What Underachieving Middle School Students Believe Motivates them to Learn

Chapter 1: The Challenge to Educate Everyone    The Problem    The Research Question      Focus on Instruction      Focus on Middle Edu.      Why Student Voices    The Study Chapter 2: A Review of Literature Chapter 3: Methods Chapter 4: The Results Chapter 5: Discussion References Appendixes Biography

Why Focus on Instruction? There is no doubt that home and social factors can have an enormous impact on achievement. Many students come to school facing problems that cannot be fixed by changes in instruction. Teachers are not psychologists and social workers, and issues from outside of school often negatively impact students’ ability to learn. This study does not explore suggestions on remedying these situations. On the other hand, some clear assumptions of this study are that school practice plays a role in both underachievement and achievement, and that changing instruction to better meet the needs of underachieving students can help reverse negative achievement patterns. Further, classroom practice is one of the few factors impacting achievement over which teachers have direct control. Dewey reminds us of the importance of effective classroom practice: Our whole policy of compulsory education rises or falls with our ability to make school life an interesting and absorbing experience to the child. In one sense there is no such thing as compulsory education. We can have compulsory physical attendance at school; but education comes only through willing attention to and participation in school activities. It follows that the teacher must select these activities with reference to the child’s interests, powers, and capacities. In no other way can she guarantee that the child will be present. (1913, p. ix) At the same time, both followers and critics of the middle school movement recognize that "change in instructional and curricular practices in schools has moved forward far more slowly than change in structural areas" (Felner, Jackson, Kasak, Mulhall, Brand, & Flowers, 1997, p. 528). If we are serious about educating every child we must venture to absorb every child in meaningful, engaged learning. Regardless of whether we want children to learn to be learners, or whether there are specific content and skills we value and want students to learn, we must use teaching strategies that more closely match how our students learn. Teaching may be compared to selling commodities. No one can sell unless someone buys. We should ridicule a merchant who said that he had sold a great many goods although no one had bought any. But perhaps there are teachers who think they have done a good day’s teaching irrespective of what people have learned. There is the same exact equation between teaching and learning that there is between selling and buying. (Dewey, 1933, p. 35-36) Underserved populations, including underachieving students from all learning styles, career aspirations, cultures, and socioeconomic levels deserve a quality education. It is not surprising that improved instruction, which involves students in meaningful, engaged learning, is viewed as a remedy to the growing concern over the high social and economic cost of large numbers of disengaged and at-risk youth (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997; Williams, 1996). Identifying practices which help these diverse populations learn well is a step toward creating an educational system intent on serving all students. Finding out what motivates our underachieving students will help inform and equip teachers in the struggle to lead all students to academic achievement.

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Mike Muir Assistant Professor of Education University of Maine at Farmington 104 Main Street Farmington, ME 04938 207.778.7179 wilder@somtel.com http://violet.umf.maine.edu/~mmuir