When I was a child, my learning opportunities came by very easily. I distinctly remember when I was in nursery,
I had a made-up classroom in my home where I would “do homework” with my
sisters who were eight and nine years my senior. Early on, I was adding and subtracting in my
little classroom. It was fun, not
terrible. I loved doing the problems,
was persistent until I got the right and answer and reveled at the good
feelings I got when I did. As such, I
brought this on continuously until high school.
Because of this, I believed that elementary and secondary school
learning was effortless.
I wanted to share this love for learning and to teach early on. A fresh psychology graduate, I decided to try
my hand in teaching by coming back to my high school and becoming a biology
teacher. This decision was easy for me
because I had the most inspirational biology teacher when I was in second year
high school. And I wanted to be just
like her.
I set out to make this learning effortless and fun for my students. As a young teacher, I think that it was easy
for me because I could easily relate to the students, utilize examples close to
our young hearts and laugh with them while learning. However, these were not enough for all the
students. My theory that learning was
easy was tested by two students. Let us
call them Iris and Loren.
Iris had a failing mark in biology in the first quarter. As such, I had the dreaded job of speaking to
Iris’ mother about her performance. She
asked me how to better motivate Iris.
She saw that Iris would spend a lot of time doing computer games and not
reading. In retrospect, it was very
difficult for a then 22-year old teacher to explain to a mother the
answer. I believed I was a kid myself
and she knew her daughter better. I went
into a very unconfident answer that I would just work with Iris after school
and see where that would take us.
Looking back on the experience and reading these motivational hand outs
and notes, I realize that Iris was not interested in Biology. She excelled in sports and was looking to go
into athletics where Biology would not serve any utility. I told her that this may be so, but the
school system was trying to instill the discipline of being able to study
different topics. Persistence was also
key in success. So every day, after
school, I would create practice questions for her to answer. If there was a long test, I would review the
questions with her once the feedback was given.
We would go through the books slowly and repetitively.
I saw that for Iris, the goal was just the performance standard instead
of the learning standard. I just wanted
her to pass the course at the end of the year so that she could be elevated to
the next year level. She was there with
me through the recommended time, but the time was not well spent as she did a
lot of self-handicapping, and was debilitated easily. I persisted, but in a slower pace. In the end, we did succeed for her goal in
biology. She had barely passing marks at
the end of the year. However, she failed
in two other subjects and the school lost her as a student as she transferred
to another learning institution at the end of the year. This was difficult for me.
Loren, the other student, was a very excellent dancer in the school’s
dance club. However, she had a difficult
time in biology. During the first
Parent-Teacher Conference, I also had to deliver the sad news that she failed. The mother asked me one question: would she
ask Loren to quit the dance club. I
replied that when I was in high school, a big part of me wanted to come to
school because of the school choir activities and that I would not be motivated
to come to school if the choir were not there.
Loren was already competing in the inter-school dance competitions. Although this took time away from studying
science, I thought that this was a good motivator for her to improve her
science grade because one had to be in good standing in order to continue
competing.
In this case, I used what she really loved as a reward to continue
studying for biology. I told her that we
were not necessarily aiming for high marks, but passing marks. But by continuing to encourage her, calling
her out in class and affirming her, I saw her draw out of her shell. Though she did not get A’s or B’s, she improved
and passed her course and moved on to the next year.
I had not read the theory of Maehr at the time. Looking back, both students lacked direction
and persistence for biology at the onset.
However, when explained that they needed to pass the subject for
different reasons, like passing the year level or continuing to dance, they
prevailed. For Iris case, though, her
performance was barely passing because I think passing had no effect on
her. For Loren, her grades improved as
she had more opportunities to dance and as the teachers and club mates
constantly reminded her that she had to do well in her academics as well. Loren possibly attached meaning to biology as
that ticket to continue to dance.
Loren was more systematic in her trying to improve. She would come to me when she had a difficult
task and I saw her interacting more with her seatmates during class regarding
the topic. She had taken more of an active
role because of her goal. This worked
out for her better than it did for Iris, who I had to constantly push.
Looking back, I would have probably asked them, rather than directed to
them, what their goals were in their life and related the subject to that. Perhaps that would have been more powerful. I would have pointed them to the right
direction, been more persistent.
Persistence may have entailed my efforts and my encouraged their
classmates to encourage them as well.
Perhaps I would have included more activities like groupings rather than
just sticking to didactics and answering of sample questions. I would have included their friends in the
review, making it fun and designed tasks with clear objective endpoints per
activity instead of just aiming for a passing mark.
I hope that these experiences and study will help me with my next
students that will have difficulty in being motivated. I also hope, moreso, that this reflection
will help me in the times that I am also unmotivated. J
