Motivating Children To Learn State Standards

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Motivating Children To Learn State Standards

• Presented by Kristen Gray
• CEP 841
• Summer 2005
• Instructor Emily Bouck

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Problem Statement

• Why motivation?
• Why do teachers, administrators, support staff,
  and parents need to know this information?

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Problem Statement

• 1. Numerous books, articles, and conversations
  allude to the fact that many children, regardless
  of gender, culture, socioeconomic status, or
  background, do not seem motivated to perform
  those tasks required of them in school. As Tom
  Savage points out in his book, Teaching
  Self-Control Through Management and Discipline on
  page 42, There is really no such thing as an
  unmotivated person. Everyone is motivated to do
  somethingit is the teachers task to discover,
  initiate, sustain, and direct it towards school
  tasks (1999).

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2. Heres a generalized conclusion of why we
need to concern ourselves with finding ways to
get our children motivated
Problem Statement
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Description of Condition

• All people may experience difficulties in
  wanting to learn something, performing a task, or
  just paying attention. Our interests oftentimes
  dictate what we choose to do. Children are no
  different.
• However, children with special needs are even
  more susceptible to losing interest in a given
  task or objective. When ones rate of success in
  past experiences is lower than others, it is
  natural to shut down sooner. This is what
  happens with many of our students. They dont
  think they can succeed, so they dont try. They
  havent had success in the past, so why should
  they think they will experience it now?

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Facts, Statistics, Incidence

• As Professor Tom Daly points out on his website
  for his book, The ADHD Solution for Teachers
  How to Turn any Disruptive Child Into Your Best
  Student, On average, there are at least one to
  three children who have ADHD in every classroom
  of 30 students.
• This means that there are roughly the same
  number of children with motivational difficulties.

Click button to visit website
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Facts, Statistics, Incidence

• Motivation and Middle School Students
• 3 Theories
• Presented by Lynley Hicks Anderman and Carol
  Midgley

• Click on button to read entire article

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Attribution Theory

• Teachers must understand what students believe
  about the reasons for their academic performance
  Students who believe that their poor
  performance is caused by factors out of their
  control (external locus of control) are unlikely
  to see any reason to hope for an improvement. In
  contrast, if students attribute their poor
  performance to a lack of important skills or to
  poor study habits, they are more likely to
  persist in the future.

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Goal Theory

• This theory focuses on the reasons or purposes
  the students perceive for achieving.
• Task goals purpose of achieving is personal
  improvement and understanding focus on own
  progress of mastering skills and knowledge
  success is defined in those terms
• Ability goals purpose of achieving is the
  demonstration of ability (or concealment of a
  lack of ability) focus on appearing competent,
  often in comparison to others
• Studies have shown that students with task goals
  use more effective cognitive strategies, are more
  willing to seek help when needed, and have more
  positive feelings about school and oneself.

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Goal Theory

• To move our students towards a task goal focus,
  schools need to do more
• Frequent reformation of groups based on interests
  and student choice
• Cooperative learning not competition between
  students
• Using test data for diagnosis, not as a basis for
  comparison alternative testing, like portfolios
• Grading for progress and involving students in
  determining their grades
• Recognition of progress improvement and emphasis
  on learning for its own sake
• Opportunities for choice and student decision
  making and self-regulation
• thematic approaches to curriculum viewing
  mistakes as a part of learning allowing students
  to redo work
• Providing engaging, real world applicable work
  encouraging problem solving and comprehension
• Cross-age tutoring, peer tutoring, or enrichment

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Self-Determination Theory

• This theory is especially important for
  middle-school aged children. It focuses on the
  three categories of needs
• Sense of competence involves understanding how
  to and believing that one can achieve various
  outcomes
• Relatedness involves developing satisfactory
  connections to others in the peer group
• Autonomy involves initiating and regulating
  ones own actions

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Self-Determination Theory

• Autonomy This is the most researched aspect of
  this theory. In the classroom, autonomy needs
  can be met through student choices and input on
  classroom decision making.
• Extrinsic rewards, deadlines, and emphasis on
  evaluations detract from feelings of
  self-determination and lead to a decrease in
  intrinsic motivation.

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Applications for Classrooms, Parents, and
Buildings

• Some Ideas for Motivating Students
• By Robert Harris
• This article has some outstanding concrete ways
  for teachers and parents to help motivate
  children like explain, reward, care, increase
  student participation, teach inductively, satisfy
  students needs, make learning visual, use
  positive emotions to enhance learning and
  motivation, and remember that energy sells.

Click this button to visit the site
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Applications for Classrooms, Parents, and
Buildings Some Ideas for Motivating StudentsBy
Robert Harris

• Included in the article is a wonderful analogy
  between motivation for baseball and motivation in
  the classroom. If youve ever been frustrated
  with a student who was motivated to play a sport,
  but did nothing in class, this is for you.

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Applications for Classrooms, Parents, and
BuildingsSome Ideas for Motivating StudentsBy
Robert Harris

• NOTE The ideas discussed in this article are
  found in countless other articles, books, and
  websites. I highly recommend visiting his site,
  as Mr. Harris details each strategy and gives
  excellent examples for each one.

Click on this button if you missed it the first
time
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Applications for Classrooms, Parents, and
Buildings A Big Picture Plan for Personal
Applications
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Applications for Classrooms, Parents, and
Buildings

• Methods to use to collect specific data on target
  students include
• Teacher journal of anecdotal records
• What DOES the student seem to like?
• Who does the student best relate to?
• What are the students strengths and weaknesses
  (how can I use them to their advantage?)
• What strategy is being used? How is it
  working???
• Official student records
• Is there a history of low achievement?
• Has the child been tested for anything?
• Is there anything in the childs academic past
  that may be a red flag for whats causing the
  trouble?
• Conferencing with student
• Generalized methods dont always work with
  individual students. We need to truly know the
  student in order to find out how to motivate
  him/her.
• Parental contact and interviews
• is parents behavior enabling the childs?
• has something happened in the home environment

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SummaryPoints to Consider When Faced With A
Student Who Seems Unmotivated

• What is the students locus of control?
• Are the physiological needs being met?
• What is the probability of success for this task?
• Is the student unmotivated to learn everything or
  just certain topics?
• What needs that I can control are NOT being met?
  (environmental, teaching style)
• Where is the student in reference to the levels
  of reinforcement? Does the child respond to
  edible rewards? Although the idea is to aim for
  the highest level, children with poor self-esteem
  may need to start a little lower on the continuum.

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Summary, continued

• All students are motivated. The key for the
  teacher, parent, administrator, or support worker
  is to find out what motivates these children and
  build on that.

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Summary

• You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot
  make it drink. That is true, but if the water is
  made appetizing, then the horse is more likely to
  drink.
• Our challenge is to make the state-mandated
  standards appetizing for our children so they
  WANT TO DRINK!

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Additional ResourcesBooks

• Brophy, J. (2004). Motivating Students to Learn.
  Second Edition. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Daly, Tom. (2003). The ADHD Solution for
  Teachers How to Turn Any Disruptive Child Into
  Your Best Student. San Diego, California
  Smarty Pants Publications.
• Kohl, H. (1994). I Wont Learn From You. New
  York New Press.
• Larrivee, B. (2005). Authentic Classroom
  Management, Creating a Learning Community and
  Building Reflective Practice. Boston Pearson.
• Raffini, J. (1993). Winners Without Losers
  Structures and Strategies for Increasing Student
  Motivation to Learn. Boston Allyn and Bacon.
• Savage, T. (1999). Teaching Self-Control Through
  Management and Discipline. Boston Allyn and
  Bacon.
• Stipek, D. (1988) Motivation to Learn From
  Theory To Practice. Englewood Cliffs, New
  Jersey Prentice Hall.

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Additional ResourcesJournal Articles

• Anderman, L. Midgley, C. (1999) Motivation
  and Middle School Students. ERIC Digest.
  Retrieved July 20, 2005, from http//www.ericdiges
  ts.org/1999-1/motivation.html
• Brophy, J. (1986). On Motivating Students.
  Occasional Paper No. 101. East Lansing,
  Michigan Institute for Research on Teaching,
  Michigan State University.
• Lumsden, L. (1994). Student Motivation to
  Learn. Oregon Clearinghouse on Educational
  Policy and Management. (ERIC Document
  Reproduction Service No. 92). Retrieved July 1,
  2005, from http//eric.uoregon.edu/publications.di
  gests/digest092.html

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Additional ResourcesWeb Sites

• Brewster, C. Fager, J. (2000). Increasing
  Student Engagement and Motivation From
  Time-On-Task to Homework. Northwest Regional
  Educational Laboratory. Retrieved July 25, 2005
  from http//www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.h
  tml
• General Principles of Motivation. Retrieved June
  26, 2005, from http//wwhonolulu.hawaii.edu/intran
  et.committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip.motivatio
  n
• Hunter, Max. Levels of Reinforcement. Retrieved
  July 3, 2005 from http//maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/
  pub/eres/EDSPC715_MCINTYRE/Reinforcement.htm

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Additional ResourcesGroups or Organizations

• NOTE I had some difficulty finding National
  Groups,, but the following conference, and group
  sites have information specific to motivation.
• IDEA Seminar Motivating Students to Learn
  February 26-28, 2006, Savannah, GA. Information
  retrieved July 24, 2005 from http//ceps.georgiaso
  uthern.edu/conted/idea.html
• What Kids Can Do Student Work and Voice.
  Retrieved July 24, 2005 from http//www.whatkidsca
  ndo.org (website with tips for adults from
  children/young adults)
• YouthLight, Inc. Retrieved July 24, 2005 from
  http//www.youthlightbooks.com/history.html
  (group of school workers developing and providing
  educational materials for adults working with
  youth)