Picture retrieved from Nurture for the Future I have taught three years in South Carolina and a reoccurring and substantial problem I have had with students is behavior management. Currently, I have a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in my classroom and it is my goal to figure out a way to accommodate all of my students when it comes to learning to self-regulate. McClelland and Wanless (2015) present that some research has found that there are more differences within cultures than between them when it comes to how students self-regulate. This leads me to the problem that I would like to learn more about: how can we teach students of different backgrounds how to self-regulate in the classroom? This week I have been researching this problem along with how to create a survey. I would like to collect some data to provide further insight into my problem. Let me tell you, creating a survey is MUCH harder than it sounds. The first draft of my survey is very different from the final one I wrote this week. After reading through Survey Design Best Practices: How to Write a Good Questionnaire, I realized my questions were too sporadic and open-ended. I have since revised my questions to be much more specific so I can collect data that will be beneficial to my question. Here is a link to my survey draft, and here is a link to my final survey. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think! Also, just a resource for other teachers who may have the same question as me, here is a link to some self-regulation strategies! References
Lee, S. (2019). Self-Regulation and the zones of regulation. Retrieved from https://www.figur8.net/2016/06/12/self-regulation-and-the-zones-of-regulation/ Market Research Guy. (2019). Survey design best practices: How to write a good questionnaire. Retrieved from http://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/survey-design-best-practices/ McClelland, M. M. & Wanless, S.B. (2015). Introduction to the special issue: Self-Regulation across different cultural contexts. Early Education and Development, 26: 609-614. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=e19c2fa6-47b8-4d27-86e0-fd9e7f1a4a14%40pdc-v-sessmgr03
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After reading more of Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question I came up with more questions to add to my “quick fire” brainstorm session that I detailed in this blog post. Berger brought up many interesting points and made me consider my questions more deeply. Specifically, why am I not taking the initiative to answer my questions about student apathy and self-regulation? Berger (2014) presented Carlin's question, “When we’ve lost our keys and are searching for them, he wondered, why do we keep looking in the same few places, over and over?” (p. 85). This is something that truly resonated with me because I witness this in the classroom often. In many cases we are implementing the same interventions to inspire student motivation in academics and to promote better behavior. I have also noticed that these are not working. So what do we do? How to we come up with an effective initiative? I have asked many why questions, but as Berger (2014) presented, to solve a problem you must consider and act on the "How". At first thinking about acting on the questions I asked in my blog post linked above, was super intimidating. I realized it is because they are problems with no one right solution, they have many different answers and even those answers aren’t 100% correct; these questions are questions about wicked problems. Picture retrieved from https://socialmarketing.blogs.com/r_craiig_lefebvres_social/2012/09/social-marketing-and-wicked-problems.html I created the video below to illustrate three different organizational structures I came up with for my questions from the “quick fire” activity. This was a challenge for me at first because I had to consider a lot of things and different contexts when organizing the questions, i.e. teacher perspective versus student perspective etc. By the end my perspective changed. I realized I need to be thinking about questions in different contexts more often. References
Berger, W. (2014). A More Beautiful Question. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. On social marketing and social change. Social marketing and wicked problems. (2012). Retrieved from https://socialmarketing.blogs.com/r_craiig_lefebvres_social/2012/09/social-marketing-and-wicked-problems.html Picture retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/when-kids-dont-care-battling-student-apathy Recently I completed a “quick fire” question activity where I had to consider a problem in the classroom and brainstorm using only questions about that problem. To begin, I was having difficulty, but once I started getting in the groove of it, I realized I had a lot of questions. I started with the problem of student apathy in the classroom, because that is something my students struggle with. I have been reading Warren Bergers A More Beautiful Question, and it shed a lot of light on why my students may be apathetic. Further, it shed light on why this activity was so hard at first and how questioning has been becoming more and more scarce in the classroom (Berger, 2014). Also, this blog post by Lindsay Ann Learning has some great ideas about how to combat apathy in the classroom. Below is a screenshot of my brainstorm activity! Picture produced by author As I mentioned, when I began this activity I felt like I was drawing a blank after asking my initial question, “why are students apathetic?”. I didn’t know how to brainstorm using questions and honestly I felt like I just didn’t know what other questions to ask. As Berger states, “But many educators and learning experts contend that our current system of education does not encourage, teach, or in some cases even tolerate questioning” (Berger, 2014, p. 46). This made me wonder if since I am having difficulty questioning, I could be translating that to my students and this could in turn make them less engaged. Berger also presents the idea that as students lost the ability to question, they became less engaged in the classroom (Berger, 2014). Picture retrieved from https://www.activistpost.com/2018/08/the-price-humans-pay-for-apathy.html Berger’s ideas also brought my attention to the fact that I am not questioning my students in different ways, and as he presents in his book, I am using questioning mostly as a type of formative assessment as opposed to using it to spark more curiosity (Berger, 2014). It is true that considering questions and inquiry based learning requires more brain power and time than simply answering multiple choice questions. However, a problem lies in that using more brain power and questioning has a negative connotation. I will admit, that when I was presented with the “quick fire” question task that I needed to complete, I had an “ugh” feeling. After reading Berger’s ideas I realized that that was a problem. He states, “If the question muscle has atrophied by junior high, imagine its condition by the time a student goes to college” (Berger, 2014, p. 66). Unfortunately, after reflecting on Berger’s ideas and completing my question activity, I had noticed my question muscle is not working at its full potential. What I would like to do now is incorporate more questioning into my practice; not just asking my students questions but allowing them to ask questions that they want answered. As Berger presents, “Dennie Palmer Wolf…examined the role of questioning in schools for her academic paper “The Art of Questioning” and found that teachers tended “to monopolize the right to question “ in classrooms” (Berger, 2014, p. 56). I am definitely guilty of this but it is not my intention to discourage or not allow my students to ask questions, it just seems that it is natural as a teacher to pose questions. Berger continues to explain that kids feel more responsibility to answer a question that they pose themselves (Berger, 2014). It makes total sense that if one personally discovers a problem, it is only natural that they would be more inclined to find a solution. Berger’s ideas and the “quick fire” question activity were eye-opening for me. I realized how little I am questioning problems in my practice and how I am finding solutions to them even less. It is vital as educators that we are modeling how to question and allowing time for student exploration. We are in the 21st century and it is essential that our students are equipped with the tools necessary to succeed in our society, and more student questioning and exploration is essential in making this happen. Check out this Teach Thought article about 21st century learning if you want to learn more! References Berger, W. (2014). A More Beautiful Question. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Condron, A. When kids don’t care: Battling student apathy. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/when-kids-dont-care-battling-student-apathy Frompovich, C. The price humans pay for apathy. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.activistpost.com/2018/08/the-price-humans-pay-for-apathy.html Learning, L. A. Five ways to fight student apathy: How to fight student apathy. (2019). [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html Nichols, J. R. (2017). 4 essential rules of 21st century learning. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/4-essential-rules-of-21st-century-learning/ Picture retrieved from Atisha Buddhist Centre Teaching is rewarding and comes with many benefits, but that is not to say there are no problems in the classroom. I have interest in finding a solution to problems with self-regulation. I decided to do some research about these problems and find an online tool that could help fix them. In my case, many of my students have a problem with self-regulation when it comes to emotional responses. I found an online tool that I think could really help them called Smiling Mind. This is a meditation and mindfulness website. Students will be able to create their own account and develop their own mindfulness practice. Use of this program would allow them to “take a step back” and think about how they are feeling before they react. As this Edutopia article states, “Reflecting helps students to become more mindful: Instead of just reacting to emotions, they can learn to become the manager of their emotions by recognizing what they are feeling before it becomes an action” (Parrish, 2018). I think that Smiling Mind will help them learn this skill. However, there are some limitations with Smiling Mind. In my case, all students have a personal iPad so they would be able to use this website whenever they felt it necessary, but students at schools who do not have this much access to technology could have trouble with not being able to use Smiling Mind when they need it. Also, there could be an issue with “buy-in”. It can be difficult to get students to consider their emotions and teach them how to respond to them appropriately. Below is a video I created with more information about problems with self-regulation and ideas to fix them, check it out! References Atisha Buddist Centre. Retrieved from https://atishacentre.org.au/product/one-day-meditation-august/ Nelson, L.L. & Basham, J.D. (2014). A blueprint for UDL: Considering the design of implementation. Lawrence, KS: UDL-IRN. Retrieved from http://udl-irn.org. Parrish, N. (2018). How to teach self-regulation: To succeed in school, students need to be able to focus, control their emotions, and adjust to change. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-teach-self-regulation Rayne A. Sperling, Crystal M. Ramsay, Philip M. Reeves, D. Jake Follmer & Aaron S. Richmond (2016) Supporting students’ knowledge construction and self-regulation through the use of elaborative processing strategies, Middle School Journal, 47:3, 25-32, DOI: 10.1080/00940771.2015.1135099 Smiling Mind. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.smilingmind.com.au/about-us |
AuthorMy name is Mallory Williams and I am just trying to better my teaching practice! Most of my posts will be about learning and understanding. Enjoy! Archives |