Frustration, Boredom, and Appropriate Challenge
In a given classroom, there are a few students following a lesson with the right amount of background understanding to be appropriately challenged by new material. However, there are also a large number of students who either find the current task or material too easy (boring) or too difficult (frustrating). Research by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi on “flow” looks specifically at the balance of skill level and challenge that makes learners most likely to succeed:
In order to stay in the “flow channel”, the challenge being presented needs to correspond to the skill level of the student. However, a classroom of 20-30 students has a wide variety of skill levels for any given topic, making it nearly impossible for a teacher to give every student the same challenge and keep them all in the optimal learning zone, the flow channel. Only teachers who carefully differentiate the instruction to provide a wide variety of challenges will be able to keep a classroom from being frustrated or bored.
Differentiating By Skill and Interest
Students are motivated when they are appropriately challenged by a topic that interests them. Properly differentiated lessons can allow students to find a starting point that most interests them and work from there into the group topic of study. Allowing student choice to be the primary driver in differentiation has a number of benefits.
Autonomy and Ownership: When students are given choice over what and how they learn, they feel a greater sense of control over their world. They are also more likely to invest themselves into their learning and take ownership of the material.
Self-Efficacy: In many schools, learning is differentiated by putting students into groups by ability. A classic example of this is reading groups. Even though the teacher does not label the groups as the fastest and slowest, students are very perceptive and know which label applies to them. Being in the “dumb” group can destroy a student’s confidence and willingness to try to learn. When students have choice in selecting their ability level, they can move up or down as it feels appropriate under their own direction. Additionally, teachers can allow varied challenge levels within mixed-ability groups so that changing the level of challenge is an individual decision with minimal social consequence.
Effective Coaching
In a differentiated classroom, the teacher begins to act more like a coach. Each student needs to find an area of interest to motivate them and an appropriate starting level that increases as the student grows. The teacher can help each individual with this process by probing for general interests early in the school year, offering a variety of ideas for each project, and allowing students to suggest modifications to projects and rubrics to better help them learn.
One of the most important roles of a coach is to encourage the team and each individual. Empty praise can quickly be spotted by a student and does little to make students feel good. Targeted, non-judgmental comments highlighting the positive things a student is doing provide clear feedback that a student can use to improve. When providing necessary negative feedback, it is critical that it comes in the same, non-judgmental tone. It also needs to be delivered in a classroom environment that accepts failure, revision, and improvement.
Games as a Model
Games are a prime example of an engaging activity. Games give kids freedom to explore in a highly structured environment. Kids are challenged at exactly the right level and given continuous feedback on how they are progressing. This is a presentation I did on the use of games in class and game mechanics in instructional design to increase student motivation and improve student learning.