BLOG:

INTERVIEW INQUIRY:

What do you do to support students who appear unmotivated or

disengaged from their learning?

By: Adam Green

PED 4142 E (Inclusive Classrooms II)
300001619

A teacher will witness a student or students that appear unmotivated or disengaged

from their learning on a consistent basis. I’d estimate a teacher will witness varying degrees
of this on a day to day basis. A successful teacher will always need to question their output,
research different techniques, but most importantly question if a lack of motivation and or
engagement is deeper than merely changing strategy. Barriers of varying degrees could be at
play: problems at home, social issues within the class or school, social anxiety, undiscovered
learning disabilities, depression, and more.

It’s quite difficult to express the motivation strategies I’ve used throughout my years
in child care, a lot is just intrinsic, at least the basics are. I’ve definitely been that student that
was unmotivated and disengaged, so I know how difficult it can be to reach a student
sometimes. What it boils down to for me is empathy and care. If a teacher doesn’t empathize
with their students, and if a teacher doesn’t care, and looks at it as merely a job, they’re
destined to fail in this area. You can fake it as much as you want, but children, for the most
part, can see through such façade, even if they may not be able to put a teacher’s
unauthenticity into words.

In my experience, I always felt it was imperative to have some sort of ice breaker
when I was introduced to a new student or classroom. It doesn’t have to be an extensive
activity, it can be as simple as “what’s your name and your favourite thing to do in the whole
world?” This does 1 of 2 things, it helps you get to know your audience, and it helps your
audience to get to know you. When it comes time to try to motivate or engage a student, it’s
very difficult when you don’t have that students trust. Building trust takes time obviously, and
sometimes you’re in situations when you don’t have that time (such as being on occasional
teacher), but you can still do things to ease or push a student towards a goal.

I’d say first and foremost, being your authentic self and letting your personality and
intentions show is key towards building that trust. (So hopefully you really want to be a
teacher, really care, and have proper morals and judgement, because students see through the
fake). Simple things like physically getting to the student’s eye level versus standing over
them asking them questions goes a long way. Getting students to talk about themselves versus
how they feel about the learning material has also done me wonders. I wouldn’t say it’s
trickery, but sometimes getting a student thinking about something they’re excited about can
give them a little bit of a boost into trying an activity or trying to complete a task. It’s ideal to
link the material to their interests, but sometimes that’s near impossible when there’s a social
or emotional barrier in the way. Sometimes it’s the small battles of just motivating a student
to try and getting them to push through and go day to day, hour to hour, add up to the bigger
picture (which is fluid motivation and engagement).

To summarize Learning for All outlines how important it is to know your students and
include them in your process:

“Involving students as partners in the learning and teaching process calls for educators to:

• see the student as a whole person;

• know about various dimensions of every student’s learning process, and not just about the
student’s academic performance;
• support every student in playing a more active role in his or her learning;
• take students’ strengths, needs, interests, and views into account in planning learning
opportunities.”
(OME, Learning for All, p.33)

Before Practice:

At the core of my own philosophies and strategies for increasing student motivation
and engagement is The Ontario College of Teachers’ Standards of Practice, and Ethical
Standards of Teaching. Teachers all over the world, not just Ontario, need to abide by these.
Their website states: “At the heart of a strong and effective teaching profession is a commitment
to students and their learning.” This means teachers need to be committed to their students,
and that means upholding and conforming to these ethical standards of practice, as outlined in
2019, by the Ontario College of Teachers:

“Care
The ethical standard of Care includes compassion, acceptance, interest and insight for
developing students' potential. Members express their commitment to students' well-being and
learning through positive influence, professional judgment and empathy in practice.
Respect
Intrinsic to the ethical standard of Respect are trust and fair-mindedness. Members honour
human dignity, emotional wellness and cognitive development. In their professional practice,
they model respect for spiritual and cultural values, social justice, confidentiality, freedom,
democracy and the environment.
Trust
The ethical standard of Trust embodies fairness, openness and honesty. Members' professional
relationships with students, colleagues, parents, guardians and the public are based on trust.
Integrity
Honesty, reliability and moral action are embodied in the ethical standard of Integrity.
Continual reflection assists members in exercising integrity in their professional commitments
and responsibilities.”

Without adhering to such ethical standards, and without this foundation, I feel a
teacher will never be successful in increasing student motivation or engagement. No matter
what kind of theories, action plans, or evidence-based practices they employ.

This all being said, having the ethics and intention is not enough. A teacher never
stops learning, and there’s no one uniformed strategy to improve student engagement or
motivation. The following are evidence-based practices that I have used or am looking to
implement in my future teaching:

Gamification:

Gamification is a concept that is aimed at helping teachers build rich, engaging learning
experiences into their subjects. It’s about combining course content with a game.

A game that can take any shape or form, with different rules and regulations. It’s not so much
about handing out points or badges, but challenging students through playful experiences.
Gamification with proper planning can take the shape of formative assessment, or playful
formative assessment. As students are engaged in gamification, they receive comprehensive
feedback on course content in real time.

Turning learning intimidating material into a game can tap into varying levels of engagement,
and can tap into varying levels of competitiveness that can increase a student’s motivation. This
engagement and motivation can pour over into future lessons and other areas as well. Having
rewards need to fit the context of the classroom, motivating students with merely tangible items
(especially junk food) is probably counter intuitive, but with certain classroom contexts I feel it’s
appropriate. (Sackstein, 2018)

I personally love using this practice, and use it frequently for review in the form of Kahoot or a
Jeopardy style “game show” like lesson. I’ve even had entire lessons devoted to solving
mysteries such as allowing students to play detective in solving a crime within a piece of
historical fiction, or trying to solve math problems to determine who stole Santa’s Sleigh.

Student Choice:
Creating a lesson rich in student choice allows students to be active participants in their
learning “thereby increasing levels of engagement. Notably, researchers highlight the fact that
such autonomy is generally associated with greater personal well‐being and satisfaction in
educational environments as well as in terms of academic performance.” (Hanover Research,
2014).
I’ve allowed for student choice in my practice as much as possible thus far. Giving
students the choice, by differentiating and providing options in areas for assessment product,
grouping, where they sit, what kind of assistive technology they can use to help have all
improved student engagement in my lessons. As much as possible, I veered away from
standardized tests, and provided students with projects in which they could choose their own
topics. I’ve had students make brochures in a media literacy unit, with the option to make a
brochure on a social issue, activity, hobby, object, or place of their choice. Giving students the
choice to create and analyze their own geometric images using tangrams, and allowing them to
analyze their choice of data sets in mathematics engaged my student’s way more than a textbook
could.

Collaboration:
Based on what I said at the beginning of this blog, in terms of sometimes disengaged
students may have barriers of varying degrees or undiagnosed learning disabilities, its crucial to
collaborate. With who? With other teachers this student has within the school, their former
teachers, and their parents. Why? Maybe they have tried and tested strategies that help this
student connect to curriculum materials. Maybe this particular student demonstrates full
motivation and engagement in other classes. Maybe your student is disengaged because of you.
Maybe you’re the barrier, or maybe you’re not engaging him like you could.

Without an ethical base, without a care and commitment to students and their learning,
engaging and motivating students is virtually impossible. While I have such a base,
implementing evidence-based practices such as gamification and student choice further
illuminate my dedication to the profession and my future students. I can only seek to enhance my
knowledge of these practices, and implement and incorporate others throughout my career.
References:

Sackstein, S. (2018, April 05). Creating Epic Moments With Playful Formative Assessment.
Education Week. Retrieved on March 17th, 2019 from
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2018/04/creating_epic_moments_playful_.ht
ml
Ontario College of Teachers. (2019). Ethical Standards. Retrieved on March 17th, 2019 from
https://www.oct.ca/public/professional-standards/ethical-standards
Hanover Research. (2014). Impact of Student Choice and Personalized Learning. Retrieved on
March 17th, 2019 from http://www.gssaweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Impact-of-Student-
Choice-and-Personalized-Learning-1.pdf

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2013). Learning for All. Retrieved on March 24th, 2019 at
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/learningforall2013.pdf