Motivation . . . Doing the Work

I'm still bothered by my 102 classe's lack of effort. I'm starting to wonder, well, not really strating, but becoming more aware of whether or not students are doing the work I ask them to do, the work that is not directly evaluated, and I wonder what percentage are, for example, completing the reading assignments on a regular basis. I wonder how they would like it if I came to class totally unprepared, not having read or reviewed the material. You know, I have more classes than most of them and I prepare for each and every meeting.

I wonder what I can do, what I can change about my classes to motivate students to do the work. How can I ensure that they do the reading, without having to quiz them each and every meeting. Is there any way I could motivate them internally to do the reading or take the low stakes writing assigned seriously?

I'm getting better and better about previewing the material before the next meeting, and reminding them to read such and such, or write this and that before the next meeting. I know this is one way, but what else?

"Confused on a Higher Level about More Important Things"

Battaglia: Teaching as a creative, decision-making activity rather than a routine, habitual act that can rely on recipes for success.

ME: This is an interesting way to describe teaching -- a "decision-making activity." I understand and know the other definition, as a habitual act that relies on recipes, or a bog of special tools, for success. I once had a professor of mine describe another teacher this way -- he teaches with personality alone. Since, I've taken that to mean that the teacher was too student-centered, and worried about the student's enjoyment, rather than coupling personality with a purposeful knowledge of the discipline. There were times in my past that I wondered if I was teaching with personality alone.

I know the recipe idea well too, but I've never bought into that idea of trading assignments or activities that work in one class, and offering them up to another for use in their class. It seems to me that the contexts are too different. Moreover, I worry that the task or activity itself overshadows the reason you might choose to do it.

Battaglia: teachers were talking more about teaching and less about students.

This seems, to me, a wonderful result. I know I have to be careful when talking to colleagues about complaining too much about students because it sours my attitude and makes me unnecessarily harsh with students. It's easy to do, much easier than asking what can I do to make my student understand more, perform better, because it shifts the burden from students to teacher. But, on the other hand, I do believe strongly in students being accountable for their own learning and work. Hmmm.

Battaglia: Without support and reinforcement, teachers are unlikely to institute the new ideas they learn from prof development.

Good point. As teachers, we should understand the necessity of reinforcement and repetition.

Battaglia: Teaching is often done in isolation.

Damn if this isn't true. I've always said that teaching is a lonely business, but it doesn't seem like people seem to understand how I mean this.

Battaglia: Cognitive coaching -- coach teacher thinking, not behavior.

hmmm, seems a less adversarial approach. Plus, the whole idea of cognitive coaching, which comes from psychology, is that you can't change behavior until you change the thinking that inspires the behavior.

Battaglia: "sage on the stage" vs "guide on the side". teach skills of cooperative learning.

A reminder: you have to teach students how to work together cooperatively, just like I teach them how to revise and respond to peers' work, I need to understand and figure a way to teach collaborative learning in my classroom.

I suppose I've been working under the assumption that it's obvious how one works well together with a group, but do I really understand the group process? Probably not.

Battaglia: Thomas Greenfield, "Language is power. It literally makes reality appear and disappear. Those who control language control thought -- and thereby themselves and others."

Cool quote. I need to find the article this comes from and read it. "Against Group Mind: An Anarchist View of Education" (1982).

this article is interesting. Battaglia is speaking of job coaching, but she also speaks to teaching. She notices that certain language puts Jaye on the defensive, sort of, and he feels like the power has sort of shifted into her court, and rather than being an ally, she's becoming the sage. I wonder, I really wonder if this is true for students and teachers, or do students want and need someone to take charge?

Battaglia: My questions took on an almost mantra-like quality / action research is an attitude.

Focus on the questions, keep them in the fore, change attitude, make improvement a priority. Hmmm, this makes me feel better, the understanding that the purpose of action research is improvement, because that lessens the feeling that you need to be perfect already. I always have that feeling, a perfection-complex, but if I can adopt the action research attitude, I can lessen my own stress and pressure.

Battaglia: Action research cycle: PLANNING, ACTING, OBSERVING, REFLECTING.

This was a ggod article because it made me think about action research, and showed a bit about how to go about doing it, but moreso, it made me think about my own teaching, my own pedagogy. Battaglia, as a job coach, deals with many of the same questions I have about teaching.

Motivation

I had a terrible calss yesterday. I had assigned a short writing assignment to my students, and previewed that assignment, explaining to them why it was important to them to write this, and what the writing had to do within the context of the course, AND with their research project, and when I logged onto to webct before class to prepare for our discussion, NO ONE had done the assignment correctly. I assumed that none of them had done the reading out of the book, which had a sample response, and discussed insider vs. outsider status which the assignment was intended for them to explore for themselves, AND, none of them must have been listening when I discussed the assignment the previous class period.

I resolved to explain to them my concerns, what they had failed to grasp, and ask them to rewrite the assignment.

I had also assigned a reading that I had planned to discuss using webct's chat function, and I figured that few would have read this assignment either. I made a quiz, a short one, 3 questions, very easy if they had done the reading, becasue I wanted to send a message -- you gotta do your work.

I went to class, explained in what ways the written responses had failed to address the prompt, and luckily, there was one student who had done a truly superlative job in completing the assignment, so we looked at it, and I explained why this response was so exceptional.

Then I handed out the quiz. And waited. I watched. I could see some shell shock on a few faces, but for the most part, NOBODY was writing. I let them sit uncomfortably for two or three minutes, then I walked around looking at responses, and most papers were blank. I asked them who had not read the assignment, and I have to give them credit because all but two students raised their hands.

I was a bit aghast. I had assumed that a large majority would not have done the reading, but not the entire class.

I explained to them that the fact that they had not done the reading, had not done the requisite work, spoiled any chance that we might constructively do the work on tap for the day. I also explained to them that they will have a very difficult time passing this class if they do not do the work because the nature of this research project is so different than anything they've done in the past -- they will not be able to fake it through the ethnography.

Then I told them to leave, do their work, and come to class prepared on Monday.

Motivation. This seems to be the issue. If they continue through their two years at SWIC doing what they are doing, which is nothing, then what they are completing is not an education.

Why? Where does this come from? I didn't do much work in high school, because I really didn't need to, but when I got to college, I made my best effort to do the work. Now, in retrospect, I wasn't a great student because I didn't read actively, take good notes, or participate in class, but I did something at least.

What is the deal?

Reflection . . . beginnings

Reflection . . . beginnings

This assignment, to record, transcribe, and write a reflection on the experience, was more difficult than I imagined. It's hard because you have in front of you empirical evidence of your performance. There were times as I listened to the 30 minute recording, that I cringed, and thought, "Well, that wasn't very clear, now was it."

The transcribed portion of the class dealt with a question that was referred to in the prompt I had given them for the diagnostic – “How do you intend to go about doing it (learning)? Do you intend to do as you’re told? Is that what learning consists of?”

The prompt was complicated, asking students to consider a number of issues related to their reasons for being in college, what they imagined they were doing there, what they intended to learn, and how they might go about doing it. The prompt also asked them what a good student is, and what a good teacher is. I expected some students to simply answer the questions, one by one, and others to pick and choose what to address. At any rate, their directions were to formulate a complete essay based on the issues and ideas presented in the prompt. This was the diagnostic portion, however, in truth, I couldn’t care less about the writing as a diagnostic, what I really want to do with the prompt is get them thinking, and the class as a whole discussing, the issues presented in the prompt.

I think, however, considering the course as a whole, so far, that the discussion of the diagnostic writing prompt turned into an unlikely teaching moment. I had discussed with the class the very first day my thoughts about teaching and learning writing. I had told them that it was my belief that the best way to learn writing is by writing, and by being cognizant of what it is that YOU are doing as you write, the sorts of decisions YOU are making, and how those decisions potentially impact the product of the writing task in front of you.

I was really fortunate to have "Franek" respond to the prompt in the way he did. Franek did not really address the prompt. He synthesized the overarching idea presented to him, why are you here?, and gave his own heartfelt, honest, and open response. He was writing for himself, not teacher; he had discovered his own reason for writing the essay. I respect this. Franek did not simply follow instructions.

The essay that Franek wrote mattered to him. This was an essay that transcended the simple prompt I had given him. This was an essay about tradition and legacy. This was an essay about one man's drive to meet or exceed the success and privilege of his father. This essay matters to more than just Franek; it matters to all self-reflective readers who might ask themselves why they are doing what they are doing with their life. Franek did not simply follow directions.

I am fortunate to have Franek in my class.

This lesson worked because of him, because of his courage in going beyond, in doing something other than he was asked to do. Without Franek, I would have been speaking, in response to the diagnostic prompt, in generalities, but with his essay in front of us (the class), I had before me concrete and demonstrable proof of the point I was trying to make. I thank Franek.

I think my students may understand somewhat better the role of the student in this teaching and learning endeavor. I think my students might understand why and when it is appropriate to take the reins, and make their learning their own, rather than simply trying to please teacher.

However, when I look back over the entire recording, a see myself doing much the same in the inverse – trying to please the students. I recorded 35 minutes of the class, and it was only in the last 4 or 5 minutes that I allowed the students to speak. It’s early in the term, so I do have a lot to say about writing to get them oriented to a new way of thinking about writing, but, this isn’t really an excuse, because, in truth, I know that early in the term I spend a great deal of time establishing MY credibility with them, and I do so by speaking at them, rather than speaking to them. I spent 30 minutes speaking at them during this class period.

I think this is problematic because later in the term, when I expect participation and want fruitful discussions, they are sometimes hard to come by, probably because I have set a tone early in the course that I am the most important voice in the class. I’ll have to do some more thinking about this line between teacher-centered and learner-centered. I know, from experience, that I need something from teacher before I’m ready to fully participate in a course’s content. I need some foundation and understanding to pull from, and I hate the classes that I’ve had that have been entirely student-centered with no input from teacher. In know, in my stats class, the professor came in the first day with a grading contract and wanting all of us to decide what sorts of projects we were going to do to earn our grades. I felt totally unable and unprepared to make a decision about even what sort of topic paper I might write because I knew nothing about the course content. I think students need a foundation.

Maybe this is really a question of teaching and learning, and maybe I really don’t know how to TEACH well at all. I know I can lecture well. I know I can offer feedback on papers well. I know that one-to-one I can help students well. But maybe I need to rethink HOW I present material to the class as a whole, so I’m doing more teaching, or drawing students to conclusions through interaction, activities, querying, etc., rather than doing so much talking at them.

I don’t know.

"Educational Action Research" Journal I

Educational Action Research – Becoming Practically Critical
Noffke & Stevenson
Dialogic Journal

“Action Research and Democratic Schooling” – Susan E. Noffke

Praxis: “the continuous interplay between doing something and revising our thought about what ought to be done” (1).

“I want to explore some of the problematics as well as the potentials involved in trying to work toward democracy in education through action research” (1).

(ME) In 1998, I went to a conference at the University of Wyoming in which Ira Schor was the keynote speaker. I picked up two of his books about establishing democracy in the classroom. I read both of them, and sort of blindly bought into the idea that a democratic classroom was desirable without really understanding what the concept or application meant. I failed horribly with this class, and I blamed my failure on a democratic classroom. I understand now that my failure was my own.

As I’ve grown more experienced, I think I’m coming to understand the relevance and some of the effects of power issues in the classroom. I want students to take the power and independence that I offer to them, but few do. They have been trained so well to be obedient consumers of education that when an alternative role is offered to them, they resist.

The issue of power is especially relevant in the writing classroom, if, that is, you are trying to teach students to use writing as a means of learning, and in order for students to do that, use writing as a means of learning, they have to take ownership and control of their writing and their thinking. And, in this scenario, power matters!

I’m interested to see how Noffke defines democracy in the classroom and how it will relate to action research. I’m curious and intrigued.

History of Action Research in Education

scientific management orientation
child-centered schooling
social meliorist – recognizes social injustices, works toward rectifying them (3).

(ME) Again, I’m drawn by the idea that action research can be emancipatory, and a way to rectify social injustices. What does this mean? Does this mean using action research to study the cultural biases of writing teachers to maybe explain the achievement gap between black and white? Does it mean studying students’ conceptions of justice and equality, and changing their attitudes about both? What does it mean? How can I remedy social injustice, a huge “out there,” outside my classroom issue, inside my little classroom? I’m sure I’m naïve, and the answer is quite obvious to everyone but me.

What does it mean, “create more democratic schools” (4)?

(ME) I see on page 6 part of my answer. Noffke writes about the influence of state-wide, standardized testing on the practice of teachers. I understand this is NOT very democratic because participation is not voluntary, AND most teachers do not, did not, have a say in the creation or implementation of these devices. Anecdotally, from my experience in MN and TX, I would say most teachers would throw these tests out if given the chance. They object on a number of different grounds to this wide-spread use of high stakes testing in the schools; however, none of the teachers I know dispute the need for accountability, just how this variable is being assessed.

Transcript

Teacher: Is that what learning is?

[ Yes. Yes ]

Teacher: Yes . . Do what you’re told.

Student1: Yes, because you have to follow directions.

Teacher: “Follow directions.” What about some of the rest of you? Learning . . do as you’re told?

Student2: How do you learn if you don’t take in from somebody that’s already experienced it?

Teacher: I can’t hear you.

Student2: How do you learn something if you don’t . . take in from somebody that’s already experienced it?

Teacher: Okay. How do you learn something if you don’t take in from somebody that’s experienced it. What else? What are the . . What are some alternatives . . . . to not doing as you are told? Why might that be beneficial in learning?

Student3: You might learn a lesson / ???? /

Teacher: You might learn a lesson. What are . . why are you shaking your head so emphatically?

Student1: You might learn a lesson that you might learn it the long way round or the harder way . .

Teacher: the hard way

Student1: instead of taking the easy way and doing as you’re told.

Teacher: uh-huh . . . . yeah?

Student4: I think that like in Franek’s case you can get creative you can do things a little bit from what you are told like you take your own perspective.

Teacher: Yeah . . and that can teach you something as well, right? Um, what she said is you might learn something from taking your own perspective you know from taking your own road and that could be valuable . . . . Anybody else? . . Cauliflower?

Student5: I believe you have to take in part of the learning but I think / ? ? ? / yourself / ? ? ? / you have to / ? ? ? / you’re not always going to have someone telling you things / ? ? / what you should do.

Teacher: Right.

Student5: You need to be involved in learning it on your own, you’re given a set of keys and what you do with them is up to you, you can’t make me learn

Teacher: Right.

Student5: you can tell me to do something but . . am I really learning if you tell me to write a paragraph about / money /

Teacher: Uh-Huh.

Student5: Am I really learning something /unless/ I get involved.

Teacher: That was really beautifully said, really nicely said and so applicable to a writing class. I told you the first day you can’t, you can’t . . I can’t teach you writing . . . I can give you the keys, the tools, a foundation, but you have to make the decision to build upon that . . you know, and that’s where anxiety comes in . . . because . . . I try to give you the footing . . but you have to pound these nails and sometimes you’re wondering, “do I do I pound a nail there?” You know. And your impulse is gonna be to come to me and say, “Do I pound a nail there?” And I might say . . . . you gotta figure that out on your own . . or what are the options, what are the consequences of pounding a nail there? You know.

Forming Questions - Beginning Inquiry

What happens when my students revise?
What is the effect or impact of peer feedback?
What sorts of feedback do they receive?
How do students make use of feedback, if at all, in their revisions?
What is the benefit of technology in the writing course?
How do discussion boards add value to a student's learn?
How do students learn in an online class?
What is the student's experience in my onlines classes?
How do students enderstand the relationship between content and form?
What is my student's understanding of Workshop 3 - Themewriting?

Ethical Issues Journal - Zeni Intro

<>Ethical Issues in Practitioner Research, ed. Jane Zeni
Reading Journal

Introduction -- Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Zeni: the responsibilities of teachers to students [were] are deeper and more personal than whatever was implied by the term “subjects.” (xi)

Lund: Students are our subjects; the classroom context is our subject; practice and efficacy is our subject, but what we’re talking about here the protection of human subjects. I wonder what the objection to taking field notes and the documentation of learning was? What did the dean of research object to? Maybe I can’t see the forest for the trees. I imagine my first responsibility is to students, and their learning, the research comes later. What might I do to endanger my “subjects”? I could use their intellectual property and pass it off as my own. I could take their work and words out of context. I could neglect my duties as teacher. I suppose I could subject my “subject” to classroom experimentation that is unethical.

Zeni: Teacher researchers struggle with issues of loyalty, confidentiality, and trust. (xii)

Lund: I wonder how this plays out. I suppose I am very naïve. Loyalty? My loyalty is to learning. How might I betray the trust and loyalty of my students? I know I sound stupid and naïve, but I am serious. I know the obvious -- creating a false or pretentious situation, stealing their work, using it wrongly, revealing something revealed to me in confidence publicly, sharing grade information, maligning an individual’ character, and so on, but I’d never do this. This has to do with basic human ethics.

Zeni: How can I recognize my own cultural baggage so that I can really see my students? (xii)

Lund: This is very similar to my assignment, “Positioning Yourself as a Researcher” for 102. The assignment asks students to consider how their own cultural experiences might color, flavor, or blind them to seeing / understanding parts of the culture they are studying.

<>What’s my baggage? I’m Midwestern. I’ve never really questioned the value, or access, to education. Even though neither of my parents went to college, there was never any question that I would go to college. I assume a certain level of competency in my students, and I demand their interest. Can I relate to them? I suppose I used to relate better, feel more empathy, but the further I get from my undergrad education, the toil and struggle and insecurity, the less I relate.

What other assumptions do I bring to bear? What other cultural baggage do I have? I’m white. I’m male. So, as such, I’ve never been oppressed because of my gender, nor have I been denied access to anything based on race. I’ve never felt a glass ceiling above me, other than one of my own making, nor have I ever consistently felt like a minority in any situation.

Zeni: We coauthored Mirror Images: Teaching Writing in Black and White. (xiii)

Lund: I should check this out. I teach a few minority students, and I’d like to be certain that I am doing right by them.

Zeni: Practitioner Research -- “qualitative research conducted by insiders in educational settings to improve their own practice.”

Lund: I like this definition because it focuses on the teacherly-self, and the improvement of that self. I always strive to be the best teacher I can be, so this suits me and will help me. I see immediate value in the act. I understand why action researchers have to be insiders, but I wonder why they have to be “stakeholders.” If they’re not stakeholders, is it some other kind of research. We did a project when I was at UMN. We worked with kids at Crosswinds Middle School. We sort of studied these kids, interviewed them, helped them with their projects, and compiled about our experiences into a case study. I didn’t have a stake in this context, other than the grade I was to receive from my professor. Why isn’t this also action research. We were addressing issues in the teaching of writing using multi-genres, using qualitative measures, hoping, I suppose, to address a professional problem, and that is how to best coerce students into engagement with their own writing, their own learning. This experience seems to meet all the definitional requirements of the heuristic, except the stakeholder one. I’ll have to ask about this in class.

<>Zeni: “To change society” (xiv)

<>Lund: I’m interested in this motivation. I understand Freire’s principle of empowerment, but I wonder how action research might work in this direction. Maybe it has something to do with a teacher examining their own practice to consider the ways that this practice serves to empower students? As learners? As citizens? As workers? All of them? I’d like to know more about this, and more about the South African model.

Zeni: “Practitioner research rejects the theory/practice split.”

Lund: I like this too. I want to remember this characteristic. This is one way to combat the “Ivory Tower” stereotype of university research.