We write to you today out of concern for Calvin's learning. We have noticed certain patterns in your classroom that do not align with Calvin's learning, and we would like to offer you some advice as experts in five different motivational theories for education. We will address ways you could improve your curriculum, instruction, assessment, classroom management, and one-on-one interaction with Calvin.
Regarding your curriculum, I would like to begin by exploring how you can implement self-regulated learning in your classroom. Firstly, you could start by teaching your class how to build skills to succeed in your classroom, helping them set goals, and then allowing them to reflect on their work. Calvin does not believe that he has the skill set to succeed in your classroom. Allowing him to set goals and see his growth could inspire him to self-regulate his success. This would lead to the next change in your curriculum: implementing achievement goal theory. This theory proposes that intelligence is an acquired skill, meaning you should allow Calvin to get the wrong answer without punishment. Allowing Calvin the space to participate, but letting him know he is not expected to be perfect. You can also shift your pedagogical approach in your classroom to ensure curriculum content aligns with students' interests. This ties into interest theory, which states that topic interest can be fostered through targeting individual interest and situational interest. Trying to understand your students on a personal level would do wonders for your curriculum, as you would see growth from all of your students. Similarly, self-determination theory attests that your students need to feel like you care about their interests and not just aim to check boxes throughout the school year. You can apply this theory to your curriculum by allowing students to see the value in your content and by allowing Calvin and his classmates some autonomy in how they demonstrate their knowledge to you. Lastly, you can use expectancy theory to encourage your students, like Calvin. Focus on making your content exciting and showing Calvin that his growth is ultimately in his hands. I believe that if you make the effort to apply these theories from this letter to your curriculum, you will see improved engagement in your classroom and a new passion for learning inspired in Calvin. He is a smart kid, and he is very creative. Make sure your content allows Calvin's genius to shine! - Leo Rhody
Instruction in your classroom does not do very well in supporting Calvin’s needs. According to achievement goal theory, instruction should not be competition based. Helping Calvin to understand if his motivational pattern is performance avoidance, performance approach, or mastery orientation will help both you and him understand why he is so unmotivated to work. Attempting to foster a mastery based environment by emphasizing the importance of learning over the importance of test scores will allow students like Calvin to gain motivation to learn. Instruction should also be reflective on both the process itself as well as the motivation behind the process. This will not only help identify Calvin’s motivational pattern, but also heavily aligns with Self Regulated Learning theory. This theory emphasizes the fact that the process of learning is more important than the outcome. Students also need to have more autonomy in your classroom. Finding out your student’s interests is vital for getting them motivation to complete their work to the best of their ability. Self determination theory emphasizes these two points. Giving students multiple options for projects and evaluations gives them this autonomy that will inherently motivate them to produce work to the best of their abilities. Relating topics to student’s everyday lives will also increase motivation. Self determination theory has this as one of its focal points. Aligning instruction with student interest creates more motivation as well as provides positive interaction with peers and with instructors. Doing this will also stop you from falling into the trap of routine. Strict routine will bore students and lead to poor work and boredom in the classroom. Instruction needs to be more interactive and promote a growth mindset. These points line up with Expectancy Theory. If you follow all of this advice your instruction should be able to help Calvin and students like him thrive in your classroom.
Rigid examinations usually make students lose confidence and motivation in learning. By shifting the assessment methods, I believe you can cultivate a more positive classroom environment. Firstly, you can assess students through a fun and engaging activity instead of using a quiz. For example, try using Family Feud to ask students answer the question of each unit. According to the interest theory, this can motivate students' interests and make them feel less anxious. If students answer the questions incorrectly, you can guide them to think more deeply and explore the answers. This can help students view the mistakes as an opportunity for improvement and exploration, rather than a failure. Secondly, to foster students' expectancy in learning, you can also assess students through a project, which provides a stage for them to demonstrate their creativity and ability in their own way. This will make the assessment more meaningful and valuable for students. Besides, according to the Self-determination theory, the assessment should help students develop a sense of autonomy and self-efficacy. If you can assess students based on their creativity and competence, they will be more likely to develop a sense of self-worth and increase their satisfaction in learning. However, it doesn't mean that testing is useless in all situations. What you need to improve is how you design the testing questions. The questions should help students focus on learning itself, instead of their performance. Take Calvin's case as an example. He didn't do well in the exam because the rote testing questions couldn't help him find value and interest in this subject. To help students like Calvin build up a learning goal motivated by intrinsic interest, you can design some useful and meaningful questions that emphasize students' thinking in the learning process, instead of their memorization. By doing so, students will more likely to develop the learning goal orientation focusing on their own progress and mastery. Meanwhile, try your best to avoid public evaluation. A private feedback and evaluation can help reduce social comparison among students, making them focus more on individual learning. Apart from assessing students directly, you can also support students in practicing self-assessment to evaluate their work by themselves, which can motivate their self-regulated learning. For example, you can ask students to write a reflection journal to record their efforts, positive strategies, difficulties, and adaptations in the learning process. At the end of the stage, guide students to assess both their final product and progress based on the journal they have written. This thought-provoking assessment can help students develop feelings of ownership and responsibility for learning. It's also essential to consider how to provide students with feedback. When students didn't perform well on the assessment, you can help prevent them from getting stuck in upset feelings by using attribution retraining theory. To intervene in their feelings of shame, you can praise the good strategies and valuable thinking they have presented. At the same time, encourage them to reflect and search for better strategies for the future. For example, you can provide feedback in this way: " Your personal thoughts are enlightening. But I believe it would be more persuasive if you could add more facts next time." This can shift students' thinking from " why I made this mistake" to" what strategies I can use to avoid it in the future". I'm sure your students would be more motivated under these assessment methods.
-Zoe Huang
In terms of your classroom management, it has come to our attention that your style is typically dismissive rather than treated as an opportunity to engage and learn about Calvin. Classroom participation is highly important to help students learn, but also to learn your students. The more you can engage with your students, the better you can understand where they are at in terms of content knowledge, conceptual understanding, as well as outside of school. It would be immensely helpful for you to encourage and validate thoughts expressed by Calvin. This creates community and a positive relationship with your students. Disruptions and challenges seem to be an issue with Calvin. Instead of sending him straight to the principal or making him wear the cone of shame in the corner, we suggest that you try to start introducing some phrases like "That's an interesting thought, I would like to hear more about that when a better time presents itself", or "That's a unique perspective, I hadn't considered that before". There are ways to acknowledge ideas without giving them too much negative attention that can lead to an outburst or an overly harsh punishment from you. We understand that there are times when being a disruption to the entire class is not appropriate, but in those moments it would be helpful if you could validate his thought and suggest that he speak with you off to the side when at a better time. This way he will still be heard, but he does not always get to commandeer the lesson.
In the Self-Determination Theory, it is highly important to encourage creative thought and autonomy. By you dismissing Calvin every time he speaks his mind, you are effectively labeling him as a "problem" that is the principal's issue to deal with. You deny the chance for him to be heard, and you also remove your authority as the teacher by being too reliant on administration. He knows that he gets under your skin and he can act out intentionally to upset you or evoke a negative reaction. Perhaps it would be to your benefit as well as Calvin's to encourage him to think creatively, which he is already inclined towards, and challenge him to explain his thoughts. According to the Interest Theory, allowing him to process and relating to things he is interested in can drastically increase his engagement with the content. Maybe suggesting that he take some time to think about an idea in more depth and bring his thoughts you to the next day or after class. That way he can work through whatever it is he struggles with and you can get a better sense of what is going on in his mind. The more you can understand the mind of your students, the better equipped you are. Knowledge is power and can be very helpful when handling outbursts or diffuse situations. Our next suggestion is to invest in Calvin. If you present yourself as someone who is willing to listen and who cares about your students. Coming to Calvin and simply asking him to help you understand what he struggles with, how you can help him, and emphasizing that you want him to learn and grow above everything else. He should be encouraged to have a growth mindset, self-efficacy. This will tie into the Expectancy Theory which emphasizes the growth of an individual based on mindset.
Achievement Goal Theory also encourages students to succeed and do well for their own mastery. Show him that you care and that you want to invest in his education and personal growth. Our final suggestion is concerning setting boundaries and expectations for Calvin. Developing a cue or some kind of indicator that shows he is moving closer to a consequence for his behavior might help him gauge what is acceptable behavior might lead to a reduction in disruptions. Getting him to understand that you don't enjoy punishing him, but that he needs to have better control over his outbursts and if he crosses a line or expectation that there will be consequences. You would be surprised at the results and improvement you can get from your more difficult students when you start encouraging them to use their voice in a controlled manner, be creative, as well as give them autonomy and responsibility for actions. Goal setting and self monitoring/evalutation are crucial in the Self-Regulated Learning Theory. Giving him the opportunity to come up with some goals for himself and have him keep himself accountable would likely hit a few different theories that might give him more focus and pride in his work.
- Amber Deetlefs
You have many opportunities to interact with Calvin, such as when you hand back a test, give an assignment, or review his homework. You should let him express his creativity by creating a poster or presentation relating to whatever you are teaching Calvin in the classroom. For example, if you want Calvin to make a book report for a book you're having your students read, he could create a poster based on the book that he read for your class. Part of self-determination theory is giving students more authority in the classroom and allowing them to feel more autonomous. To apply the achievement goal theory in your classroom, you should help Calvin understand that not every assignment has to be perfect. Breaking tasks into smaller pieces would help Calvin feel more comfortable with doing the assignment that you give him. You can apply the self-regulated learning theory if you assign open-ended questions that would encourage Calvin to feel better about the assignment. Providing him with a challenging task, such as the poster mentioned earlier, and giving a detailed rubric would give Calvin an attainable goal. Instead of giving a quiz, make the assignments fun and engaging, not just for Calvin, but for all of your students. Take your class on field trips, have your students do group projects, and host a Family Feud-type game. Making your assignments fun for students is part of the interest theory. You could also be expecting too much of Calvin when he fails his assignments. Take a step back and recognize why Calvin is underperforming. You should make your teaching style more engaging and encourage Calvin to be successful on his assignments. This is how you apply the expectancy theories.