About the author: Mike Hock is a research associate with the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. This article originally appeared in the June 1997 issue of Strategram, a newsletter for SIM teachers.
Return to Article ArchiveTEACHER: ... and if you learn the Theme Writing Strategy, your grades in English composition will improve. In addition, whenever you have a paper to write for any class, you can use this strategy and improve the quality of your written work. Does this sound like something you'd like to experience?
STUDENT: I don't know. I just want to get my homework done.
TEACHER: Well, I understand the need to get your homework done and here's an option. Why don't you participate in strategy instruction long enough for me to describe the strategy to you. Then, you can decide if you are willing to commit to learning the strategy. Keep in mind that we can always devote some time at the end of the period to homework help. Does this sound reasonable?
STUDENT: I really don't want to learn this stuff. I don't think strategies will help me. I need to get my homework done, or I'll fail!
The scenario above may sound all too familiar to teachers. The effectiveness of strategy instruction with students who are reluctant to commit time and energy to learning is often limited. Fortunately, experienced teachers know how to use a variety of techniques to gain student commitment to learning. For example, teachers use positive reinforcement, set high expectations, reward personal improvement, make academic tasks more interesting, teach attribution alternatives and self-advocacy, or orchestrate success through learning strategy instruction to motivate students. The purpose of this article is to discuss an additional technique designed to increase student motivation.
We know a great deal about academic motivation. We know that most students begin their formal school experience motivated to learn. In fact, they seem to have a natural desire to learn. Additionally, most students have high expectations for success. When children are given an appropriate learning task, they have great confidence that they can do it.
Not only are children motivated to learn, they tend to remain motivated. Even when young learners encounter frustration and failure, they demonstrate remarkable resilience. They continue to work at being academically successful even in the face of failure, at least for a while. However, for many learners, motivation and optimism begin to diminish with repeated failure. By the upper elementary grades, teachers begin to encounter "unmotivated" students. Teachers begin to hear, "I don't want to do this. I don't care. I hate school."
Once students begin to believe they cannot complete certain tasks or do well academically, teachers and counselors must reach into their academic "tool box" and call upon interventions powerful enough to rekindle the motivational fires that determine learning success.
Let's return to the opening dialogue. The student in this scenario could very well be the product of motivationally undermining experiences. If this student is unmotivated and unwilling to risk failure again, an intensive response is required. First, we must select a motivational intervention powerful enough to gain the student's commitment to learning. Secondly, we must find the time and opportunity to skillfully support the development of student motivation.
Recently, the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning staff have been working on a motivational program called "Possible Selves." Possible Selves is designed to increase student motivation by having students discuss their future lives. Specifically, students think about and describe their hoped for, expected, and feared possible selves. Once students describe their possible selves, they create a Possible Selves Tree. The tree is a metaphor used to examine the key roles students play in life, their hopes, expectations, and fears for the future, and the overall condition of their "tree." In effect, students are challenged to evaluate and take action to nurture their tree.
Researchers have found that once students have examined possible selves, they are more inclined to believe that they can do well in school and in life. They begin to view learning as the pathway to their hopes and expectations and as a way to prevent feared possible selves from materializing. Thus, learning becomes more relevant, and students increase their willingness to put forth effort and commitment to learning.
A student participates in several activities during evaluation and development of possible selves. First, the student completes a structured but open-ended interview with a teacher or counselor. The type and number of questions can be modified to fit the age and interests of the student.
During the interview, the student is asked to describe himself or herself. For example, the student may be asked to describe himself or herself as a learner, person, and athlete. As the student responds to questions and describes himself or herself, the teacher writes down what the student says. The teacher asks additional questions about the student's hopes, expectations, and fears for the future related to each area and records these responses as well.
Once the interview has been completed and the results analyzed by the teacher, the teacher and student draw a Possible Selves Tree. The teacher begins by stating, "I've learned a lot about you as a person. Let me share what you've taught me by using the picture of a tree to represent everything I've learned. The tree will have branches that represent your hopes and expectations as a learner, person, and athlete. The roots will represent the words you used to describe yourself now as a learner, person, and athlete. I'll use the exact words you stated to add branches and roots to the tree. You can help by adding to or modifying the statements you made. Later, I'll ask you to evaluate the tree and tell me if it really represents the ideas you shared."
Next, the tree is drawn, evaluated, and goals are discussed concerning how to keep the tree strong, make it fuller, protect it from fears, and provide it with nourishment. The student is asked to think about the tree and explain the tree to the teacher.
The picture of the tree is a good place to begin a discussion of how academics and learning support the total tree. A student-athlete may realize that athletic hopes will be lost without improved academic performance and thus be more inclined to commit time and energy to learning.
Let's examine another example of how future hopes can be used to gain student commitment to learning. In this case, the student hopes for a career as the owner of a trucking business. The student and teacher can begin to identify short- and long-term goals that are necessary to attain this possible self. It is hoped that the student will discover (with teacher guidance) that learning how to problem solve, earning a high school diploma, learning business math skills, or learning the Paraphrasing Strategy to comprehend important material supports the attainment of the student's hopes and expectations for the future. In addition, the student may discover that these same goals help the student avoid the feared selves he or she has identified (for example, no job, no money, no friends).
In any case, the possible selves tree and the goals established to "nurture" the tree are revisited regularly. Goals are modified, their attainment celebrated, new goals added, and hopes, expectations, and fears continually examined. Also, whenever the value of learning is questioned, the tree can be used to demonstrate how specific learning experiences and student effort contribute to the strength of the student's tree (future).
When students become chronically unmotivated to participate in learning, intensive intervention is required. Whether we use Surface Counseling, teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy, use positive reinforcement, make tasks more interesting, or explore Possible Selves, teachers and counselors will need the time and opportunity to engage in intensive, sometimes one-to-one instruction. One high school teacher who participated in a Possible Selves case study remarked, "I wish I had the time to do Possible Selves with all my students." Finding time and opportunity will take commitment and creative problem solving if teachers and counselors are to overcome this critical barrier.
In addition, we need more evidence that Possible Selves is indeed a successful intervention. Specifically, we need to be able to answer such questions as the following: Do students who complete the Possible Selves interview and create Possible Selves trees demonstrate increased academic motivation? Are these students academically successful? Do they and their teachers value participation in Possible Selves? With which students and at what grade levels is Possible Selves appropriate? These, and other questions must be addressed before Possible Selves becomes a widely disseminated intervention.
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