Joan R. Fretz

Summer will provide us all with some much needed time to think.  This school year, we were continuously bombarded with “have to do’s” and there was little time to enjoy education or work proactively.   Our actions as administrators and teachers are being controlled by the demands of mandated reforms that can drain our spirit and motivation.  Imagine how that impacts the motivation of those we lead or teach....

Something I’ve been thinking about this whole year is a void I see in the rubrics we are using to evaluate teachers’ planning, classroom environment and instruction.  Each domain includes important components.  However, something critically important is missing.  The rubrics infer that students are motivated in effective classrooms, but avoid making any direct mention of the teaching behavior that influences motivation.  The rubrics include many intentional teacher practices, but none are directly tied to what a student thinks about his or her abilities, or why they would be motivated to work hard in this lesson.   So, we find ourselves identifying whether the teacher is demonstrating a competency or not, and in many instances, we are recording evidence that I find to be superficial.  Teachers and administrators know what motivated students look like, but they often cannot identify what actions the teacher chose to create the conditions for motivation to flourish.  If we knew more about exactly what we do that promotes motivation and we understood a little bit about what shapes someone’s self-concept, we’d be off the chart as highly effective.

Imagine being a student in school now.  Their time is filled with tests and evaluation and stressed out adults who are trying to control what students do because they are worried they won’t score well and both the adult and student will be evaluated poorly.  School adults are being heavily controlled and that leads them to transfer that control to how they teach and lead.  Unless teachers are intentionally creating the conditions for intrinsic motivation, their students are probably going through the motions of school, doing just what is asked of them…or less.  They’re often not interested in learning or doing more.  The controlling atmosphere of school life is actually sabotaging their intrinsic motivation and drive.  

This summer, I’ll be talking about the reasons students suddenly take charge of their learning and exactly what teachers can do to insure that their planning, classroom environment and instruction creates the conditions for that intrinsic motivation.  We’ll find ways to identify this in every competency in the Danielson Framework.  This provides a framework for promoting motivation and is NOT another intervention.   I honestly think there are WAY too many interventions and strategies out there.  We are drowning our teachers in lingo and acronyms.  I’d like to go out on a limb, (and perhaps I’m not out there alone,) to say: “Passionate, captivating teaching that kids can’t wait to be a part of, has little to do with all these interventions and everything to do with what motivates us.”

Motivational researchers Deci and Ryan very simply define the conditions of motivation in their Self-Determination Theory asAutonomy, Competence and Relatedness.  I believe that if we invest our time in understanding how educators can influence these three conditions, we won’t need that suitcase full of strategies.  Instead we will be creating a framework for our professional and personal practice that invites us, and our students to be intrinsically motivated.  Purkey’s and Novak’s Invitational Theory and Practice provides such a framework by explaining how our words and actions influence a student’s self concept and perceptions.  These are practical theories,not programs to buy.  Introducing these concepts to teachers and inviting them to use them to guide their practice, will simply and profoundly increase student engagement and effort.   

The more complicated and controlling school reforms become, the less intrinsically motivated our educators and students will be.    We all desperately need to find ways to make time in our day to do things that we are really excited about, and to make sure that every lesson we plan for students, does the same for them.  If you wouldn’t enjoy being on the other side of your desk, then it’s time to change your practice and teach, or lead the way you would love to learn, or be led.

So, July 17^th, I’ll be sharing some exciting information about motivation and what makes us do the things we do.  We’ll go way beyond the rubrics to create a teaching environment that doesn’t let kids fall through the cracks and turns around even the most reluctant student. We’ll learn about “makes sense” research and hear from real high school students who explain what teachers do that helps or hinders their success in school.

I hope you’ll consider joining me at Western Suffolk BOCES that day. You’ll go back to school with the drive and conviction to accomplish what you went into education to do, no matter what mandate you face.  Empowered with new insights and a positive framework for our own behaviors, we can create schools that accomplish what’s most important: to invite all students to believe in their abilities and develop their interests and talents. 

Interested?  Here’s the link to the  July 17thworkshop: 

https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?D=13208&a...

Can’t come?  Feel free to contact me to learn more: jrfretz@optonline.net

Joan Fretz