Why Does He Have This Particular Pattern?
Environmental Observations: Many differences can be seen in Calvin's behavior between being at home or at school.
Calvin at Home
At home, the culture is that of creativity and learning about what his interests are. Thanks to the environment his parents made, Calvin is able to pursue and deepen his knowledge in topics of his choice, moving into phase 3, Emerging Individual Interest. The social support he gets at home is in contrast to the bullying and lack of support than makes school an uncomfortable environment for Calvin to learn.
Calvin at School
In school, Calvin struggles with the topics presented as he can't see how they apply to him and his goals for the future. This utility-goal relevance is one of Calvin's major motivational patterns and a point of contention between him and Ms. Wormwood. Calvin often has difficulty with feelings of incompetence and a lack background knowledge in school that lead his peers and teacher to believe he is a poor student. We rarely see any interest in Calvin during school and when we do it is almost always Triggered Situational Interest.
Relationship Observations: Calvin's demeanor and attitude changes significantly depending on who he is interacting with between his parents, Hobbs, and Miss Wormwood.
Parents
With his parents, Calvin can be himself. He shows many similarities with his father. They are both sarcastic, witty, and imaginative. Calvin is supported and his emotions are valued.
Hobbs
Hobbs, Calvin's stuffed tiger, is Calvin's adventure buddy. Much of Calvin's learning and exploration takes place outside of the classroom with Hobbs. Through this exploration, Calvin finds holes in schema that lead him to developing new interests.Â
Holes in schema refers to gaps in knowledge related to a topic one is already knowledgeable about. One example would be when Cavlin and Hobbs find a snake. Calvin already knows a lot about dinosaurs as reptiles and realizes he doesn't know much about snakes in that same category.
Miss Wormwood
With Ms. Wormwood, Calvin has a very difficult time developing interest in the material. She does nothing to relate her topics to Calvin's interests and rarely explains the value of her teaching relative to her students.
The bolded words above are based on Influences on Classroom Interest by David A. Bergin.