A Look Back
“Neuroscience reveals boredom hurts”
By Judy Willis, May 2014, pp. 28-32
In this Kappan article, neurologist-turned-teacher Judy Willis explains how repeatedly experiencing boredom in the classroom can cause the brain to create “a generalized prejudice” against certain topics and activities and result in impaired academic performance. “Without hope of change,” Willis explains, “the brain loses an expectation of potential pleasure. Negative expectations and task withdrawal can ensue when the hopelessness builds class after class and year after year without students experiencing adequate positive emotional connections to what they are taught.”
In such cases, a student’s behavior may be incorrectly classified as the result of “cognitive limitations, intentional lack of effort, or willful opposition,” when in fact the brain’s response is involuntary, Willis writes. Importantly, teachers can play a powerful role in retraining student brains. Helping learners recognize the relevance of class content and differentiating instruction, for instance, can prevent students from disengaging and provide opportunities for more learners to experience the dopamine response that comes with mastering an achievable challenge. Just as important is helping students understand how their brain learns and how to push through a stressed/bored stage by setting their own internal challenges and goals. Ideally, students should be taught that not all boredom is bad, Willis writes. “Help them recall how they persevered through boring practice of the foundational skills or knowledge that ultimately allowed them to achieve the proficiency they enjoy in keyboarding, snowboarding, and most academic areas where they’re successful.”
“Motivation is something that kids start out with. You don’t have to bribe a young child to show you how she can count to a thousand million or decode signs on the highway. But research shows that by the middle — or certainly by the end — of elementary school, this intrinsic motivation starts to tail off sharply — by an extraordinary coincidence, around the time that grades have started to kick in.” — Alfie Kohn in an interview at ASCD’s annual conference, March 27, 1995.
Conversation piece
This issue examines how educators can engage and motivate their students. Use these questions to reflect on the issue with your colleagues.
- What kinds of lessons and activities have you found most effective in engaging your students and motivating them to learn, even when it’s difficult?
- What common practices do you think are demotivating to students? Why do they remain common?
- What role do you think the ABCs of motivation — autonomy, belonging, and competence — have in promoting student learning?
- How might you incorporate some of the practices discussed in this issue (such as increased student choice or project-based learning) into your teaching?
PDK members have access to discussion guides related to specific articles in each issue of Kappan. Log in to the member portal and access the discussion guides at https://members.pdkintl.org/PDK_Member_Discussion_Questions
Research connections
Want-to versus have-to
Why do some people face more obstacles in the pursuit of their goals? The answer may lie in their motivations (want-to versus have-to) and trait self-control, a term that refers to an individual’s capacity to exert control over impulsive responses.
In a 2022 study, researchers found that trait self-control and pursuing a goal because it was interesting and personally important (want-to motivation) “were related to preferences for positioning obstacles farther from oneself and putting oneself into environments with fewer obstacles.” On the other hand, pursuing a goal because of internal or external pressure (have-to motivation) “was related to a preference for environments with more or closer obstacles.” In other words, people set up their environment in a way that removes temptations or distractions when pursuing a goal they’re interested in. Researchers drew their findings from an array of studies, including some measuring the success of student study sessions.
Source: Leduc-Cummings, I., Werner, K.M., Milyavskaya, M., Dominick, J.K., & Cole, S. (2022). Experiencing obstacles during goal pursuit: The role of goal motivation and trait self-control. Journal of Research in Personality, 99, 104231.
“If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any further assistance, very often. Children are natural learners. It’s a real achievement to put that particular ability out, or to stifle it. Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” — Sir Ken Robinson speaking at TED Talks Education, April 2013.
Perceptions of student motivation
Students perceive their own levels of motivation to be much higher than educators do, according to data from the EdWeek Research Center. In a nationally representative survey of 13- to 19-year-olds conducted from December 2022 to January 2023, only 14% of students indicated that they don’t feel motivated to do their best in school. In comparison, 41% of secondary school educators polled in a companion survey said their students were “very” or “somewhat” unmotivated. Regardless of the perception gap, the surveys identified key strategies for boosting student motivation, including mentoring programs and career and technical education classes. Interestingly, when students were asked what teachers could do to keep learners motivated, the most common response was offering students the opportunity to redo assignments for a higher grade, with 35% of teens endorsing the practice.
Source: EdWeek Research Center. (2023, March) Student motivation: Student and educator perceptions.
Effective science instruction
A combination of inquiry-based and direct instruction may be the best approach to support student learning in the sciences, according to a new research review. Overall, the literature shows inquiry-based instruction is more effective than direct instruction, but researchers believe a combination of the two methods may often provide the best outcomes for students, with active learning being a “key condition for successful learning.” “One underlying premise, of course, is that instruction (be it direct or inquiry-based instruction) must be well-designed and support students in their self-directed learning process,” the paper notes.
Source: De Jong, T., Lazonder, A.W., Chinn, C.A., Fischer, F., Gobert, J., Hmelo-Silver, C.E., . . . & Zacharia, Z.C. (2023). Let’s talk evidence — The case for combining inquiry-based and direct instruction. Educational Research Review, 39, 100536.
This article appears in the February 2024 issue of Kappan, Vol. 105, No. 5, p. 5-6.
