Educational Foundations - Posting 2

For my second posting, I will continue to look at the scenario of Wayne who is caught between making learning interesting and relevant, and the pressure of exam preparation. Wayne also continues to struggle with two groups of students: one that is highly motivated but not engaging in deep learning, and another group that is unmotivated. I will be using learning theory and motivation to analyse the scenario.

Behaviourism (Skinner) views motivation as based on rewards and punishment. The motivated group of students see success in exams as a reward, and hence are working towards that goal. The unmotivated students do not see exam success as a reward, they also do not see exam failure as punishment, and hence they are not motivated.

If Wayne wants the motivated students to engage in deep learning, then he needs to provide rewards for doing so. Either he convinces that students that they need deep learning for exam success, or he needs other rewards to encourage deep learning. For example, having prizes for the best performance in a Science competition may encourage students to engage in the deep learning needed in such a competition. Wayne must be able to state what observable characteristics he expects from a student who has done "deep learning" and then find rewards that encourage these observable characteristics.

For the unmotivated students, Wayne must find a reward that will provide extrinsic motivation. Ideally he would be able to find both short-term and long-term rewards. For example, praise and chocolate bars would be short-term rewards but success in school leading to an apprenticeship or work goal would be a long-term reward. Long-term rewards are essential as the motivation generated by short-term rewards is often fleeting.

Social cognitive learning theory (Bandura) explains how students become self-regulated learners through the triadic reciprocal causation of personal characteristics, behaviourial patterns and the environment. Has Wayne been modelling how to be a self-regulated learner to his class?

The two groups of students may reflect the outlook of their family backgrounds. The social environment may be encouraging one set of students to succeed in exams (because that is the behaviour that is looked up to) while another set of students may have no role models for exam success. Can Wayne bring in some role models into the classroom to encourage or inspire the unmotivated students? The role model would have to be someone that the unmotivated students can relate to - bringing in a straight-A student who is succeeding in university may have the opposite effect on the unmotivated students.

Self-efficacy is the strongest influence on students developing into self-regulated learners. Have the unmotivated students lost confidence and entered a spiral of learned helplessness? Wayne may have to find ways to build the self-efficacy of the unmotivated students. One approach is finding their strengths (directly related to Wayne's subject and also other skills unrelated on the subject) and building on them. Is one of the unmotivated students a good football player? Can Wayne get the student's confidence and ability in sport and show how it can be applied in other areas? This student could then become a role model for his unmotivated peers. Another approach to building self-efficacy is to find the point where the students lost confidence and build from that knowledge base.

The number of students that are anxious and fearful about getting into University will need assistance. The emotional state of an individual has a major influence on their ability to learn. Wayne needs to help the students to focus on being positive and trying their best, which will allow them to achieve more than stressing out.

Constructivism argues that learning does not occur due to instruction from above but due to students constructing their own meaning. Constructivism would argue that the behaviourist notion of exams as rewards is precisely the reason that shallow learning is occurring. Until students are motivated by situated learning with authentic assessment, they will either not be motivated or only display shallow learning. Wayne needs to find a connection between the curriculum and his students, and then present the students with challenging material.

Cognitive constructivism (Piaget) sees the construction of meaning as an internal cognitive activity. Wayne must introduce events that cause "disequilibrium" in the learners who then must accommodate the new information.

On the other hand, social constructivism (Vygotsky) sees the construction of meaning as a product of learning via socially-driven conversations or problem-solving activities. The social constructivist approach would then ask Wayne if the unmotivated students have the language or cultural tools able to engage in problem-solving that would lead to learning. Or is Wayne not using the tools that the unmotivated group possess - for example, the unmotivated group may be using social networking, texting etc but coming to school to listen to long lectures with rote learning. Can Wayne find ways to use the tools that the students have (like social networking) to enable them to learn?

Humanist views on motivation (Maslow) consider the student welfare and well-being. Some students in class are tired and distracted. The students may be tired due to lack of sleep due to being in paid employment or out partying. Until students have their basic human needs (such as food and sleep) met, Wayne is going to struggle to engage them in learning. For these students, Wayne needs to stop concentrating on the content (as these students are not going to be learning anyway) and provide assistance so that the students are able to meet their basic human needs. Wayne may need to look at his timetable to find the periods when students are most able to focus on study and use these periods for the "hard" learning. Periods where students are often distracted or tired (Monday mornings, Friday afternoons) could then be used for activities that require less concentration and application.

I found the provocation "Should we teach students or subjects" to be especially relevant as I thought of Wayne's situation and the various learning theories. A teacher cannot just teach subject content without considering the students. The various learning theories offer many approaches to understanding how students learn. A teacher must use that knowledge to motivate and engage students while teaching subject content.