Classroom Environments & Motivation

Brewing Knowledge Friday

Reading from the book What Did You Ask At School Today by Kamala Mukunda, and discussing student motivation and classroom environments from a psychology perspective #BrewingKnowledge

Key Takeaways

Three Classroom Models: Classrooms are competitive (emphasising peer competition and fear of failure), cooperative (emphasising group work and moral responsibility), or individualistic (emphasising self-mastery and personal improvement).

Autonomy-Supportive Teaching: This style fosters intrinsic motivation by employing questions and hints rather than commands. Comparing students, intended as a form of motivation, was found to be a subtle form of control.

Mastery vs. Performance: A mastery orientation (focus on learning) builds resilience by attributing failure to effort. A performance orientation (focus on grades) creates a fear of failure and discourages risk-taking.

Motivation Cycle: Motivation can follow action. Forcing an action that yields positive results can create the initial motivation needed to build a habit.

Topics

Classroom Environments & Motivation

Three classroom models drive student motivation differently:

• Competitive: Focus on peers → fear of failure → avoidance of challenging tasks.
• Cooperative: Focus on group → moral responsibility → peer encouragement.
• Individualistic: Focus on self-mastery → personal improvement.

The teacher's philosophy and school culture determine the environment.

Personal Reflection: Jugjiv Singh noted a competitive drive for subjects he enjoyed (e.g., math) but disengagement from other subjects, suggesting that interest and environment are intertwined.

A case study on a disengaged student, Sarah, revealed teacher styles:

• Controlling: Commands or moderately controlling persuasion.
• Autonomy-Supportive: Encourages student-led solutions.
• Research Findings (Reeve): Autonomy-supportive teachers (vs. controlling ones):
• Listened more; held materials less.
• Gave hints, not solutions.
• Asked questions ("Which pattern?") vs. commands ("Flip it over").

Peer Comparison as Control: Research shows that using peer comparison to motivate students constitutes a subtle form of control rather than autonomy support.

Rationale: Minakshi Prasad explained that comparison often creates anxiety and helplessness rather than motivation.

Mastery vs. Performance Orientation

Two distinct learning orientations:

Mastery: Focus on learning and improvement.

Assumption: "I can if I try."

Outcome: Failure attributed to effort → builds resilience.

Performance: Focus on grades and outdoing peers.

Assumption: Focus on ability.

Outcome: Fear of failure → discourages risk-taking.

Feedback & Community Direction

Teacher Autonomy: Teachers require an autonomy-supportive context to foster their students' autonomy.

Rationale: Quality cannot be enforced externally; it requires intrinsic motivation.

Community Feedback:

Minakshi Prasad: Suggested recording sessions for teachers who miss them.

Jugjiv Singh: Recommended focusing on the core objective of improving teaching, questioning the fit of recent author meet-and-greets.