As you know, our Society for Undoing Serious Ills in Education (SUSIE) agents have been keeping tabs on a student in your class named Calvin. During our time in your classroom, we have observed that Calvin is a bright, intelligent boy with plenty of potential. He shows promise in STEM subjects through his demonstrable passion for subjects like astronomy and paleontology. He is captivated by the arts, as evidenced by his doodles and snowman creations. Calvin even demonstrates a strong command of rhetoric and the English language as a whole when he attempts to argue his way out of school settings he finds difficult or boring. (Admittedly, the arguments are pretty compelling.) Nonetheless, even with Calvin's clear intelligence and capabilities, he is in jeopardy of falling behind in school.
Instruction
Rhiannon Ross
When we look at Calvin it is obvious that he is not motivated to apply himself in class. Using Interest Theory and Expectancy Belief Theory to increase this motivation to succeed in the classroom would be beneficial to engage Calvin. Redirecting Calvin’s frustrated remarks and relating them positively to the lesson. While also limiting the use of negative language towards Calvin's learning, as it creates the expectation that he is not good at learning and might as well not try.
During history class, Calvin is creating a disruption by stating that it doesn't even matter because it won’t help him in the future. Annoyed, you send him out of class to prevent him from disrupting the other students' learning, on his way out he screams “MONARCHITS!” This small statement tells us that he has grasped the concept of the lesson but is not interested because the content does not feel applicable to his life. Sending him out away is just what he wants, to get out of class where he does not feel he’s learning anything. Instead we can validate these feelings by utilizing his need for goal relevance to extrinsically motivate him while also intrinsically motivating him by validating his opinions. Show Calvin different careers he could get into by applying his knowledge of history to his future to express what could extrinsically motivate him. Talk about the patterns of repetition we can see throughout history and ask how he sees these patterns in his life. Ask Calvin “Does school feel like a monarchy? Why?” Engaging in his disinterest in school with the subject, rather than giving in to his notion that the lesson doesn’t matter. Discussing his frustrations can diffuse yours and Calvin’s annoyance by validating both the lesson and Calvin's mindset. This can encourage Calvin to take pride in his intrinsic motivation to challenge the lesson by asking questions, rather than knowing it will be his pass to get out of the class. Using a three step introduction to what is being taught can help students understand why they are learning and how they can feel confident in class.
Show
Show examples of how the lesson or topic can apply in different ways to students' futures.
Talk
Talk about how we see the topic used in the past and present. Encourage group discussion. Ask students questions that challenge them to apply the class to their own lives and have them ask their own questions about what the class will entail.
Validate
Validate what students say that relates to the class to make them feel confident in their learning and proud for adding to class discussion.
Assessment
Rebecca Bunning
Using Interest Theory to assess Calvin’s learning can be more effective if Ms. Wormwood uses short surveys to identify Calvin’s personal interest. Encourage him to write about what topics he enjoyed and why. Monitor and document choices of how his progress is with specific topics. Look for signs of enthusiasm. Interest fuels attention, effort, and long-term motivation.
Using Self-Determination Theory, Ms. Wormwood can offer choice-based tasks. Also, have Calvin set learning goals that can define his personal interest. Give tasks with measured challenges. Use formative tests that emphasize progress over perfection. Encourage him and praise his progress.
Show Calvin that you value his voice by actively listening to his questions and respond with kind, valid responses. Feed into his curiosity and steer that towards the lesson subjects. This will support self-motivation and help instill resilience. He needs to feel supported and valued.
Classroom Management
Christi Leonard
One lens through which we can frame Calvin’s struggles is Interest Theory. Simply put, Calvin is uninterested in school, regardless of the subject. We have observed equal disregard across all subjects. One reason for this is the ways you respond to his misbehaviors in class. Whenever Calvin misbehaves, you immediately resort to disciplinary measures. While discipline can and should be used in the classroom, our agents have found that it should not be the first resort. Calvin’s misbehavior is an expression of his lack of interest in the classroom, not misbehavior simply for its own sake. For that reason, rather than send him to the principal’s office, we recommend that you engage him whenever he misbehaves and use his behavior as clues for how you can better tailor your instruction to his interests.
One example of how you could engage him is by simply answering his questions, regardless of whether you believe them to be rhetorical. At one point, Calvin interrupted one of your math lessons to ask, “Given that sooner or later, we’re all just going to die, what’s the point of learning about integers?” Rather than answer his question, you ignored him and told the class to turn to page 83 in their books. Calvin had expressed his frustration because of his lack of interest in math and his desire to understand its relevance to his life. The more relevant a topic to a student’s life, the more interesting it will become. By giving a simple answer (e.g., “We use integers in our everyday lives for these contexts”), you could have established relevance and thereby made the lesson more interesting to Calvin.
As another example, at one point you asked Calvin if he could share with the class what Lewis and Clark did. Calvin responded, “No, but I can recite the secret superhero origin of every member of Captain Napalm’s Thermonuclear League of Liberty.” We understand that this was a sarcastic response, but you can actually use retorts like these to your advantage. Next time you teach, frame the way you talk about historical figures as superheroes or supervillains. You can do this by saying, “Lewis and Clark were heroes/villains because…” We guarantee that you will see the difference with Calvin (and your other students too).
Our agents also agree that you can begin fostering metacognitive strategies with Calvin in line with Self-Regulated Theory. Right now, Calvin’s regulation is purely external and comes from you and other authority figures. However, the more you help him learn self-regulation strategies, the more likely he is to engage with his schoolwork (thus minimizing how much you need to discipline him throughout the day). To do this, you must foster a cycle of forethought, performance, and self-reflection in Calvin. Include reflection activities in your lesson planning so that Calvin has the opportunity to think about how he is engaging the material. Again, we must reiterate that it is crucial that you establish the relevance of the content first. Otherwise, Calvin will not take these reflection opportunities or the general content seriously.
You can also work with Calvin to set goals for his learning and how he participates in class. Goal setting with him maintains the throughline between content and his own life and reinforces relevance to his interests. By helping him set goals, Calvin is held accountable for his learning outcomes and his behavior in your class. We know this takes a great deal of work, but wouldn’t you rather work with him to prepare Calvin for his future than outright discipline him?
One-on-one Interaction
Zach Maddocks
As individuals who care about Calvin’s success, we believe your one-on-one conversations could be more beneficial than they currently are.. From your critical reasoning to your lack of recognition of his unique learning difficulties, we believe that he could learn better if you adjusted the way you talk to him 1-on-1. More specifically, incorporating the learning theories of Interest Theory (IT) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) would allow him to get good feedback on ways he could improve.
To start, I’m sure you realize that Calvin is an especially unique case of a student whose interest and goals are almost academically adverse; however, a slight redirection of his energy could benefit him greatly. To do this, we implore you to recognize that his interests matter, and his Performance-Avoidant orientation means that he would benefit from achieving goals that deemphasize his failures. According to the AGT, his orientation allows him to succeed only as far as he perceives extrinsic praise. There is nuance, however, generally those with Performance-Avoidant oriented goals benefit from smaller, achievable goals that further them on a path to achieving more, bigger goals. This would look like giving him words of encouragement if he answers a question, only positively redirecting his energy if deemed necessary. It would also help if you gave him a gold star for every day that he participates or every time he completes his assignments.
After this, I'm sure you can also recognize that telling him things like he’d excel if he just “worked harder” is not a specific enough goal for him to achieve, and doesn’t spark his situational interest. In order to fix this, we suggest that you explain the material with topics you know Calvin is interested in, to allow him a greater chance to connect with the topic. This could manifest as anything from incorporating dinosaurs into math problems to finding ways to learn about dinosaurs that follow his needs for first grade reading. Once he starts to connect, further maintaining his interest through the lens of AGT would mean you would create tiny, achievable goals like noted above. Once he has a maintained situational interest and you find it necessary to continue him through the four phases of IT, find ways to slightly encourage his progress through his explicit or implied goals, and his maintained situational interest will develop into Individual Interest. From here, there isn’t much he needs externally besides your support!
We hope that you realize the importance of this shift in your one-on-one discussions with Calvin, drastically improving his learning capabilities through the lenses of Interest Theory and Achievement Goal Theory.
Communication with Calvin's Parents
Lane Putnam
We believe that getting Calvin's parents more involved at the school, and with his work would be very beneficial. One way to do this would be to contact his parents, or have a personal meeting with them. Instead of immediately sending him to the principal’s office, or home, you should discuss possible solutions that can make Calvin more interested. Calvin often avoids tasks in order to avoid failure, which falls under performance avoidance in achievement goal theory. A possible solution for this would be to put less emphasis on grades, and more focus on learning. For example to maintain Calvin's interest, you can include illustrations in assignments to influence creativity.
Calvin has interest just like every kid and it is important that all of their interests are incorporated in their learning. If a kid is not interested in the content they are less likely to succeed or even attempt it. This is present in Calvin's every day in and out of school. This is another thing that you can discuss with his parents. If you incorporate Calvin’s interest in his assignments and school work, he is more likely to be intrinsically motivated to do his work and be more successful. One way to do this would be to incorporate something like dinosaurs into math problems. This small little change is likely to spark an interest in Calvin, and he will be more interested in doing math.
Conclusion
Because we know that Calvin is astute and capable, we believe that he has the capacity to learn. However, that capacity has been stymied by his classroom experiences, which must be remedied for him to realize his full potential. It is for that reason, Ms. Wormwood, that we have penned this proposal to you. It is our consensus that some simple adjustments in your teaching and classroom management strategies can mean a world of difference for this deserving student and his ability to access the content in your class.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
The Society for Undoing Serious Ills in Education (SUSIE)