CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8

Case Study in Motivation Caitlin Foster University of New England

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 Introduction Jack* is a 7 year and 8 month old second grader at Coastal Ridge Elementary School in York, Maine. He is average size for his age and has brown hair and brown eyes. He is well behaved and follows our school and classroom rules. He is usually polite and helpful but occasionally steps outside the bounds of a student/adult relationship in his ways of correcting and/or commenting on adult teaching and conversation. Socially Jack does not have many

friends and prefers to play and work alone. Jack seems to enjoy school for the most part, but does not work up to his full potential in any subject areas. Academically Jack is very bright. His CPAA (Childrens Progress Academic Assessment) test scores are above expectation in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics and writing, reading, measurement, numeracy, and operations. His patterns and function score are at expectation. His in class math assessments show signs of higher level thinking. For instance when asked to show another name for 36, Jack wrote 6X6=36 when an average second grader has not yet been introduced to multiplication. His Fountas and Pinnell Reading Benchmark score fell at a level N which is significantly above the I-K range of a second grade student. Jack scored 98% percent accuracy with a 7/10 on the comprehension rubric. Previous teachers discussed Jacks strong academic achievement sharing his above average abilities starting in kindergarten. His kindergarten teacher noted his math and reading strengths by stating how naturally talented Jack was in kindergarten. His first grade teacher explained that Jack was academically well above his peers, but socially lost in the ways of a second grade student. She shared that he lives in a video game world. She said he often loses touch of reality and believes the world around him operates as though he is in a video game.

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Both teachers explained how although Jack has above average test scores, his in school work and homework often did reflect his strengths. My short time with Jack, amounting to about two months, has allowed me to give Jack a clean slate to start on. His new year in second grade has given him a chance to highlight his above average intelligence and take advantage of the enrichment opportunities this new grade has to offer. However, my experience thus far has been primarily encouraging Jack to produce the high quality work I know he is capable of. While he completes all of the assigned tasks it is clear Jack is not giving each task his best effort. He rushes through his work simply for completion and takes no pride in his finished work. From what I have seen he is not intrinsically motivated in any of the basic academic areas (math, reading, or writing) and does not seem to be extrinsically motivated by grades, teacher praise, or positive feedback. I did not receive any feedback from Jacks parents when I asked them to share Jacks likes and dislikes along with their hopes and dreams for him. His parents are happily married but do not seem to get too involved with his life at school. The one aspiration I know Jack has is to be an architect. He would draw or build every minute of the day if I would let him. I have found his desire to build and draw occasionally interferes with with academics and social life. Observations I formally observed Jack on four occasions hoping to gain insight on how to best motivate him to produce the quality work he is capable of based on his test scores. Each observation is summarized below. The first observation was during the third week of school when students were working on setting goals for the year. Each second grade student at CRES creates a portfolio throughout the

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 year that is shared with parents and their third grade teacher. Their portfolios include goals they set at the beginning of the year. This observation was taken while Jack was creating his goal for

writing workshop. I began by explaining the task--setting a specific, attainable writing goal. The goal orientation theory suggests the importance of setting goals for mastery. Knowing this I encouraged students to set goals that would compare their current performances with their own previous performance (Anderman, 2010). I then modeled how to think of a mastery type goal and set a personal mastery goal for myself. After giving students a few minutes to brainstorm an appropriate writing goal for themselves, I asked them to turn and talk to share their goal with the person next to them. Jack maintained eye contact while I was teaching, however he struggled to sit still and control his body. He was constantly sucking on his t-shirt and moving from his knees to his bottom. He did not ask any questions or share any comments during the mini-lesson. I specifically tuned in to his turn and talk listening to his response. He told his partner his goal was to write a story in second grade. I asked Jack how a goal of writing a story would help him to become a better writer in hopes of discovering some type of approach goal as noted in the goal orientation theory (Anderman, 2010). Jack answered that his goal was just the first thing to pop into his head. He continued to explain that he doesnt really like to think about writing he just writes down the first thing that comes to mind. To conclude he told me writing a story was the first thing he thought of when he thought about writing workshop. He then shrugged and asked his partner to share his goal. Jacks reaction does not fall into the specific categories explained by the goal orientation theory. He was not attempting either type of mastery goal (approach or avoidance) and did not

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 appear to care much about a performance approach or performance avoidance goal (Anderman, 2010). It appeared that he was stating a goal for completion. The second time I observed Jack he while he worked in a small group during math

workshop. With each chapter the Everyday Math program offers exploration units that encourage students to investigate and explore different areas of math. This observation took place during an exploration with base ten blocks. Students were in groups of 3 or 4 working at their tables. They were asked to build something using base tens blocks (flats, longs, and cubes) and then count how much their building was worth. Each student was to build something. After they discovered their buildings worth they were to share it with their group and have their group double check their counting. Jack typically pulls away from group work and struggles to communicate with his team members. Knowing this and understanding Jacks desire to become an architect, I used strategies discussed in the expectancy value x theory in hopes of motivating Jack to take his time and produce quality work. I thought about the four important reasons individuals give for valuing academic tasks including attainment value, intrinsic value, utility value, and cost (Anderman, 2010). Before I sent Jack off to work we had a quick conversation about how great he is at building (attainment value), how much he loves to build and draw (intrinsic value), how useful this task could be in his future plans to be an architect (utility value), and finally how important his knowledge is to helping other students learn this concept (cost). His reaction was very positive. He commented on how base ten blocks are just like building materials that you might use on the job. He asked if he could create a building that could be used for a new museum he knew was being designed near his home. When he returned to his seat he immediately began

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building and helped other students in his group create stable buildings that would not topple over due to weight. He proved to be a great leader in his group during this lesson. During our closing circle after math workshop, Jack asked if he could share his building with the class and also share a short cut for counting the blocks to determine the buildings worth (count by 10s rather than one cube at a time). The third time I observed Jack was during read to self time. Students watch a mini-lesson where I introduce or review a new reading strategy involving comprehension skills, accuracy, fluency, or expanding vocabulary. After the mini-lessons students get their book bins (filled with good fit books at their level) and read to self for about 20 minutes. On most days students are given a task to complete while they are reading. Often times Jack completes the task as quickly as he can (ex. finds and notes a connection on the first page of his book) so he can flip through books, get a drink, go to the bathroom--anything to avoid sitting and reading. Although he is completing the task, it is clear he is not working up to his full potential. He commonly brings a sub par share to our closing circle. In hopes of motivating him to really think about the task and bring a quality share to the closing circle, I looked to the self determination theory. This theory stresses the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and notes three basic needs: the need for autonomy, the need for competence, and then need for relatedness (Anderman, 2010). With this in mind, when other students went off to read out of their book boxes I pulled Jack to conference with. He showed me the books he had in his book box and told me none of them really interested him. He explained that each book he was interested in was too hard for him to read and was not a good fit. He talked about being interested in books about architecture, building, and measurement. Before our

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 conference I gathered several books from the library close to his reading level pertaining to the subjects I thought he would be interested in. His eyes lit up when I gave them to him. It was my hope that these books would help produce quality work as they provided him with a sense of

autonomy (this was a topic he was invested in), a sense of competence (he would feel capable of reading these books), and finally, a sense of self relatedness (he would feel connected and accepted by me as I chose the books for him and he would also feel connected to his goals and aspirations). Jack was very anxious to start his independent reading and his share at the end of reading workshop fostered great conversation among his classmates. He prompt was to share a metacognitive thinking stem he used while reading. He could use any type of thinking stems, but the few listed included Im thinking..., Im wondering..., Im noticing..., Im feeling... and This reminds me of.... Jack shared that he was wondering how architects come up with the ideas for their buildings. He explained how he sometimes things about great ideas while his is free sketching and he wonders how many great architectural buildings were started with a simple sketch. This deep thinking share motivated Jack to engage in a great conversation with his classmates about his thinking. He was very excited to go back to read to self time and seemed very confident while sharing his in depth thinking. My final observation took place during a math assessment. Standardized tests show Jacks above average level of intelligence in the area of math, however, he often rushes so quickly through his assessments that he makes several silly mistakes. This particular assessment involved systems of measurement, both US Customary and Metric. Before the test we had a classroom discussion on a goal each student could set for this test. As a class we talked about the

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importance of setting a goal and strategies we could use to reach our goals. Jack was not verbally engaged in the conversation, but I could tell he was listening. With the goal orientation theory in the back of my mind, I encouraged students to set a mastery goal for their math assessment. While student were talking with their partners about their goal, I sat with Jack to discuss a possible goal. The beginning of our conversation was rather brief. Jack struggled to come up with a quality, mastery approach goal. I asked him about his plans to be an architect. We discussed how this math assessment regarding different types of measurement systems could help him make his way to becoming an architect. Jack was very surprised to hear that architects need to understand both the US system and Metric system of measurement to be successful. Right before he started to take his test he very enthusiastically shared his mastery-approach goal with the class. He explained how his goal was to get all the questions about measurement correct on the math test because he wanted to be an architect someday. Later on that day he asked if he could carry around his ruler and pencil in his pocket for the day so he could practice measuring things in both the US and Metric system. Effective Strategies It quickly became clear that Jack has a great passion for architecture. His love for drawing and building tends to consume his free time and his ability to understand more complex means of measurement and building structures show that this may be a great field for him in the future. Understanding his sincere love for this topic has helped me try several different strategies that will hopefully motivate him to produce the quality work I know he is capable of. The most effective motivational theory I found when working with Jack was the goal orientation theory. While it was not extremely successful in the first observation it made a huge

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 impact on his motivation in the last one. The goal orientation theory concentrates on a students reason for engaging in a certain task (Anderman, 2010). Knowing this and taking into account

Jacks desire to be an architect, I helped him see the value in completing his math assessment for mastery rather than performance or to simply get it done. When Jack was able to see the reason why he should want to do well on this assessment he showed positive motivation to better himself during this task. He showed drive to not just complete this task, but to submit an exemplary piece of work that truly showed his capabilities. Setting a mastery-approach goal to understand and enjoy this activity helped Jack to be successful. While I explored strategies from the goal orientation theory in the first observation, looking back I can see where I went wrong. While I was encouraging Jack to set a masteryapproach goal, I did not look at his interests and future goals to help him do so. Jack was not invested intrinsically as he does not see the connection between writing and his future goals. When students write second trimester writing goals I will still apply strategies from the goal orientation theory, however, I will be sure to tie them into Jacks passion. The expectancy value x theory also proved effective when helping to motivate Jack. During the second observation with base ten blocks it became obvious that Jack valued this task based on the four important reasons the expectancy value theory suggests (Anderman, 2010). Jack had a high attainment value for the task as he identifies with the mathematical aspect to building. He also had high intrinsic and utility value for this task as he was interested in the topic and after a conversation with me, realized how useful this skill is to his future goals. Finally, Jack was able to see the positive costs of completing this task to outweigh the negative as he was helping his classmates and enjoying the work that he needed to complete. When Jack was able to

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 see how the task with base ten blocks was going to help him truly understand more about his dream job he was much more invested in the task and intrinsically motivated to succeed--so much that he was helping other students in his group understand! The final effective motivational strategies I found for Jack were based on the self

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determination theory. Providing Jack with a book box full of good fit books that interested him helped to intrinsically motivate him to share quality thinking strategies with the class during reading workshop time. These books meet Jacks needs for autonomy, competence, and selfrelatedness (Anderman, 2010) and gave him a feeling of connectedness, control, and success that encouraged positive intrinsic motivation. I was not able to use many strategies from the social cognitive theory or the attribution theory during my observations. Jacks self-efficacy is high in most subject areas, therefor I did not focus much on building up his self-efficacy. I spend most of my days modeling behaviors and routines to the entire class, so I did not focus much on modeling for academic motivation. At this point I do not see Jacks lack of motivation to be a result of not knowing what quality work should look like. Similarly, I did not venture into strategies from the attribution theory. Jack seems to have a grasp on interpreting his successes and failures. This is not to say strategies from these theories shouldnt be used, however I did not find them as useful in this study. The strategies I used to help motivate Jack directly relate to my ability to differentiate classroom instruction. As Tomlinson (2001) reminds us, differentiated instruction is student centered. It is clear that I will have to differentiate my instruction to meet Jacks motivational needs in the classroom. As Tomlinson (2001) discussed, students learn best when they are motivated and engaged in their learning. There are several differentiating strategies I can use to

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help Jack. Curriculum compacting with a focus on measurement and architecture may help meet Jacks needs by providing challenging, more fast past lessons in the area he is interested in. Project based learning focusing on his interests may provide Jack with a hands on, realistic task that will help motivate him and give him an intrinsic desire to be successful. Finally, small group work where he is able to help teach other students and share his love for a task may help Jack to work up to his potential. Differentiated instruction is a big idea, a dynamic structure which ensures all students are learning effectively based on ability, interest, and intelligence (Tomlinson, 2001). While there is a wide range of differentiating instructional strategies I can use to help Jack, simply knowing, recognizing, and understanding all three of these important pieces of Jacks personality will help me to tailor his lessons in a way that will motivate him to produce the high quality work he is capable of. Conclusion The opportunity to focus on one students motivation (or lack of) over the past several weeks has proven extremely helpful. Not only have I learned a lot about Jack, but I have also learned many strategies that will prove useful with my current class and classes in years to come. The first and most important conclusion I have drawn from this case study is that all students are motivated in so many different ways. Strategies that work for one student may not work for another. This is important to understand when looking at ways to differentiate instruction. I have also become very aware of the way these theories intertwine. Strategies from one theory may work well with strategies from another and together they can increase student motivation.

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Upon completion of this case study I recognize the wide variety of strategies that can be used to help motivate students, however, two strategies in particular stand out as motivational strategies I will try to use with all students every year. The first strategy is helping students set goals for mastery. This study has opened my eyes to the importance of guiding students to create mastery approach goals for all subject areas. Anderman (2010) explains the important role teachers play in orienting their students to focus on mastery goals. Students are more likely to focus on mastery goals when they see their teacher emphasizing mastery, effort, and improvement (Anderman, 2010, p.18). I understand and accept the large role I have in encouraging a students motivation for mastery. I have also found the expectancy value x theory to be extremely effective in helping motivate students. As teachers we have to look at students expectation to succeed and their value of participation in each task we assign (Anderman, 2010). Both need to be high in order for a student to feel confident in themselves and give substantial effort to a task. This theory has encouraged me to help students find the utility value in assigned tasks. I have noticed a significant increase in many students motivation when they come to understand the important part the task plays in their future goals. In conclusion, this in depth case study has opened the doors to many new and exciting motivational strategies I can use in the classroom. I have found several management techniques that will help Jack as well as his classmates. Each theoretical perspective studied has helped me further understand the complex world of motivation educators deal with everyday. I am anxious to continue my exploration. *Name changed to protect privacy.

CASE STUDY IN MOTIVATION: MODULE 8 References Anderman, E.M., & Anderman L.H. (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

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Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.