Brittany's Classroom Management Kit

During the course of my research and my Practicums MEL digital project, I have come to learn about the Meaningful Engaged Learning model, which details certain components that should be used to engage underachieving students. In his article What Engages Underachieving Middle School Students in Learning? Mike Muir helpfully breaks down the model into the following, easier to digest categories: Environment, Motivation, Experience and Meaning.

 

The first category, Environment, concerns the physical environment of course, but moreover it is in regards to the relationship between students, their peers and the teacher. This rapport develops through a safe learning environment that is diffused from the tension of problem solving by humor, positivity, and the ability to be wrong or question without reproach. In any combination of these elements, students feel that their learning can be enjoyable and that if they make mistakes it’s simply a growing experience not the end of the world. I had seen too many kids, myself included, stress over “getting it wrong” or feel anxious due to military-like teachers to really absorb much of the skills within that class. Nowadays kids are so consumed with getting the right answer that they either become highly stressed out or shut down in totality. By encouraging the effort over the achievement, the process and not the product, teachers can engage the students better into the learning. By having a center of operations, a calm space, students are able to grow in learning while being emotionally and physically safe in the meanwhile. A point connected to environment, which I had not considered a vital piece of the puzzle is having faith that your students will succeed and continue growing.

 

This leads into our next category, which is Motivation, in the aspect that students will want to learn in the present of someone that they admire or respect. In Richard Curwin’s article on believing in students, he summarizes the impact that a teacher simply believing in a student through their actions can make. The student that he questioned said that her favorite teacher was her favorite because, “…that teacher believes in me, and man, it really, really matters.” Student will not begin “acing” quizzes because you challenged and put faith in them, but doesn’t mean you’ve failed that student. That means that, regardless of their achievements, students are still absorbing your words and striving to improve themselves in their work because you though that they could. There is a belief that if one is told something enough that they shall believe it as a truth. Sometimes that belief is called the placebo effect, this applies to telling and showing students that you believe in them to succeed.

 

The topic of Motivation further explores how to compel students through their own interests and decision-making or autonomy. When a student is able to relate the content to their interests they are more engaged in what they are learning and thus more motivated to do their schoolwork. Also, when they are able to plan or make these decisions based on interests themselves, that is showing them that belief a teacher has placed within them. To this end, avoid rewards because rewards are a payment and shows that a teacher is not sincere in their belief.

 

Sara Briggs’ article on intrinsic motivation explores motivation that is not from grades or status, but from the aforementioned connections to student’s interests. In the course of her article, she quoted Professor Steven Reiss of Ohio State University saying, “We are taking many diverse human needs and motivations, putting them into just two categories, and then saying one type of motivation is better than another. But there is no real evidence that intrinsic motivation even exists.” In our jobs this is very much true, we are given the extrinsic motivation of money to do work although I do not think this proves intrinsic motivation is missing. Psychology has shown in various tests that children are motivated intrinsicaly when they are born, many tests showing toddlers continuously helping adults pick up dropped objects without verbal/physical rewards given. In fact, business management consultant, Dan Pink talks about various studies that has found that for simple, mechanical tasks rewards are good, but for logical, thinking tasks rewards lead to poor performance. This sense of extrinsic motivation carries over into schools, where grades and scores motivate students to get into a college of their choice. However, Sara Briggs asks, “Where will the ambition and creativity come from when the right answer no long cuts it?” The diversity of our motivations are true, but the real test comes when we are faced with a situation where there isn’t a reward to be offered. In a way by offering such rewards we are dulling an innate sense of motivation in our student, therefore a teacher must cultivate that motivation through interests and autonomy.

 

The next category is Experience, where students use hands-on learning and awareness of their learning styles to engage themselves into the content/ learning process. To facilitate this, some teachers has sought to use project-based learning to relate content to interests to engage students. I went through this program as a High School student, creating self-initiated projects to meet the Maine Learning Standards through my own interests. This experience gave me opportunities to dig deeply into the content and focused on the skills gained in the journey, not the end product. Also, I was able to taste the real life applications of the subjects that I was learning.

 

That point leads us into the last category, which is Meaning, where students’ work is related to other contexts in real life to give it weight. Project-based learning also seeks to facilitate this end by relating content to interests and real life contexts. In the Edutopia article Why Teach with Project-based Learning? : Providing Students with a well-rounded Classroom Experience, it talks about a magnet school in Newport News, VA who has each class pick a topic based on interests for the semester then collect data through field experiences and field trips. By doing this self-driven topic of study, students feel more empowered and give their own meanings to the subjects easier, thus motivating them to do the schoolwork. Seymour Papert, mathematician and educator, put project-based learning best when he said, “Well, first thing you have to do is give up the idea of curriculum. Curriculum meaning you have to learn this on a given day. Replace it by a system where you learn this where you need it. So that means, you've got to put kids in a position where they're going to use the knowledge that they're getting.”

 

Overall, the MEL model tackles “underachieving” students from different angles to get them engaged in the learning and help them grow in their skills or learning. In the end though, students are not “underachieving”, such a term denotes in my opinion that students are not trying out of laziness. Instead, these students simply haven’t be given the aforementioned components or tools in which to tackle the content in a manner befitting their sense of self.