Miss Carol Ann's Teaching Moments
As we have learned about and experimented with the three basic motivational theories in this course, I have tried to keep an open mind and see what my students might see and feel in my classroom. The three motivational theories, essentialist, constructivist, and social reform, are all very intriguing and I believe that all will have a role in my classroom. Students need all three of these structures at different times in their development and education. As our children grow, they need guidance to learn what is expected, acceptable, and fair when it comes to behaviors and interactions, both socially and intrinsically. As a child begins his education in the early grades, he will need to be shown what behavior is acceptable in the school environment. Most children will have the basic understanding of this and only need occasional reminders, but some will not have this understanding. Most students will model their behavior after their peers, and a good example in the early grades will help to instill patterns for future learning and interactions. As a student matures, she will need less guidance and more autonomy. In an ideal world, our students will move toward a social reform type motivation by themselves, where they notice a problem and try to correct it in a way that best serves themselves and the community as a whole. We as educators can scaffold this behavior by the examples we set in our classrooms.
A student in kindergarten will need more defined boundaries than an older student who has already learned good classroom etiquette and self-reflection. In teaching the early grades, I will use a more essentialist approach to my classroom management. Students this age may require frequent reminders to keep hands and objects to themselves, for instance. However, I will employ constructivist approaches when possible, according to individual student needs and abilities. E.g., when a student who has primarily good self-control acts out, I would make sure to take extra time with the student to help him find the motivating factors for the behavior, as he has previously demonstrated the capability to understand and execute proper behavior. A child who has not shown frequent self-control may need more frequent and simple reminders of what is appropriate. This will be employed in the opposite scenario as well. A student who usually struggles to remain on task but does so successfully will be recognized for the effort and discussion will help to point out the choices the student made by himself to accomplish the feat. This affirmation for positive growth will be an excellent scaffolding tool for students who struggle to mark milestones of growth, no matter how big or small the step.
As my students mature, I will move into more of a constructivist approach in my classroom management. I think that this philosophy is where I will spend most of my career in Elementary Education. Children who are learning and growing do very well when they have the support of a teacher to encourage them to grow, to take risks, and to be there to help guide them when they question the path corrections that are needed. In this management philosophy, students make important contributions to the classroom and these are recognized. Children learn how to balance their power in a manner that benefits themselves. For instance, when a student who has been struggling with reading finally reaches a benchmark goal and reads a book by herself successfully, a constructivist teacher would help her recognize the steps that she had taken to reach this goal. The student exercised her own power to accomplish a task, and this power will help her to push on toward her next goal. A constructivist teacher will guide students in recognizing these steps and help the students see where the next steps may take them.
A student who can function well in a social reform type classroom will be well prepared to handle the obstacles and hurdles that will need to be overcome in life. When a student can see a problem and not only come up with a solution, but be instrumental in incorporating the solution, will be well prepared to function in life. This should be the ultimate goal of our educational system… to prepare our students to take control of their own world. We should begin in elementary school to teach our students to handle these situations. As students move up in grades and have more opportunities for this type of interaction, we can begin preparing our students for social reform by allowing them opportunities to practice their interactions in this manner. As the years goes on or the students mature, more of these opportunities will be available with little extra planning on part of the teacher. By the time students reach 4th or 5th grade, they could be moving into a classroom that is much more social reform based and this will be an excellent place for them to grow and practice their problem solving skills while still having a teacher with them to support and offer ideas. An example of this would be a classroom who has decided that they are having an issue with too much math practice who works together to alter the math practice in a manner that fits the requirements of the curriculum, yet allows the students who have mastered the content to move their energy elsewhere. Students need attainable challenges. A classroom centered on social reform will challenge them in a manner that encourages them to lean on their peers for resolution of problems. Allowing students to take on these challenges also means that they will learn to deal with the consequences of their decisions and this will be a monumental learning experience for students.
Students who have been taught expectations (such as in an essentialist classroom) and then scaffolded into more self-based decision making (such as a constructivist classroom would offer) will do very well moving into a classroom that encourages self-motivation (such as a social reform classroom). Just as we teach lessons and content in a scaffolding manner, I feel that we should teach behavior and accountability in a like manner. This will help our students to build a firm understanding of acceptable behavior, how to self-reflect on their own behavior, and also how to think of the community as a whole when problem solving. This scaffolding effect for classroom management resembles Maslow’s theory of hierarchal needs in that the basics of needs and safety are met, then built upon by the need for learning. When a young child knows the rules and expectations of behavior, he will be more able to learn the educational content that we are trying to teach him. As teachers connect to a child’s emotions, the lessons will be more meaningful and lasting. This is then built upon with the understanding of community and how helping others helps oneself. A kindergartener will likely struggle excessively in a classroom that is completely social reform based, and vice versa with a 6th grader in a classroom that is strictly essentialist. We as teachers should be sensitive to the individual developmental needs of our students and remember to remain flexible!
Here is a link to a great hands on classroom blog.. http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/
This blog is amazing and has support as well as ideas. http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/
