Analysis of Calvin
What are Calvin’s Motivational Patterns?
A student who is interested in school shows signs of enthusiasm, engagement, involvement, inspiration and so on in the classroom. But often students who are not interested in school show clear signs in their motivational patterns that suggest a lack of interest in school. Calvin is a perfect example to demonstrate characteristics that would be evident in a student who is not interested in school. Calvin’s motivational patterns that pertain to interest are hard to pinpoint because he is not very motivated in school. So rather we will be pointing out why the motivational patterns in the classroom are leaving Calvin so uninterested in school. Calvin is by no means a lazy kid with no motivation; he is a very intelligent and charismatic child with a lot of inventive and clever ideas. The interest theory examines individual interest and situational interest.
The comic above shows that Calvin is interested in dinosaurs and likes learning about them. But unfortunately for Calvin the content in the class is not covering material, such as dinosaurs, that he finds interesting. The information he is learning is not leading him to enduring or meaningful learning. Calvin is also having problems with self motivation in school. The situational interest in the classroom the teacher is supporting is not triggering any external factors or is not attracting him to the content that will help Calvin become interested in the material and therefore become motivated to learn. The comic below is a good example of this. Calvin is just sitting in his desk bored out of his mind; the situation the teacher has created does not create any sort of situational interest that a hands on inquiry based lesson might do.
Why does Calvin have this Particular Pattern?
There are many factors that contribute to Calvin’s lack of interest and his poor motivational patterns he demonstrates in school. One of the main reasons for Calvin’s motivational patterns is that his teacher is not catching his interest and then holding his interest. Most of the time Calvin’s teacher will not catch his interest right away, and he will not gain the curiosity about the subject matter if he never even gains the attention of the content at surface level. If by chance Calvin’s teacher does spark a bit of curiosity from Calvin she usually does not hold onto his interest. This is leaving Calvin uninterested in school and leading him to believe that the information he is learning in school is lackluster, like in the cartoon below.
What can the teacher do to foster a more productive motivational pattern?
There are several strategies Ms. Wormwood could incorporate into the classroom to foster a more productive motivational pattern and to also create more interest for her students. There are three curiosity-inducing instructional strategies that Ms. Wormwood could incorporate in the classroom. The first would be for her to use the strategy, guessing-and-feedback. This strategy involves the teacher asking students difficult questions and then announcing that their answers are wrong, revealing a gap in their knowledge. This is an example of the discrepancy catch factor. By letting the students know thier is a gap in their knowledge, it will hopefully spark curiosity. Another instructional strategy to spark interest would be incorporating the element of suspense in the classroom. The teacher would ask students to predict an outcome before the students actually engage in the activity that would reveal if their predictions were right or wrong. The third instructional strategy that would induce curiosity would be the use of controversy. A teacher would use this in a classroom by having two people with two different opinions attempt to come to an agreement. All three of these instructional strategies would help build interest in the classroom. Ms. Wormwood could use catch factors to gain Calvin's interest. For example Ms. Wormwood could incorporate Calvin's individual interest by taking the class on a field trip to learn about dinosaurs. Another example to catch Calvin's situational interest would be allowing Calvin to act out an event in history. This would spark his interest with the novelty of the activity and it would also hold his interest because of the involvement he would have in the activity. Hopefully if Calvin’s teacher used these methods and the catch and hold method in her classroom he would become more interested and more motivated in school. See Teaching Methods to gain more ideas Ms. Wormwood could use in the classroom to create interest.