Motivating Students through Power and Choice

Autor/inn/en	Simmons, Amber M.; Page, Melissa
Titel	Motivating Students through Power and Choice
Quelle	In: English Journal, 100 (2010) 1, S.65-69 (5 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-8274
Schlagwörter	High Schools; Trust (Psychology); Freedom; Power Structure; United States Literature; Teacher Student Relationship; Student Motivation; Teacher Attitudes; Scoring Rubrics; Grades (Scholastic); Educational Strategies + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? High school; Oberschule; Freiheit; Teacher student relationships; Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung; Schulische Motivation; Lehrerverhalten; Scoring formulas; Auswertungsbogen; Notenspiegel; Lehrstrategie
Abstract	Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he should know, what he shall do." As teachers of American Literature, the authors admire Emerson's faith in the individual and find Thoreau's resistance to conformity an act of daring bravery, and as they think about these enlightened men and their ideals in relation to students, they wonder: If given the opportunity, would individual freedom and choice motivate students in the 21st-century classroom? If allowed the time to adjust to such power and guidance on how to use it, they think that individual freedom would motivate students to achieve scholastic excellence and embrace personal empowerment. Teacher control in the classroom has constructed an environment in which they no longer trust students, and they do not trust themselves. They have faith that students want to learn despite the incredible resistance they all face in the classroom. Students aren't resisting learning; they're resisting the whole context in which they are taught. This resistance has encouraged the authors to examine how changing the power structure in classrooms can encourage creativity and motivate students to have power over their learning. Describing an assignment for which groups of students designed and assessed projects on Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a high school teacher and a doctoral student show how curricular freedom can empower students. (Contains 1 figure.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	National Council of Teachers of English. 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. Tel: 877-369-6283; Tel: 217-328-3870; Web site: http://www.ncte.org/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10