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 Student Voices? There is little doubt that teachers work with fantastically diverse students. They differ in their aspirations, their home lives, their socioeconomic levels, their learning styles and ability levels, their academic preparation and readiness, their attitudes toward school, their interests, and their academic motivation. This diversity is a classroom reality that can make it difficult for a teacher to meet the needs of 20-30 students, and is one of the reasons why we need to hear the voices of underachieving learners. "In considering the practicability of the attempt to educate all the children of all the people, the whole issue turns on the natures of the children themselves, their inherent powers and capabilities, individually and de novo" (Smith, 1915, p. 1). Diversity can also lead to distraction and confusion. We may make false assumptions about our unmotivated learners, based on what we think we know about our motivated learners. They may be two different kinds of students, and how they learn well may also be different. Underachieving students may not be so much to blame for not learning; teachers may have overlooked differences in learning styles, and what students have to say about how they learn well. Kids blame the conflict on the teachers and on the basis of this study, I think I would have to, too. Kids are the ones who have to go to school. They are forced into a system: a vigorous response to it is one of their few rights. Teachers—and education—will never change until they start listening to the ways kids think about the institution they share. (Davis, 1972, p. 119) Further, the voice of students in general, and unmotivated students specifically, is largely missing from the literature. Many studies that focus on achievement look at classroom practice rather than the perspectives of the students. Although some studies ask students their points of view directly, survey data is more common. Surveys, however, have serious validity problems and provide only a tightly bounded conversation with the informant (short, written answers to written questions), allowing few opportunities for informants to speak freely about their views and few opportunities for researchers to probe into the depths of those views. When asked, students have valuable information to share with educators. Strong, Silver, & Robinson (1995) asked teachers and students what kind of work they found totally engaging. "Engaging work, respondents said, was work that stimulated their curiosity, permitted them to express their creativity, and fostered positive relationships with others. It was also work at which they were good," (Strong, Silver, & Robinson, 1995). I have collected lists of learners’ characteristics of good learning experiences since 1992, and these lists are surprisingly similar, regardless of the age-group involved. The characteristics of good learning experiences synthesize into the following list: Characteristics of Good Learning Experiences Synthesis • the work was well connected to other ideas and to the real world • the content of the learning experience was personally relevant, interesting, useful, or meaningful to the learner • the learner had choices, shared authority, control, and responsibility • the learning was hands-on and experiential • the learner learned from and taught others • the learner had the support of a patient, supportive, and nurturing mentor • the learning was individualized and although there were standards for the work, the learner could meet them in his or her own way • there was a positive aesthetic component to the experience: it was fun or left the learner feeling good • the experience helped the learner understand him or herself • the learner had success and accomplishment with challenging work Who better to inform teachers of what motivates underachieving students than underachieving students themselves.

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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