We’re at that dreaded time of year. The ability gap is getting wider. Personalities are getting bigger. Habits, both in us and our students, are becoming entrenched. Winter break is over. Spring break is still a distant dream. Testing is just around the corner. In many ways, we feel control in our classroom slipping away.
Picture with me that one student who just has you at your wit’s end. Every teacher has one. No matter how hard you work with this student, and no matter how much you prod him, at the end of the quarter his missing work list is still longer than his completed work. When you think of this student, most likely the thought that comes to mind is “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” This student doesn’t want to succeed. You can’t help but think he’s resisting just to spite you.
It turns out, it probably has nothing to do with you.
There are many factors in motivation. Self-determination theory can help us understand what is driving our students’ choices. It states that every person needs to feel competence, autonomy and relatedness in order to remain engaged in the classroom.
A key factor that determines whether we begin a task is our perceived competence, or self-efficacy. We have to believe that if we exert effort, we will be able to accomplish the task. To try and fail is more frightening than to not try at all. We’re always searching for the Goldilocks window in tasks. Just challenging enough that we have a sense of pride in accomplishing them, but not so difficult that we fear failure.
Yesterday in class I noticed that one of my violin students was playing the entire class period without her left hand. Her entire repertoire for the day was combinations of D and A. My first thought was, “seriously??” and I almost called her out on it. But then I remembered how big the knowledge gap she was facing was.
Yesterday in class I noticed that one of my violin students was playing the entire class period without her left hand. Her entire repertoire for the day was combinations of D and A. My first thought was, “seriously??” and I almost called her out on it. But then I remembered how big the knowledge gap she was facing was.
The distance between her current ability and the tasks I was asking of her was like the Grand Canyon.
When I looked through the window of her understanding, I noticed she was playing the right string at the right time, completely in sync with her neighbors. Pretty impressive considering she can’t read music or name the notes on the violin! What I saw as laziness was actually her coping mechanism. She was simplifying the task at hand to something she could accomplish. I can work with this.
We all want to have control of our lives.
Who among us hasn’t sat in a staff meeting or training and thought, “I could be doing such better things with my time right now”?
We all have to do things we don’t want to do. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I can’t wait to do the dishes!” As adults we’ve learned to deal with it. However, when the balance between things we choose to do and things we have to do tips toward the have to’s, we become resistant.
We can help ourselves by giving kids control wherever we can. Offering choice doesn’t mean disorganization or chaos. On the contrary, teachers who offer autonomy spend a lot of time teaching kids organizational skills and procedures. They’ve coached their students in deep thinking and making choices.
Not all autonomy is created equal
When we think of giving students choice in the classroom, we often think of what is referred to as organizational or procedural autonomy. Organizational autonomy gives students the freedom to move about about the room and control the space. Procedural autonomy is the choice of how to approach a task. While both of these types of autonomy give students the feeling that they belong in the space, the effects on motivation are minimal.
The greatest way that we can engage students in the classroom is to support their cognitive autonomy. Take the time to listen to their ideas. Allow them choice in what to study to the greatest extent possible. Once in a while, allow the class to become sidetracked in order to answer a burning question. Be willing to say, “I don’t know the answer to question, but let’s look into it together tomorrow.”
Teachers who demonstrate that they value their students’ ideas, and believe in their students’ ability to think, have students who think deeply.
Their classes run right up to the bell with deep conversation. Their students demonstrate more creativity and problem solving in their answers. Many of us believe we have to teach kids to think creatively. Research shows, however, that most kids come to school with curiosity and creative ideas. We usually school it out of them by trying to control the conversation. We focus too heavily on the end product we have in mind, and don’t give kids a chance to take a winding road to their final understanding.
We all want to belong.
When we were new to our school building, most of us hung out on the sidelines of the action. We didn’t volunteer for committees, and we didn’t help organize the school dance. As we become more a part of the school family, we take more interest in what is going on.
The same holds true for our students. They need to feel relatedness in the classroom in order to fully engage. Adolescents in particular struggle to connect in school. While their social development is causing them to spend most of their time thinking about their peer group and whether they fit in, teachers are asking them to be quiet and work individually. We ask them to keep their conversations on topic all of the time. Let’s be real. Who does that?
We need to strike a balance with our students. We need to provide them time to discover their individual identity and their confidence in who they are as a person. We need to allow their social web to develop, and help them feel valued in their peer circle. We need to treat them with the same respect we’d show our adult peers.
It’s not about me. Or is it?
My students’ resistance to doing their work and engaging mentally in class isn’t about me. That is to say, it isn’t done to spite me. It isn’t done with malice, or even out of laziness. But, it is really about me. For my students, there’s a disconnect between what they feel are their needs and what I’m asking of them. So, as my worship leader likes to say,
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. But, you can make him thirsty!”
The truth is, we don’t need to make our kids thirsty. They already come that way. We just have to stop drowning them in milk when they’re craving orange juice!
