Engaging, Motivating and Empowering Learners in Schools

Des Hewitt, Brittany Wright

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781526462992
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teacher Training

Successful teachers are able to motivate and inspire the children they teach and this is a skill that can only be supported by understanding good practice. This book gives you smart, pragmatic guidance backed by evidence-based research on how to engage and inspire in your teaching. It looks at both how you can influence and shape the learning that goes on in your classroom and how you can apply key lessons to your own professional development as a teacher.

Key coverage includes:

· The psychology of motivation and its implications for the classroom

· Behaviour for learning

· Essential advice on of safeguarding, mental health and wellbeing

· Active learning and engaging your pupils in the learning process

· How to develop as a professional and empowered teacher

1 Introduction to engagement, motivation and empowerment

Chapter guide

In this chapter, you will learn about:

• Why this book, why now?
• Teachers and pupils: Why we need to consider the development of both together
• Key concepts: Engagement, motivation and empowerment
• Who would find this book relevant?
• Case study examples and how the chapters are organised
• Making the links to school-based training for teachers
• Overview of the chapters

Learning matters in society. It is the life force that flows through the past, the present and the future. Without a good education, we have no learning. Without learning, we have nothing.

We write this book as a positive statement to explain the concept of a good education and the role of engagement, motivation and empowerment. We believe in the rights and responsibilities of all learners to experience a good education. We make no apologies for emphasising democracy, agency and the right to flourish. These are the roots of this book.

Whilst learning can happen anywhere, it is principally in early years, primary and secondary settings that education in a more formal sense takes place. Of course, universities and professional settings also provide keystones in the education system. But here, our focus is on schools. Schools very much reflect society in terms of the value and characteristics of education. We believe that a good education can only be achieved by engaging, motivating and empowering all learners in school. This way, everyone will flourish as individuals whilst making a positive contribution to society. Whilst there are individual, institutional and societal factors in both pupils and teachers that have an impact, the content structure and experience of education is critical. This book will examine the issues.

Why this book, why now?

A good education recognises different levels of learning in the classroom. This includes knowledge, skills and understanding. Moreover the development of social, emotional and, perhaps critically, core values are central to a good education. These are inextricably linked. Without knowledge and the skills to discuss the world, how can we generate strong values? Without strong values, how can we learn about the world in an ethical way, applying knowledge and working with others appropriately? Life is as much about doing the right thing as it is about doing things right. There is therefore no opposition between the development of strong core skills and strong core values. We cannot have a good education without developing the various aspects of learning – knowledge, skills, social, emotional and ethical learning – in both pupils and teachers. Both teachers and pupils deserve a good education.

Teachers and pupils: Why we need to consider the development of both together

Writing a book about learning is as much a process of self-discovery as articulating the current landscape of learning in schools. We hope that reading this book, however you do that, will facilitate your own journey of discovery. You will find in this book a review of current thinking around ‘engagement, motivation and empowerment’ of learners in school. By ‘learners’, we mean children and young people as learners, as well as teachers as learners. The central tenet of the book is the need to consider, in parallel, the development of both teachers and pupils. There is always an interaction between the lives of pupils and the lives of teachers in the classroom, at cognitive, social, emotional and moral levels. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development captures the interaction between the learner and their environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1992). It recognises the interconnectedness of the teacher and the learner. It is useful to consider who is the learner and who is the teacher. It is not quite as simple as you would think. In the work of Loris Malaguzzi, the role of the teacher is to discover the way in which the very young child learns, to understand the ‘hundred languages’ of the child (Edwards et al., 1998). In a very special way, the teacher learns from the child and the child teaches the teacher. But even in more formal learning settings, there is always a sense that the teacher can only be effective if they pitch a lesson at the current level of the learner. This means knowing the learner.

We take this model further to consider this at the level of engagement, motivation and empowerment. These concepts are introduced and referenced to recent educational theories. What are the principles underlying successful development of both pupils and teachers, and how might parallel processes, needs and concerns manifest in the classroom? We explore these principles and practices with reference to relevant theory, exemplifying them with authentic case studies from primary and secondary schools. Teachers and pupils are inextricably linked. This is why we need to consider their learning as being linked, and why this book is about the learning of pupils and the learning of teachers. We have a particular commitment to teachers at the early stages of their career. How did we learn to be teachers? What can we do to support new and early career teachers? Likewise, we have a responsibility to ensure that the next generation of learners has a great experience in schools, invested with all the knowledge and attributes to become and lead the next stage in our society. Only great teachers with a good education can provide the context, leadership and passion needed for a good education in schools. If we do not engage, motivate and empower teachers, how can we possibly do the same for children and young people? Disaffected, demotivated and disempowered professionals do not make good teachers.

Key concepts: Engagement, motivation, empowerment, mutuality and agency

In this book, you will be introduced to different aspects of engagement, motivation and empowerment. Whilst these will be explained, analysed and problematised in more detail throughout, it is useful to introduce them as broad concepts:

• Engagement: This is the degree to which a learner pays attention to or takes part in an activity. Often, linked to a degree of interest and degrees of motivation, it is also worth noting that learners can engage or not at different levels. For instance, Linnenbrink and Pintrich (2003) distinguish between behaviour, cognitive and motivational engagement. Learners can look like they are engaged in learning, but in reality, they just appear to be without developing their thinking and knowledge in a lesson.
• Motivation: This involves working towards a chosen goal in a sustained way (Zimmerman and Schunk, 2008). The principal distinction is between ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’ motivation. But, as we will see in the work of Ryan and Deci (2000), this is an oversimplification.
• Empowerment: Learners have the right to influence their learning, to have ownership of their past, present and future. They have the right to make their voices heard in education. These are enshrined as rights in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Detrick, 1999). We see empowerment as more than a political process: as an act of flourishing and the right to achieving one’s potential.
• Mutuality: This refers to how teaching and learning and teachers and pupils are inextricably linked in the classroom.
• Agency: This is the way the learner actively participates in and makes choices that influence their education and the education of others. Everyone has a right to a good education. Everyone has a responsibility to contribute to a good education. Again, this principle stands for teachers as well as pupils.

Who would find this book relevant?

We have written this book with new teachers and early career teachers in mind. We do not believe in the novice–expert dichotomy between new and experienced teachers. Everyone has something to bring to the profession. Sometimes, the youngest and least experienced teachers have creative, innovative and breathtaking learning experiences. Although a teacher may have worked in the same school for 20 years, we value the wisdom but also the desire to learn something new for their own benefit as well as for that of their classes.

For the new teacher, coming to terms with all the activities of the classroom can be a difficult but rewarding time. Often, making sense of this experience follows early periods of training – for instance, in England, by completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Making sense of the pupils’ learning is critical. But actually, this can only be achieved by a process of self-examination and self-discovery. Understanding the principals of teacher learning are just as important. We need to learn how to become a teacher in order to learn about a good education.

The process of learning for a new teacher, we believe, is based on the same principles as those for a pupil. Knowledge, skills, understanding, together with social, emotional and ethical development, are at the root of the education of a new teacher. Of course, the language, the activities and the motivations might be different. But becoming a more advanced learner takes commitment to understand explicitly what others might understand only implicitly. Learning really is a journey for both teachers and pupils at so many levels.

Case study examples and how the chapters are organised

At the start of this book, we said that reading is a process of self-discovery. We also see the act of reading as a dialogue between the writer and the reader. Sometimes we talk directly to each other. Sometimes you might agree. Sometimes you might disagree. Sometimes we ask questions to help you learn about education. Sometimes we ask questions to help you learn about yourself. In order to make learning explicit in this book, we have adopted a fairly structured approach in each chapter:

• A chapter guide with a synopsis of the learning focus in the chapter introduction: you will know how the chapter is organised and what you will learn about in the chapter.
• Case studies of fictionalised school examples from both primary and secondary schools. The case studies will help you relate the chapter to your own educational setting and you as a learner. The examples may well be different from or similar to your own experiences, but we want to use them to help you think more deeply about education and your role as a teacher.
• Reflection points explicitly ask you questions about yourself as a teacher and your understanding of key concepts in this book. Reflection can be useful in two ways: understanding what your starting position is before being introduced to new areas; and to reflect on new information after the event. We use both approaches, but of course, you can read this book in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of contents
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction to engagement, motivation and empowerment
• 2 Staying the course
• 3 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
• 4 Better learning, better behaviour
• 5 Well-being and safeguarding pupils and teachers
• 6 Professional engagement
• 7 Motivating all learners
• 8 Motivating teachers
• 9 Active learning
• 10 Empowering learners
• 11 The future What do we stand for in education?
• Index