning English. Or use some social approach such as norm enculturation and reality immersion. And always try to make the class interesting to them to create a flow learning environment.
Study Question: What was the bigger crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of students’ motivation? How did you cope with it?
Last year I was assigned to teach English Language Arts to high schoolers, and I had one student who had a lack of motivation. I was provided with a list of academic goals she had to achieve by her next assessment test. When presented with a question about a text she just read, she would reply with “I don’t know” or there would be long periods of silence. I tried various text from one paragraph passages to poems but it would was like fighting tooth and nail just to get her to give me an opinion or share what she was thinking. Since I was receiving a limited amount of feedback from her I was beginning to doubt myself. One particular lesson I ended early, I started to ask what she was interested in and allowed for her to ask me any questions she asked. I found out she wanted to become a fashion journalist. As a result, I began find articles, ads, essays, magazines and other material that had fashion as focus to teach imagery and structuring ideas for persuasive essays. Over time she started to give her opinions, answer questions, and remember make connection between previous and current lessons.
What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student’s motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteYears ago I had very smart learner who challenged me as an educator during three school years in a row (I taught her in second, third and fourth grades), so I really knew how she ‘worked’. She was extremely successful in all social relations (classmates, teachers, siblings and parents), and was caring, respectful, quick thinking, creative and very active. She was “street smart” and found inventive and unexpected solutions for many academic and social problems and issues that were brought up in the classroom. She was a good leader. However, when it came to doing the homework, staying committed to her responsibilities as a student, finishing her school assignments, studying for tests and other tasks, she would just ignore them. She did not study for tests and did not hand in most of her homework, or handed it in late. When I asked her why she was not committing to her obligations, she just would not respond. Nothing seemed to shake her – I could not find one single strategy that would unsettle this pattern in her behavior. I was impotent to shake her out of what seemed to me sheer lethargy. I was very frustrated as a teacher. She was steadfast and convinced that all she had to do was pass to the next year. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, she was extremely successful in sports, games and social interplay. Some reasons that I can think of to attempt to explain her behavior are: I was not inspiring enough for her as a teacher and did not provide enough challenges and interesting learning opportunities; I did not succeed in activating and nurturing her intrinsic motivation system; I failed to understand and unveil some of her internal mechanisms that were causing such attitudes; she was not having significant experiences in the learning environment that might have triggered her desires and interests. Although I tried to cope with this situation in several different manners, I did not manage to succeed. And even though at the time I kept blaming myself for what seemed to be my own incompetence in re-directing her focuses, over time I began to realize that maybe that was just the way she was and that the best thing would be to leave her alone and stop pressuring her in the direction I thought she had to go. It was a limbo-type situation. I spoke to my colleagues and supervisors about the matter, but did not get much helpful feedback. I decided to back off and stopped putting so much class work and academic emphasis on her. I still remember this student with a lot of affection and with certain puzzlement. Maybe schooling is a waste of time and all she wants is to become a great skateboarder or volleyball player – if this is the case, she will probably continue to act with a certain detachment and nonchalance until she finally finishes school and gets to do what she really wants to dedicate her life to. I dare say that she will be successful and outstanding in whatever endeavors she decides to pursue.
What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educater as a result of the lack of students` motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteThe biggest crisis I had was when I taught fifth graders ESL in Japan. They did not have the motivation to engage in conversation with English. Once they learned their words they did not want to use it. A part of it may have been affective filter, but they had a sense of embarrassment and low motivation to use, over come their embarrassment. They were too concerned with their performance that it effected how they engaged in English. I coped with this by using different environments where they could use English which I hoped will make them relaxed and use English naturally. I made an effort to use English in natural context so that they would be more motivated to speak. I took them to stores, parks, and events. I would casually use English, or assign them tasks that included usage of English. They were still self-conscious, but would use certain words, and respond. I hoped that change in environment and using English in context will make the process require less effort to make it more natural. If the situation is desirable my students may be more motivated.
Although the research as repeatedly shown that a performance-orientation leads to fewer achievements and successes than a mastery-orientation, many students still develop this type of thinking. Part of this development may be due to political and socio-cultural norms. Many schools in the U.S. depend on performance scores to receive federal funding. This emphasis on performance and grades puts pressure on both teachers and students to focus on performance rather than mastery. Curriculums are also often designed to cover a certain amount of material, regardless of mastery. Students may infer from this that mastery is not important, as they are often not given the time they need to truly master the content before the class moves on to new material. Further, with such a large emphasis on grades, students may come to believe that the grade reflects who they are as a person, rather than their ability at that moment in time. This thinking makes a good grade seem extremely important and students may become obsessed with obtaining this grade. This is often reinforced by family members and parents, who might brag about the good grades that their children are receiving in school (rather than bragging about how much knowledge their children has obtained). Finally, performance-oriented students give themselves an excuse to give up and stop trying, as they believe their performance is tied to innate ability.
ReplyDeleteA radical idea to combat this type of orientation is to get rid of grades altogether. This has been done in some private, progressive schools but has not taken hold in public school systems that still rely on grades for funding and to prove effectiveness. Some schools allow students to opt for pass/fail grades, so that they may take more difficult classes knowing that it won’t affect their GPA. Another idea is to make effort part of the final grade, although it is known that not everybody needs to dedicate the same amount of time in order to develop a deep understanding of material. This may unfairly penalize students who have learned the material well but did not need to spend a great deal of time learning it. Perhaps overall improvement could be incorporated into the grade, rather than final performance. Again, however, institutions can run into issues when a student passes a class based on improvement but is still not at the level necessary to move to the next level. One simple way that teachers can increase mastery-orientation is to give formative feedback and allow students to redo assignments. Teachers can also set a socio-cultural norm in their classroom that grades are less important than overall learning, which could hopefully lead students to internalize this concept. Teachers must also develop a rapport with students so that students trust them and will begin to see the importance of a mastery-orientation. Teachers may not see immediate benefits and changes, but must trust that they are planting the seed in students’ minds and helping them to eventually develop this new mindset.
Have you experience flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the section on Flow, I had an “Aha” moment. Yesterday I was able to experience a Flow within a learning activity while partnered with Diana. In the learning activity we choose a poorly worded essay prompt and were required to rewrite the prompt in a clear and concise way. We were allowed to manipulate the prompt and make any additions as along as the general subject was similar. The prompt we chose was for a U.S. history course which asked the students to find a “federal issue” in terms of the “doctrine of powers.” We had no idea what the question was asking or what these specific terms meant. After reading the prompt over and over again we became completing involved and invested in trying to understand and create a new prompt. In our self-contained bubbled we threw ideas back and forth, contemplated picking a new prompt, and constantly revised new prompts. This challenge we were facing was huge but at the same time we were invested and we were having fun with the struggle. All of a sudden we only had a few minutes left to complete the activity, we had no idea how much time had passed. In the last few moments we were finally making our finishing touches on the prompt and we were PROUD. We knew exactly how hard this challenge was and we were not afraid to put in maximum effort so that we would be able to learn from this experience. From this activity, I learned the right amount of challenge can get a student invested and in a Flow. Giving students the confidence in their ability to overcome a challenge also plays a key role as our teacher kept reminding us to “keep working at this,” “You’re going to get there, you know what you’re doing.” It was a combination of the right amount of challenge, self-confidence, and motivation from the teacher that allowed us to learn from the Flow experience.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteI experience flow all the time when I am doing a challenging math questions, or when I use to have math homework. I could hours on a few questions, and one answer would take about 3-4pages in my notebook to solve, and I would be enjoying it so much that I wouldn’t even realize the time going by. I enjoy harder levels of math like Calculus or Logic, and it excites me. So when I get a challenging question that I know I can solve I just have to take the time and put in the effort, I begin and time just flies. I finish the problem, feeling accomplished and happy and then I realize that 45mins have passed. I don’t know really what exactly happens, I just get “in the zone” and block everything out. I know what the goal is in mind and I usually do not stop until I complete it. I have learned that there is a certain level of challenging questions that I am willing to put the effort into and not give up. However, there have been some instances that the questions have been too hard for me and I felt that I could not do it, and I would just give up after a while. I would feel disappointed and frustrated if I could not answer the question. I think as teachers we have to be aware of that level of challenge that we give our students. I feel that making things too hard causes them to get discouraged and then making it too easy causes them to become bored. I think if we find a medium then our students will put the effort in and see that the results can be worth it.
STUDY QUESTION: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of students’ motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was teaching a class of 30 eleven year olds in China, I was frustrated by students’ lack of motivation. As a class of 30 students, only a small portion of them (less than five) paid attention to me. At that time, I was a total rookie for teaching. I tried student-teacher conferences to analyze their needs and interests. I found almost all the boys were interested in computer games and the girls, they each have their own romantic imaginary world to take care of. And that drives me crazy. But for them, learning English is obviously meaningless. I remembered the conversation with a young boy who kept asking me,” What’s the point of learning English? I can live well without meeting any foreigners.” I was speechless at that time. I thought that could be his life choice and I don’t want to force him. Now the problem seems clear. And I could have done more. First of all, I can help build the contingency and construct new value of learning English. Or use some social approach such as norm enculturation and reality immersion. And always try to make the class interesting to them to create a flow learning environment.
Study Question: What was the bigger crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of students’ motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteLast year I was assigned to teach English Language Arts to high schoolers, and I had one student who had a lack of motivation. I was provided with a list of academic goals she had to achieve by her next assessment test. When presented with a question about a text she just read, she would reply with “I don’t know” or there would be long periods of silence. I tried various text from one paragraph passages to poems but it would was like fighting tooth and nail just to get her to give me an opinion or share what she was thinking. Since I was receiving a limited amount of feedback from her I was beginning to doubt myself. One particular lesson I ended early, I started to ask what she was interested in and allowed for her to ask me any questions she asked. I found out she wanted to become a fashion journalist. As a result, I began find articles, ads, essays, magazines and other material that had fashion as focus to teach imagery and structuring ideas for persuasive essays. Over time she started to give her opinions, answer questions, and remember make connection between previous and current lessons.