Students have lots going on in life that often makes school a "side hustle". However, if you ask a student about concerns in their life in school…many of them are going to say emphatically, “I want to be engaged in my learning and I want to feel like I am included in the classroom community.” The social and educational bottom line of public schools is about ensuring that all students are giving opportunities to learn in safe and productive environments.
While teachers have an amazing role in society that can greatly benefit their students, we are not miracle workers or magicians. Supporting all students in the processes of learning is challenging and takes thought and effort. We can take some important steps to ensure that all students find these opportunities to learn, and in a safe and productive environment.
This course helps to build an inclusive and professional mindset of a teacher who is constantly learning about the diverse group of students in their classrooms. It is helpful to understand why we have taken an organizational approach, and much of this has to do with treating people fairly, humanely, and making decisions that support their best interests when it comes to the learning process. Our bottom line as teachers is about the learning that we encourage and produce. Our minds should be constantly reminding ourselves of this point as we make all of the decisions required in the management of large groups of young humans.
There are some general rules of thumb when it comes to educating all the diversity in our classrooms, and we should start with some universal concepts to support all learners as the foundation of our practice. Then, through assessment and analysis, we should make it routine that we identify opportunities where our decisions on policy, procedures, and planning can support our students in coming within reach of our learning targets.
Existing research studies revealed five competencies and skills that help students excel in school over time: self-control, persistence, mastery orientation, academic self-efficacy, and social competence. While they are strong as a collective (as indicated above), each skill taps into distinct areas of students’ abilities and uniquely affects student achievement, as described below.
Self-control refers to the ability to manage or regulate emotion and behaviors, inhibit negative responses, and delay gratification in ways considered socially appropriate for a given situation (Bandy and Moore 2010). Having self-control enables children to focus and stay on task. In fact, researchers have argued that self-control is as important for academic success as intelligence (Blair 2002).
Research has also found that self-control in childhood is associated with academic and social competence, verbal fluency, healthier and more productive behaviors (e.g., avoiding substance use and teen pregnancy, spending more time doing homework), and the ability to cope successfully with frustration and stress later in adolescence (Mischel, Shoda et al. 1988; Tangney, Baumeister et al. 2004; Duckworth and Seligman 2005; Moffitt, Arseneault et al. 2011).
Some researchers have defined persistence in children as the “voluntary continuation of goal-directed action in spite of obstacles, difficulties, or discouragement” (Peterson and Seligman 2004). The term grit is also used in some instances to describe “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, Peterson et al. 2007).
Whichever term is used, the underlying concept focuses on a child’s attitude and determination to continue at a task or to work at a goal over an extended period of time—despite challenges or failures that may occur along the way. Children with high levels of persistence tend to be less anxious and are more likely to attempt solutions to difficult problems when compared with peers who exhibit lower levels of persistence (Lufi and Cohen 1987).
Similarly, research shows that college students with higher levels of grit tend to study more, to have higher grade-point averages, and to watch fewer hours of television than do students with lower levels of grit (Duckworth, Peterson et al. 2007).
Mastery orientation is an approach to learning in which a child pursues learning because he or she wants to increase his or her overall competence or abilities over time until something is mastered. This concept is frequently contrasted with a performance orientation, the act of pursuing learning in order to obtain positive feedback from others on his or her competence (Wolters 2004; Delale-O'Connor, Farley et al. 2012).
Research shows that children with this orientation tend to procrastinate less, to use more effective learning strategies, and to achieve higher science grades than do children with a performance orientation (Meece and Holt 1993; Wolters 2004). In addition, children with mastery orientation tend to believe that intelligence is more malleable, that is, that through their efforts they can improve (Dweck and Leggett 1988).
Perhaps reflecting this belief, they earn higher grades and achieve higher test scores (Stipek and Gralinksi 1996) than do children who believe that intelligence is fixed and cannot be improved. Additional studies have found that the positive effect of mastery orientation on academic performance can continue for several years (Blackwell, Trzesniewski et al. 2007).
Academic self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief that he or she can perform a variety of academic tasks effectively, while general self-efficacy refers to the belief in one’s ability to accomplish any task, along with the understanding that the actions one takes will influence a task’s outcome (Zimmerman 1989; Liew, McTigue et al. 2008).
This belief influences the effort put into academic work, as well as continued persistence and resilience when faced with challenges (Zimmerman 1989; Liew, McTigue et al. 2008). An individual’s academic self-efficacy is believed to be linked to the individual’s thought patterns, emotional responses, and — ultimately— to his or her academic success (Zimmerman 1989; Liew, McTigue et al. 2008). Prior research has found that children with high levels of academic self-efficacy use more effective learning strategies and frequently achieve higher levels of literacy and math achievement than do children with low academic self-efficacy (Zimmerman 1989; Liew, McTigue et al. 2008).
Social competence refers to a broad set of skills necessary to get along with others and behave constructively in groups (Rose-Krasnor 1997; Smith and Hart 2004). For the purposes of this work, we defined social competence as a student’s ability to:
Take others’ perspectives,
Work well with peers to accomplish a task,
Resolve problems in ways that maximize positive consequences and minimize negative consequences for the student and her/his peers, and
Behave appropriately according to the situation and social norms.
Although social competence is linked with the other skills described above, it contributes uniquely to academic success by addressing the inherently social dimensions that are characteristic of learning in a classroom setting (Ladd, Herald et al. 2006). Social competence helps students interact constructively with peers, teachers, and other school officials and shapes their feelings of connection to the school, thus indirectly improving academic competence (Smith and Hart 2004; Ladd, Herald et al. 2006; Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant et al. 2007).
Students deserve to learn in a safe, supported, and challenging environment.
"A positive, caring, respectful climate in the classroom is a prior condition to learning. Without students' sense that there is a reasonable degree of 'control,' sense of safety to learn, and sense of respect and fairness that learning is going to take place, there is little chance that much positive is going to occur" (Hattie, 2012, p. 70).
Students deserve to be engaged in real-world problem-solving.
"One of the domains that separate expert teachers from experienced and non-expert teachers was their focus on cognitive engagement with the content …. It is what teachers get the students to do in the class that emerged as the strongest component of the accomplished teachers' repertoire …. Students must be actively involved in their learning with a focus on multiple paths to problem-solving" (Hattie, 2009, p. 35).
Students deserve to have clear expectations for their performance.
"Two powerful ways of increasing impact [are] to know and share both the learning intentions and success criteria of the lesson with students. When students know both, they are more likely to work towards mastering the criteria of success, more likely to know where they are on the trajectory towards this success, and more likely to have a good chance of learning how to monitor and self-regulate their progress" (Hattie, 2012, p. 67).
Students deserve to be able to make choices in creating their own learning pathways.
"Expert teachers' understanding of students is such that they are more able to provide developmentally appropriate learning tasks that engage, challenge, and even intrigue students without boring or overwhelming them—they know where to go next" (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 107).
Students deserve to have relationships that make them feel part of a larger community.
"Building relationships with students implies agency, efficacy, respect on the part of the teacher for what the child brings to the class (from home, culture, peers), and allowing the experiences of the child to be recognized in the classroom" (Hattie, 2009, p. 118).
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to student achievement. New York: Routledge.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York: Routledge.
Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. New York: Routledge.