Thursday, September 6, 2012

How Can You Foster MORE Student Effort?


Eric Jensen tells us about student effort in this newsletter article.
http://www.jensenlearning.com


 The Research
Here is what the research tells us about effort: there are many causes, each requiring many different solutions. But let's cut to the chase. Kids who grow up with exposure to chronic and acute stress (without the coping skills) typically have more of a sense of the "world happening to them" (vs. having a strong locus of control). They either display anger (one symptom of a stress disorder) or helplessness (another symptom of a stress disorder) at school. Research suggests stress specifically impairs attentional control (Liston, et al., 2009). Children living in poverty experience significantly greater chronic stress than do their more affluent counterparts (Almeida, Neupert, Banks, & Serido, 2005). This means you'll see kids who look like they're either trying to "get in your face" or trying to "quit on you." We also know low childhood SES (socioeconomic status) correlates with chronic stress exposure and reduced working memory (Evans, et al., 2009).

The relevance is simple; to engage kids who have had serious adversity (financial or other stress issues), you'll need to provide a trusting relationship. Trusting relationships with both teachers and other adults are ranked as a top-ten student achievement factor (JA Hattie, 2009). Show kids how much you care first, before they care about you. Also, you'll want to provide more of a sense of control for the students in school. Reducing anxiety in kids has a strong correlation with student achievement (0.40 effect size contributing to student achievement). Both relationships and sense of control mitigate the effects of stress disorders. If your kids don't fit into this particular description, the next paragraph is for you. In fact, the next seven factors are each a separate jewel.

Practical Applications
You can have very active kids this year. Even at the secondary school level, there are kids who are inert in one class and very engaged in another. As a teacher, you have more to do with how your kids behave than you give yourself credit for. Here are seven more strategies, in addition to developing trusting relationships and allowing students to have a sense of control (see above).
  1. Show more passion for learning and your content (the student brain's "mirror neurons" may get activated by your passion, and mimic your excitement for learning)
  2. Use specific buy-in strategies to hook in students (build relevance)
  3. Make it their idea (inclusion, choice and control)
  4. Lower the risk (making failures part of the learning process and providing better support for ELL)
  5. Build the Learner's Mindset ("I can grow!")
  6. Increase Feedback ("It's the best motivator")
  7. Stair-step the Effort (Baby steps work)
Your passion will "hook in" more learners than most strategies. Use body language, voice inflection and facial expressions to augment passionate words about the new learning. Additionally, use "buy-in strategies" to build some of the "hooks" that keep students interested. Make it their idea (inclusion, choice and control). Lower the risk (appreciate every hand that goes up and every student's effort, whether the answer is good or not. Say, "Thanks very much, who else?") Build the Learner's Mindset (Tell kids that their brain can change and whatever they did last year, this year can be better). Increase Feedback; it's the single best motivator. Use affirmations, quality content feedback, peer feedback, mini quizzes, partner-developed quizzes, and verbal feedback from you on their strategy, effort or their attitude. Finally use the stair-step strategy. When asking students to do a complex activity, have them do it in small parts that are easier to say "yes" to. Yes, baby steps work if you move fast!

Build these engagement factors into your own work with a simple system. It's called lesson planning and it's free. If you have not yet tested out our new companion website (www.10MinuteLessonPlans.com), be sure to visit when you get the chance. It's simple, effective and FREE!

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