Case Study in Motivation

EDU 615 Motivational Theory and Class Management

Judith Larkin

I.

Introduction

Sean is a current first grade student of mine and he is six years old.
He is an identified student diagnosed with several behavior
disorders. Sean has attended three different schools. He attended
pre-school in another town, kindergarten in our district but another
K-3 school, and he started first grade in my class at the beginning of
the school year. He attends before and after school day care. When
he started the school year, he would easily get frustrated with any
work that he was given. He would scream, shout, and throw things
when he would get upset. Sean had trouble keeping his body to
himself. During lunch and recess, he would always have difficulty
with the perceived freedom and would often act out. Sean does not
like to follow rules and likes to be in control of every situation. He
has difficulty treating peers and teachers with respect. His behavior
was affecting his peer relationships as well as adults perceiving him
as the one always making poor decisions.
Seans progress in reading, writing, and math were a concern to me.
He would often refuse to do work. At the beginning of the year, it
was hard to determine if the work was too difficult, if it was
avoidance, or if he had learned that it was easier to deal with acting
out instead of asking for help. He would say I cant read, I cant
write, or I dont have to do it. His frustration level was high and
he would often act out due to his perception that he couldnt
complete a task. He had low self-efficacy and had learned how to

disguise it with poor choices. During any unstructured time, his

inappropriate behavior would escalate. He is very motivated with
extrinsic rewards and that is how his behavior is dealt with at home.
I have had many parent meetings and have determined that there is
no consistency at home with behavior expectations. Sean has
siblings, both older and younger, and he often gets his way at home
because it is easier than holding him accountable for his actions and
dealing with the consequences of his acting out.
When we have indoor recess, I have observed him playing with
others. He wants to be in control and he has difficulty sharing. Sean
wants to be the first for everything. He would run to be the first in
line to go to lunch or specials. In reading group, he wants a certain
page to read. When we share during writing time, he wants to be
first. When he doesnt get his way, he gets angry.
When he goes to art, music, or P.E., he often gives these teachers a
difficult time. If there is a substitute in the classroom, he will always
push the boundaries as far as he can.
II.

Observations
Guided Reading At the beginning of the year, Sean was very
uncooperative during guided reading group. He was frustrated
during the lesson because he came with the perception that he
wasnt able to succeed. This frustration would often escalate to
inattention and behavior issues. According to the attribution theory,
whenever something happens, the person tries to determine why

and it affects their decision whether to engage in that task in the

future (Anderman, 2014). Sean was not willing to engage because
he felt he would be unsuccessful. I also felt that he wanted to
control the situation by exhibiting behavior issues, therefore,
preventing the lesson from continuing. Sean also exhibited low self
efficacy. Anderman states that since self efficacy is related to
student achievement, teachers have the potential to influence these
beliefs (Anderman, 2014).
I decided to change the structure of guided reading and moved to
doing a skill based strategy group with hands on activities. Sean is a
very visual learner. We started using letter cards to make and break
words. I used the smartboard for sight word activities. Sean was very
engaged in these activities, therefore, he would participate and he started to perceive
that he was able to learn. Tomlinson states that teachers have to have a conviction that
students differ in their needs and they need to believe that if students are active in
their learning, decision making, and problem solving then the classroom will be
effective (Tomlinson, 2001).
Independent Work Sean had a very difficult time at the beginning of the year to do
any type of activity independently. Building stamina during independent reading time
was the most challenging time for him. He would often say I cant read and would
distract other students. Again, he wanted to control the situation by making poor
choices. At the beginning of the year, I would brainstorm different ways to read
books. Students can read the pictures or read the words. I sat with Sean to do picture

walks with books and that helped. I told him not to worry about the words and try to
tell a story in his head. By doing an interest inventory survey at the beginning of the
year, I knew he liked books about planes, trains, and trucks. I tried to fill his book bin
with books that he was interested in. I also had a listening station for him to listen to
books on tape. I definitely had to differentiate instruction for him until he was able to
learn beginning reading strategies and build his reading stamina.
Assessments - Sean had a lot of difficulty taking any type of assessment in any
academic area. Again his self efficacy was extremely low and it was easier to avoid
the assessment by acting out then to take the assessment and not know the answers.
In the article Enhancing Student Learning, it states that in recent
years thinking has changed about the assessment process and it
has moved beyond judging student achievement to making changes
in teaching that will lead to student learning (Stiggins and Chappuis,
2008). After learning so much about differentiated instruction, I felt
that I needed to work toward differentiated assessments. Sean was
not able to show me what he knew with a typical assessment that I
was giving to most students. I started changing his assessments to
focus on specific skills that we were working on daily. Once he was
able to complete these differentiated assessments, he started to
feel proud of his hard work and was more vested in his learning.
Anderman states that as teachers we often think about the process
of assessment but rarely consider the after affects (Anderman,
2014). For students who attribute the outcome of an assessment to

their success or failure, it is important to look at the assessment

process in a different way.
Writing Workshop - Sean struggled with writing at the beginning of
the school year. I do feel that writing is very easy to differentiate. I
have different expectations for all my students in writing. For Sean, I
wanted him to simply write a complete sentence using upper and
lower case letters appropriately, correct spacing, and punctuation.
The problem for Sean was finding anything to write about. My
students often write about things they do at home or on the
weekend. Sean often had a difficult time at home with behavior
issues and thats all he would focus on. I started to sit with him at
the beginning of writing time and helped him to think of something
to write about. I would try to help him put a positive spin on
whatever he would write. He would often write about what he did at
recess and why he liked it. Working with him individually and setting
a goal of one correctly written sentence helped him to feel
successful.
III.

Effective Strategies
The Attribution Theory of Motivation has been the focus for me
when working with Sean as a learner in my classroom. Since I have
an inclusion classroom, I believe that creating a safe classroom
environment with defined classroom expectations is crucial for
successful learning. I collaborate with a special education teacher
and have weekly lessons about social thinking that incorporates

expected and unexpected behavior. When looking at the three

dimensions of the attribution theory, I think stability, locus, and
control are important to address in terms of academic motivation
(Anderman, 2014).
I also think it is important to look at attributions and expectancies. I
have started to focus more on my expectancies for my students.
According to Seans parents and previous teachers, he was not
available for learning due to behavior issues. According to
Anderman, teachers initial expectations for students may be
influenced by the attributions they make for students prior
successes or failures (Anderman, 2014). As a teacher, I need to try
various ways to reach learners through differentiated
instruction/assessments and learning as much as I can about how my
students learn. Students self-efficacy beliefs are affected by teachers expectations
(Anderman, 2014). Sean was able to succeed as a student once he knew the
expectations within the classroom and given various ways to learn new material.
Tomlinson states that there is no recipe for differentiation, and that it looks different
in every classroom (Tomlinson, 2001). I think this is extremely important to focus
on. Whatever works in one classroom might not work in another. It is important to
know as much as you can about each learner and develop ways to teach and assess
them in a way that they will feel successful and become life-long learners.

IV.

Conclusion

Sean has been a challenge this year, but I have seen a huge growth in his ability to
learn and in his self-efficacy beliefs. I think focusing on one students growth has
given me proof that as a teacher I need to be open minded and learn new strategies on
a daily basis to reach all students. Sometimes it is easy to become so comfortable with
what we do as teachers and think it is successful for every student. I have definitely
tried new things this year.some have worked and some havent. Overall, I think the
attribution theory of motivation applies to many of my students. My expectations of
students and how I interact with them affects how they believe in themselves. I think
it is important to have high expectations for all students, but understand that they may
achieve those goals in different ways. The main strategies that I feel have worked for
me are: 1) Creating a safe environment by working with students to set clear cut
expected/unexpected behavior; 2) Using an interest inventory survey to learn about
my students to help differentiate instruction; 3) Setting high expectations for all my
students and thinking more about self-efficacy; 4) Differentiating assessments;
5) Being more aware of what motivates and engages learners by taking notes of
observable behaviors during lessons. When teachers believe that they can affect
student learning, students are in fact more likely to learn effectively (Ashton &
Webb, 1986).

References
Anderman, E. M., & Anderman L.H. (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Ashton, P. T., & Webb, R. B. (1986). Making a difference: Teachers sense of efficacy and
Student achievement. New York, NY: Longman.
Chapman, C. & King, R. (2012). Differentiated Assessment Strategies One Tool
Doesnt Fit All (2nd.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
https://www.socialthinking.com/
Stiggins, R., & Chappuis, J. (2008). Enhancing Student Learning. District Administration.
http://ati.pearson.com/downloads/enhancingstudent_dadmn01-08.pdf
Tomlinson, C.A. (2001). How To Differentiate Instruction In Mixed-Ability
Classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.