7th March 2015
WORKSHOP Brdo, Slovenia
MOTIVATING STRATEGIES FOR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: Carrots & visions CARROTS ACTIVITY 1: Read this real-life scenario from an American school classroom: Mr Patterson was a high-school social studies teacher. He decided that he would allow his class to play games every Friday to review the material that was covered in class during the preceding week. The class particularly enjoyed emulating television game shows, such as Jeopardy. Each week Mr Patterson divided his classes into two teams. The team that won the competition would receive two bonus points on the next examination. The students in Mr Patterson’s classes enjoyed their Friday ‘game’ days. After doing this for several weeks, however, Mr Patterson realized that some of his students’ grades were becoming inflated due to all the extra points they were earning. Consequently the next Friday he told both classes that they would still be playing games that day but it was just for ‘fun’; the reward of two extra points would no longer be available. From Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. p28.
How do you think the students reacted? How should have Mr Patterson organized his Friday classes? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rewards for school work are a very controversial subject – academics themselves do not agree on whether they are a good or bad thing. It does seem that rewards can be successful short-term motivators as long as: • they are used for dull but necessary routine tasks which might otherwise not be done AND/OR • they are informational i.e. they give pupils some genuinely useful information about their progress AND/OR • they reward individual effort or improvement not just ability But teachers may be able to identify other benefits from their own experience… REWARDS I OFFER Think of a type of reward that you give your pupils
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Now consider: • Does it enable learners to do something necessary that they wouldn’t otherwise do? • Does it give learners some useful information about their learning? • Does it reward effort as well as ability? • Does it WORK?!
7th March 2015
WORKSHOP Brdo, Slovenia
VISIONS Research has shown that the ‘Ideal L2 self’ – a vision of oneself as a future user of the L2 – can be a powerful motivator for adolescent and young adult learners of English. It works best when it is: • Elaborate and vivid • Aligned with the desires of significant others (especially parents) • Accompanied by a plan of action YOUR IDEAL ENGLISH SELF? You are all successful learners of English. Did you have an ‘ideal English self’ when you were younger? If so: • Where did it come from? • Did it motivate you to put extra effort into learning English? If not: • What motivated you to learn English so well? • Did you have other ‘ideal selves’, in other areas of your life?
Developing your learners’ ideal L2 selves How can a teacher help young adolescent learners visualize themselves as future users of English? Being a model English user yourself and providing other role models (e.g. successful young Slovenians using English) Doing deliberate ‘visualization’ exercises like this one (from Hadfield & Dörnyei, 2012): Get learners in a relaxed mood (e.g. play some relaxing music). Ask them to close their eyes. Read the script below slowly with pauses. Afterwards, ask learners to share their vision with the person sitting next to them, and write it up for homework. Imagine yourself in the future. You have studied English….and now you can speak it well. Imagine yourself…. How old are you? …. What do you look like now?.....where are you living?.....what is your house like?.....who lives with you?......what job are you doing?.....why do you enjoy it?......what makes you happy about your life?..... How is English useful to you now?..... what can you do in English?......do you use it in your work?......do you use it to study?......do you have friends who speak English?.....do you use it when travelling?..... Imagine a particular situation when you are using English….. where are you?......who are you talking to?..... etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Some further reading/viewing Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and Researching Motivation (2nd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education. Gilbert, I. (2012). Essential Motivation in the Classroom. London: Routledge. (2nd edition) Hadfield, J., & Dornyei, Z. (2013). Motivating Learning. Harlow: Longman. Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Edinburgh: Canongate, and watch the fascinating ‘RSA animate’ video of Dan Pink talking about intrinsic motivation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Robins, G. (2013). Praise, Motivation and the Child, London: Routledge. Watch the entertaining talk by Ken Wilson called ‘Motivating the Unmotivated’ at the British Council, London, at http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/seminars/motivating-unmotivated