Running head: CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION

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Module 8 Assignment: Case Study in Motivation

Suzann Keith

EDU 615 Motivational Theory & Classroom Management

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Module 8 Assignment: Case Study in Motivation

Introduction

Bryan is an eleven-year-old sixth grade boy. He comes from a family of four boys, and he

is the second oldest. Bryan is a very likeable and outgoing young man with a good sense of

humor, but he is very immature and impulsive. His previous teachers have recommended that he

be tested for ADHD, but his parents have refused. According to his teacher last year, Bryan’s

parents love him as he is and do not want a medicated version of Bryan. They take a “boys will

be boys” attitude toward his rowdiness. He is very close to one of his younger brothers who has a

heart condition and requires periodic hospitalization, which is upsetting to Bryan. His family

spends a lot of time outdoors, and being inside the four walls of a school all day is a challenge

for this rambunctious, athletic boy.

Bryan’s grades at the first check five weeks into school were A’s and B’s with one C. He

passed his state tests in fifth grade at a level three out of four, or proficient, in both math and

reading, so academically he is progressing on track and at grade level. Having missed two days

of school at this point in mid to late October, Bryan’s attendance is good. He has one discipline

referral that has been brought to the attention of the office; another student complained that

Bryan was making unkind remarks to her and other students and disrupting class. According to

the office referral, the parents were not notified, and it does not specify what disciplinary action

was taken other than the principal meeting with the student.

Observations

Bryan appears very motivated to please, but he lacks self-control. It is often hard for him

to focus on his schoolwork and he frequently distracts and disrupts others. It appears that he has

gotten in trouble enough throughout the years that he has attached a bit of a troublemaker label to
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himself. He really does not do anything particularly bad, but he blurts out often, has trouble

sitting still and is frequently off task. When I have spoken to him one on one about his behavior,

he expresses regret at having misbehaved, but in a short period of time, he is doing the same

thing again. He is one of the two most disruptive students in the class; fellow students find him

funny at times, but they are becoming increasingly annoyed by his impulsive and distracting

behavior.

Observation 1: Whole class instruction.

During whole class instruction, Bryan’s behavior is unpredictable. At times, he can focus

and participate appropriately, following class norms such as raising his hand before speaking.

He often has relevant things to contribute to class discussions and has a positive attitude, which

is appreciated. He can generally follow along while taking notes, although sometimes he get

distracted and falls a little behind.

However, Bryan also blurts out and talks out of turn excessively, and he can sometimes

be very loud and even shout in class. Additionally, he has a very hard time staying seated. He

will often perch in his chair rather than sit in it in a normal way; he frequently has the chair

turned sideways, and on a few occasions, he has actually just jumped out of his chair and fallen

to the floor in the middle of class.

Overall his behavior is immature and attention seeking. He is very distracting to his

fellow students and to me as a teacher. In the beginning of the year, he happened to be assigned

a seat in the front, but he spent so much time turned around trying to interact with other students

that I changed his seat to the back of the room. This helped somewhat as he was less visually

distracting to other students, but it was harder for me to prompt, correct, and interact with him

from across the room. When I found myself having to do too much long distance discipline, I
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changed the seating chart and brought him back up front again right by my desk and the spot I

stand and teach from most often.

So far this seat is working well in that it allows me to have many small and quieter

interactions with Bryan to try to give him the attention he so clearly seeks without having to

involve the whole room in it. He often makes little side comments to me during the lesson as

I’m transitioning from one thing to the next, and this is fine with me and seems to help him.

However, the girl I sat next to him, a very quiet and good student, is quite annoyed by Bryan’s

outburst. She is being patient, but at one point she told him in a very matter of fact manner “Just

sit in your chair like a normal person” when he had done one of his sudden, purposeful falls to

the floor. Honest, genuine feedback from peers will hopefully encourage Bryan to reign in his

behavior.

Observation 2: Whole class discussion.

During a whole class discussion about appropriate behavior, I asked the students what an

ideal classroom would look like in terms of behavior; in other words, if someone walked by a

classroom of perfectly behaved students, what would they see? Bryan raised his hand right

away, and I was very interested to hear what he had to say. When I called on him, he said, “I

wouldn’t be in it.”

This response almost broke my heart as an educator. He did not say it to be funny; he

really thinks that he could not be part of a classroom of students who are all behaving perfectly.

He knows his behavior is disruptive, and he feels bad about it; this comment told me that his

self-image is suffering as a result of being the “bad kid” for so many years in elementary school.

On another day while having a similar whole group discussion about what our next area

of behavior improvement focus should be as a class, Bryan was again the first to raise his hand
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with a suggestion. He said that he thought we should focus on not talking out of turn, which is

both appropriately and ironically the thing he personally needs to improve on the most!

At the beginning of the following day, Bryan made the following unsolicited comment:

“We really didn’t do very well not talking out of turn yesterday. I think we should really try

harder on that today.” I smiled and agreed. He is right that the class did not do very well at

controlling their blurt outs, but the main offenders are Bryan and one or two other boys. I am not

sure how self-reflective Bryan is, and I wonder if he sees it as the class’ problem, his problem, or

both. Either way, he does recognize that it is a problem and wants to do something to make it

better, but he still struggles with controlling himself in the moment.

Observation 3: Testing.

Each fall and spring students take a computerized reading assessment called MAP:

Measure of Academic Progress. The test has approximately 40 questions and takes anywhere

from 30 minutes to about an hour and a half for students to complete. I was very worried about

Bryan’s ability to stay quiet and not disturb others both during and after the test.

As I walked around the room during the test, I noticed that Bryan was significantly ahead

of his classmates, and in fact he was the first one finished. This worried me as well, since

rushing through this test often results in a low score. However, Bryan scored right at the 6th

grade level in reading. He was quiet and focused during the whole test, which he spent 25-30

minutes taking. Since everyone else was still working, I prompted Bryan to follow the directions

of reading his silent reading book, and he was able to read quietly and without disturbing others

for the next 30 minutes.

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I was quite amazed that he could basically spend an hour being quiet and not talking to or

disturbing anyone else. I had never seen him go more than a few minutes without engaging with

others in some way.

When class was over, I took him aside and briefly commented to him that he had done a

good job staying focused, quiet and on task. He said “Thanks.”

Observation 4: Partner work.

During social studies one day when students had the opportunity to read and answer

questions with a partner, Bryan worked with a girl named Natalie. Natalie is a very pleasant

young lady and generally on task, but she can be a bit of a talker as well. She is generally

internally motivated to behave appropriately and get her work done. I am not sure who asked

whom to be partners, but I was hopefully that it would be a good match and that Natalie might be

able to help Bryan stay on task.

They worked together for approximately 30 minutes, and during that time, Bryan was

well engaged with his work most of the time. There were a few times that he started talking and

interacting with other students a few feet away from him, and it was loud enough that I had to

redirect him. Just as I was about to say something, I heard Natalie tell him, “Shhh Bryan, you

need to get to work!” He was too involved with whatever he was saying to the other group to

really listen to Natalie at this point, but I was proud of her for trying to bring him back on task.

When I redirected him, I asked Bryan “What are you supposed to be doing right now?”

and he said “Not talking and doing my work,” so he clearly knows he was off task. He returned

his focus to his work at that point.

A little while later he got off task again by talking to the same group, so I suggested that

he and Natalie move to a different part of the classroom. They quickly agreed and worked well
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in a different location the rest of the period. They nearly finished the assignment, which was

fairly long, and most of the rest of the class did not finish. Overall it seemed to be a very

successful partnership and one I’d like to see repeated.

Effective Strategies

Social Cognitive theory is appropriate to apply to Bryan. His behavior and academic

performance are influenced by his personality, his family environment and make up, and his

behavior (Anderman & Anderman, 2014), especially as it is influenced by his possible ADHD.

Bryan could benefit from role models to help him improve his behavior and self-image.

Although social cognitive theory would suggest that a role model more similar to Bryan (another

6th grade boy) might be a more appropriate (Anderman & Anderman, 2014), Bryan seems to be

doing well working with peers who are girls. In Bryan’s class of 18 students, only four are boys.

Three out of the four, including Bryan, are often very disruptive and have similar behavior and

self-control issues; the remaining boy is so quiet that Bryan does not even seem to notice him.

Therefore, Bryan is seated next to a quiet girl who stays on task, and he often chooses to work

with girls on his assignments. If there were other, more similar and appropriate male peers in his

class, Bryan might also do well working with them, but there are no students like this in his class

at this time.

The idea of self-efficacy, which is promoted by social cognitive theory, would suggest

that increasing Bryan’s sense of self-efficacy or his belief in his ability to behave well would also

help him see that he has talents and skills beyond that of being a class clown. This approach is

echoed in the emphasis of one’s need to feel competent and capable as put forth in expectancy-

value and self-determination theory.

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When considering expectancy-value theory, Bryan likely perceives his ability to control

his behavior and therefore be successful at this task as low. However, he does value the idea of

behaving in class, and he is eager to please his teachers (Anderman & Anderman). If he could

increase his belief in his ability to preform the task (behave in class) through experiencing small

but consistent successes, perhaps his expectancy and therefore his motivation and future

performance would change for the better.

In the realm of self-determination, Bryan’s attentions seeking behaviors could be viewed

as a way of seeking relatedness or connection to his peers (Anderman & Anderman, 2014). He

may struggle with the need for competence (Anderman & Anderman, 2014) in terms of his

ability to control his behavior, especially if he does have ADHD. Because he has gotten in

trouble so many times in the past, he may feel incompetent and less motivated to keep trying

when he continues to be unsuccessful.

Attribution theory is not applicable to Bryan in that he does not attempt to blame others

for his behavior (Anderman & Anderman, 2014); he knows and accepts that he alone is

responsible for what he says and does. In addition, goal orientation theory is also less applicable

to this student as the concept of mastery and performance goals are more clearly linked to

academic tasks rather than disruptive behavior (Anderman & Anderman, 2014).

Attempting to involve Bryan’s parents has proven largely unsuccessful at this point. I

have made a phone call home and sent an email and gotten no response, although I know that his

mother read the email because Bryan asked me if I had emailed his mom, so she must have told

him about it. I also called and left a positive voicemail message when Bryan had a particularly

good day.
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I have focused most of my efforts on building a positive relationship with Bryan. I make

a point to have many small, positive interactions with him during class so that our whole

relationship is not focused on his disruptive behavior. This is easier since I switched his seat to

one right near my desk. I ask him about football, and he tells me about TV shows and other

small things. Boynton and Boynton (2005), Marshall (2012) and many others state the

importance of developing positive teacher-student relationships as a way to increase student

motivation and improve behavior.

To aid with his difficulties sitting still in his chair, I have given him the choice to sit on a

low stool instead, which he sometimes does. In addition, he also sometimes likes to sit under a

large table near the wall during independent work time, perhaps feeling less distracted there. I

also have some beanbags in my classroom that he really enjoys sitting in when it is his turn

during silent reading time. These are small instances of differentiation of his learning

environment as recommended by Tomlinson and Strickland (2005) that seem to help with his

need to move around, do things his own way, and not be confined to one spot.

Conclusion

Focusing on one student has furthered my belief in the power of positive teacher-student

relationships and their ability to improve classroom behavior and students’ feeling of belonging,

which frequently leads to increased academic and behavioral achievement. However, it has also

reinforced the fact that building such relationships and helping particularly needy students can be

a very time consuming and emotionally draining process. In addition, change is often slow, and

there are many set backs along the way. Frustration can be quick to set in, but small moments of

success are usually not far away. All students deserve the power of positive relationships with

their teachers and the sense that they are connected to others who care about and believe in them.
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References

Anderman, E. & Anderman, L. (2014). Classroom motivation (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson.

Boynton, M. & Boynton, C. (2005). The educator's guide to preventing and solving discipline

problems. Alexandria, VA: Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development.

Marshall, M. (2012). Discipline without stress, punishments or rewards (2nd ed. revised). Los

Alamitos, CA: Piper Press.

Tomlinson, C.A. & Strickland, C. (2005). Differentiation in practice: A resource guide for

differentiating curriculum, grades 9–12. Alexandria, VA: Association for Curriculum

and Supervision Development.