Fostering Student Success

Elmwood High School

March 18th 2022

Anticipation Guide
Before Statement After
Agree or Disagree Clarity around understanding the outcomes and Agree or Disagree
what must be learned and taught begins with the
teacher.
Agree or Disagree It’s important for teachers to consider evidence in Agree or Disagree
addition to their professional experience when
selecting instructional strategies.
Agree or Disagree Learning intentions and success criteria are Agree or Disagree
foundational aspects of effective feedback and
peer and self-assessment.
Agree or Disagree Explicit strategy instruction leads to greater Agree or Disagree
academic success for adolescent learners.
Agree or Disagree It’s important to help students develop effective Agree or Disagree
learning dispositions in addition to teaching
content.
Agree or Disagree Finding ways to motivate students is one of the Agree or Disagree
most important aspects of teaching.

Notes:

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Split-Screen Thinking
Split-screen thinking involves teachers thinking about how to help students grasp the
content while at the same time, thinking about how to help students develop their
learning capacity.
Supporting Understanding Supporting the Development
of the Content of Effective Learning
Dispositions
Learning Intention: We are Learning Dispositions: We
learning to simplify algebraic are learning to be resilient
equations. and persist if the learning
becomes challenging.
Example of What scaffolding would How will we teach students
Split-Screen Thinking students benefit from when to be resilient and persist if
learning how to simplify the learning becomes
algebraic equations? challenging?

Learning Intention: Learning Dispositions:

We are learning
improvisation and how to
act without a script.
Example of What specific improvisation
Split-Screen Thinking techniques will we introduce
online?
We are learning to
collaborate and work
interdependently.
How can we set up the
conditions for students to
collaborate and work
interdependently?

Learning Intention: Learning Dispositions:

We are learning to evaluate
scientific evidence and
explanations.
Example of What prior knowledge do
Split-Screen Thinking the students bring and how
can we teach the skill of
evaluation? What specific
concepts and terms will we
introduce first?
We are learning to be
organized and manage our
time well.
What self-management
strategies will we focus on
and how will we know that
students are managing
themselves productively?

Your turn Learning Intention: Learning Disposition:

What is your Split-

Screen Thinking?

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Research Snapshots - Student Efficacy - Motivation and Goal Orientation

Research Snapshot #1
Traditionally motivation has been seen as dichotomous; learners are either intrinsically
or extrinsically motivated and that motivation is context or task dependent. More
recently research suggests intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are part of a continuum or
multistage process where once a learner has internalized external demands they
become intrinsically motivated to meet those demands. In establishing a clearer picture
of the interplay between motivation, self-efficacy and learners’ approaches to studying
the researchers hoped to raise awareness of the benefits of focusing on self-efficacy
beliefs as a way to improve motivation and students’ approaches to learning.
Researchers in this study were interested in exploring:
1. The relationship between motivation orientation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and
students’ approaches to studying (deep, strategic and surface-level processing).
2. The relationship between students’ own beliefs about their abilities to read and
write and their approaches to studying.
3. Whether students’ approaches to studying change over time and if these changes
are related to self-efficacy.

Researchers found students beliefs in their abilities does relate to the approach they
take to their studies. Students with high self-efficacy in reading or writing are more
likely to adopt a deep or strategic approach to study while students with low self-
efficacy are more likely to adopt a surface level approach.

Researchers noted changes to study approaches over time do relate to self-efficacy

beliefs. Students with high self-efficacy maintained a deep approach over time.
However, students with low self-efficacy changed their approach over time moving
from deep and strategic approaches to more surface approaches to studying.

Prat-Sala, Merce & Redford, Paul. (2010). The interplay between motivation, self-
efficacy, and approaches to studying. British Journal of Educational Psychology 80
(2010), 283-305.

Research Snapshot #2
This research uncovered statistically significant differences between student and
teacher perceptions of what motivates high school students.

Individual factors and situational factors influence student interest. Important

motivational constructs include individual factors such as intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation, goal orientation, and self-efficacy. Situational factors include humor,
content, games and puzzles, and modeling. In this study, intrinsic motivation was
defined as motivation resulting from a natural curiosity and extrinsic motivation was
defined as motivation derived from rewards and coercion. Goal orientations were
described as performance goal orientations (created because students enjoy

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competition or yearn for positive evaluations of ability) and mastery goal orientations
(created due to an inherent desire to achieve something). Self-efficacy was defined as
motivation resulting from confidence in one’s ability to accomplish tasks.

Students and teachers differed in their perceptions on the effectiveness of a variety of

motivational practices. Teachers believed students were most likely to be motivated
when the teacher used humour, or took a personal interest in the students, or showed
concern and/or enthusiasm. Students were more likely to attribute their own motivation
to an intrinsic desire to learn or as a result of mastery and performance goal
orientations in which they adopted. Overall, 44% of the students believed goal
achievement theory was the most effective technique followed by 27% of the students
who believed motivation was fueled by an intrinsic desire to achieve success.

Teachers rated goal achievement theory as second to teacher characteristics and

intrinsic motivation as the third most likely reason why students were motivated to
learn. Furthermore, very few teachers thought that self-efficacy was the most effective
motivational technique and ‘teacher characteristics’ were perceived as more effective
than self-efficacy by more than double of the teacher respondents.

Wiesman, J. (2012). Student motivation and the alignment of teacher beliefs. The
Clearing House, 85(3), 102-108.

Research Snapshot #3
The researcher of this paper provided a review of evidence regarding learning in
schools and performance in schools based on more than 100 classroom-based
research studies. Below is information gleaned from one of the studies.

The author noted that it is very rare in educational research to find an experimental
study, not in a laboratory setting, but in the natural circumstances of real classrooms
and cites one study that matched all the requirements of “hardscience”. Fifteen
teachers were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: in the first group teachers
were told their job was to help the pupils learn, the second group were told that their
job was to ensure children perform well. Then in their own classrooms they were asked
to help their students solve two sorts of problems. They were videotaped, and the
tapes were analyzed by coders who did not know which condition the teachers were
in. Pupils were asked to complete some other similar tasks by
an experimenter who was also blind to the condition which teachers had been
allocated to. Student performance on the tasks taught and on a generalization task
was assessed by independent judges. Results showed that the students did less well
on the subsequent test when they were exposed to pressured teachers using
controlling strategies as a result of the performance instruction demonstrating that
performance pressure does not help increase
performance.

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Watkins, C. (2010). Research matters: Learning, Performance and Improvement.
International Network for School Improvement. 34.

Research Snapshot #4
The researcher of this paper provided a review of evidence regarding learning in
schools and performance in schools based on more than 100 classroom-based
research studies. Below are some key ideas various studies.

Various studies have shown the connectedness between the elements of goal
orientation (mastery orientation versus performance orientation): individuals who
scored high on a mastery orientation select and use deep learning strategies which
leads them to assume responsibility with high levels of persistence, they use more
strategies, and possess more metacognitive knowledge about their learning. They also
use better self-motivating
strategies. In everyday terms this means that the motivation to prove one’s
competence is immaterial without the motivation to improve one’s competence.

The effects of performance orientation include greater helplessness, reduced help-

seeking,
less strategy use and more maladaptive strategies (i.e. strategies which are not proving
effective).

Evidence suggests that the goal climate in classrooms becomes steadily more
performance
oriented over the years of schooling. In primary school, students with a high mastery
orientation and low performance orientation had the most adaptive thinking as well as
actual achievement. Yet a longitudinal study of 431 US pupils in the later primary years
showed that they become less mastery oriented and more work avoidant. In secondary
school, differences between classroom situations are fewer and the school culture
plays a
greater role in influencing classroom practices. Throughout secondary school, mastery
orientation is significantly correlated with grades, whereas performance approach is
not. Beyond secondary school, by the time they reach a college environment, students
who adopt a high mastery orientation and high performance orientation achieve the
highest levels of achievement in that context: they display the highest levels of
motivation, cognitive strategy use, and self-regulation

Watkins, C. (2010). Research matters: Learning, Performance and Improvement.

International Network for School Improvement. 34.