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HOW MINDS WORK: THE KEY TO MOTIVATION, LEARNING, AND THINKING

by Alice Thomas M.Ed.

In your experience, what are the most common impediments to student achievement in your classrooms?

When teachers are asked this question, almost without fail, at the top or near the top of the list is MOTIVATION. Asked to elaborate, teachers often continue with statements such as “The students just don’t put out any effort.” “They aren’t interested in the lesson.” “I can get their initial attention, but it soon fizzles out.” “They look at me like they know it’s hopeless, so why try?” “They just aren’t motivated.”

Or are they? All children are motivated…but they may not be motivated about what we want them to be motivated about. Take, for example, a relatively old tool familiar to us all, the remote control. If one TV program does not interest (motivate) us, then, with the push of a button, we move quickly to the next program. So it is with children’s minds. How, then, do we keep children in our classrooms on our program instead of hitting their remote controls and going to another “program” – a daydream, a snooze, a distracting prank?

People are different. Thank goodness for that. So are our brains, and how our brains process and manipulate information. When we differentiate instruction and teach in ways that are compatible with how diverse brains process information – the learning process and all the variations therein – we not only honor the diversity of minds; we connect with, engage and motivate students.

There are six interactive components of the learning process: attention, memory, language, processing and organizing, graphomotor (writing) skills and higher order thinking. These processes interact not only with each other, but also with emotion, classroom climate, behavior, social skills, teachers and family. This article will introduce the components of the learning process and touch on how emotions interact with learning; it is beyond the scope of this article to address the others.

In order to motivate all learners and to teach all learners at optimal levels, we must understand the learning process in general, understand and respond to students’ individual emotional and cognitive profiles, build learner-centered classrooms and use i nstructional strategies and tactics that are effective for diverse learners.

ATTENTION. Paying attention is the first step in learning anything. It is easy for most of us to pay attention to things that are interesting or exciting to us. It is difficult for most of us to pay attention to things that are not. When something is not interesting to us, it is easier to become distracted, to move to a more stimulating topic or activity, or to tune out.

The job in school is for the teacher to construct lessons that connect to the learner. Relating what is to be taught to real life can do this. Relate Romeo and Juliet, for example, to the realities in our communities of prejudice, unfounded hatred and gang wars. Or relate today’s discrimination to The Diary of Anne Frank, and hold class discussions of discrimination that students have personally experienced or witnessed.

Physical movement can help to “wake up” a mind. When a student shows signs of inattentiveness and/or restlessness, teachers can provide the student with opportunities to move around. Responsibilities such as erasing the board, taking a message to the office, and collecting papers can offer appropriate outlets for activity. Many students with attention challenges actually need to move in order to remain alert. It is wise to find acceptable, non-destructive ways for these students to be active.

MEMORY. Memory is the complex process that uses three systems to help a person receive, use, store, and retrieve information. The three memory systems are short-term memory (remembering a phone number you got from information just long enough to dial it), working memory (keeping the necessary information “files” out on the mind’s “desktop” while performing a task such as writing a paragraph or working a long division problem), and long-term memory (where we store away important information we want to retrieve over time). Children in school have to remember much more information every day than most adults do, because adults generally have more specialized days – mechanics use and remember mechanical information, dentists use and remember information about dentistry, and so on.

It is important to remember that when a student understands something, it does not guarantee that he will remember it. For example, you may understand a joke you heard at a party on Saturday night, but on Monday you have trouble remembering it when you try to tell it to your friends at work.

In order to enhance the likelihood that all students will elaborate on new information, teachers should activate their prior knowledge and make new information meaningful to them. It is much easier to remember things that relate to prior memory or personally relevant experiences. For example, a teacher may ask second graders how to divide a pan of brownies evenly among the 20 students in the class, and then connect their solution to the concept of equivalent fractions. Relating how algebraic equations need to be equal or balanced on both sides to dividing candy or cookies evenly between friends also connects to prior knowledge.

Students who have difficulty with both short-term and working memory may need directions repeated to them. Giving directions both orally and in written form and giving examples of what is expected will help all students. All students will benefit from self-testing. They should identify the important information, formulate test questions and then answer them.

LANGUAGE. Language is the primary means by which we give and receive information. The two language processing systems are expressive (give out) and receptive (take in). We use expressive language when we speak and write, and we use receptive language when we read and listen. Students with good language processing skills usually do well in school. Problems with language, on the other hand, affect a student’s ability to communicate effectively, understand and store verbal and written information, understand what others say, and maintain relationships with others.

Most students, especially those with weaknesses in written language, will benefit from using a staging procedure for expository and creative writing. With this procedure, students first generate ideas. Next they organize their ideas. Third, they may look at sentence structure. Then they look at spelling. Finally, they attend to mechanical and grammatical rules. Students may also list their most frequently occurring errors in a notebook and refer to this list when self-correcting.

All students will benefit from systematic, cumulative, and explicit teaching of reading and writing.

It is important to remember that students who have receptive language challenges may use up a lot of energy listening, and therefore tire easily. Consequently, short, highly structured work times with frequent breaks or quiet periods may be helpful. Oral instructions may also need to be repeated.

Broadening the way we communicate information in the classroom can connect all students more to the topic at hand, and especially students with language challenges. “Language” can also be non-verbal, so use visual communication such as pictures and videos. Challenge students to invent ways to communicate with pictures and other visuals, drama, sculpture, dance and music, and watch classrooms come alive.

ORGANIZATION. We process and organize information in two main ways: spatial (also known as simultaneous) and sequential (also known as successive). Spatial processing is the process we use to order or organize information in space. Having a good sense of direction and being able to “see” how puzzle pieces fit together are two examples of spatial processing. Sequential processing is what we use to order or organize information in time and sequence. Concepts of time, dates, and order – yesterday, today, tomorrow; months of the year; word order in sentences – are examples of sequential processing. Students who are good at sequential organization have no trouble with time management and find it easy to organize a paper in a sequence that is logical.

Students who have trouble with understanding spatial or geographical problems may need sequential verbal explanations given to them. They may benefit from writing written explanations and descriptions of the information contained in charts, graphs or diagrams. Teachers should model this process for all students. Students who have trouble remembering sequences of information but who are strong in simultaneous processing should benefit from graphic organizers, making diagrams or flow charts of sequential information such as events in history rather than the standard timeline. They may benefit from using Inspiration, a software program that organizes concepts and information into visual maps.

Practicing cooperative learning allows each student’s processing and organizing strengths to be utilized to the benefit of the group. Those who are strong in simultaneous organization may create the group’s chart, visual, or map, and those strong in sequential organization may be the task step organizers, the taskmasters, timekeepers and the pace setters.

GRAPHOMOTOR (WRITING) SKILLS. The writing process requires neural, visual, and muscular coordination to produce written work. It is not an act of will but rather an act of coordination among those functions. Often, the student who seems unmotivated to complete written work is the student whose writing coordination is klutzy. We have long accepted that students may be athletic or clumsy in sports, but we have not known much until recently that some students are writing “athletes” and others writing klutzes. Just as practice, practice, practice won’t make a football all-star out of an absolute klutz, practice and acts of will won’t make a writing all star out of someone whose wiring does not allow them to be graphomotor all-stars.

Students with handwriting difficulties may need to be given the opportunity to provide oral answers to exercises, quizzes, and tests. Having computers in place for all children helps level the playing field for the graphomotor klutz. Parents and teachers should be aware that many children with graphomotor weak­nesses may also have difficulty with the quick muscular coordination required by the keyboard.

HIGHER ORDER THINKING. In a nutshell, Higher Order Thinking (HOT) is more than memorizing facts or telling something back to the teacher exactly the way the teacher gave it out. When a person memorizes and gives back information without having to think about it, we call that rote memory. That’s because it’s something like a robot; it does what it’s programmed to do, but it doesn’t think for itself. Higher order thinking requires that we do something with the facts. We must understand and manipulate the information.

HOT includes concept formation and concept connection; problem solving; grasping the “big picture”; visualizing; creativity; questioning; creative, analytical and practical thinking; and metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about thinking, knowing about knowing, and knowing how you think, process information and learn.

All students will benefit from advance organizers that give the “big picture” and the main concepts to be covered. Also, teach students how to build concept maps, and have the students construct the maps together.

Give choices for projects and exams that span analytical, practical and creative higher order thinking. For example, an analytical choice might be to compare and contrast the Holocaust to Bosnia. A practical choice might be to show how we could apply the lessons learned from the Holocaust or Bosnia to how we treat one another in our school. A creative choice might be to write a play about tolerance, create a dance that communicates the emotions of the Holocaust, or write a poem or paint a picture that tells a story about how you feel about recent events in Iraq.

A student with metacognition can answer the question, “How am I smart?” The first part of metacognition is thinking about thinking. If a person has have metacognition, he understands the way he thinks, and he understands his strengths and challenges in specific skill areas, subjects and activities.

A person with metacognition also monitors and regulates how he learns. He can take a task and decide how best to accomplish it by using his strategies and skills effectively. Do you know how would you best learn a new math procedure? A science concept? What would be the best way for you to organize an essay – with an outline, a graphic organizer or a mind map?

Robert Sternberg defines successful intelligence as mental self-management. Successful intelligence is a great way to explain metacognition. In his book entitled Successful Intelligence, Sternberg lists six components of successful intelligence:

• Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Capitalize on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses.
• Defy negative expectations.
• Believe in yourself (self-efficacy).
• Seek out role models.
• Seek out an environment where you can make a difference.

Ultimately, this is where we hope students who attend our schools will be upon graduation. As adults, we should model our own metacognition, talk about metacognition, and give great, relevant examples of metacognition often and well.

Providing ample opportunities in the classroom for self-evaluation and self-reflection helps students develop self-understanding. Carol Rolheiser’s book, Self-Evaluation... Helping Students Get Better At It! is listed in the reference section following this article and is a great resource for teachers who want to incorporate more self-evaluation in their classrooms.

Teaching students about the six components of the learning process demystifies learning and provides an opportunity to increase their metacognition. It also enhances their sense of self-worth. A student who understands that she may need to use a particular strategy to help her working memory function better or that taking frequent breaks will help her stay more focused on her homework assignments is much better than thinking that she is stupid or lazy.

EMOTIONS. Emotions control the on-off switch to learning. When we are relaxed and calm, our learning processes have a green light. When we are uptight, anxious, or afraid, our learning processes have a red light. In the classroom, tension slams the steel door of the mind shut. Creating a non-threatening classroom environment or climate where mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities reduces tension, opens the mind and increases the opportunity for learning.

How does this relate to motivation? The more we know about how learning takes place – how information is processed, manipulated and created, the more we will know about what it looks like when it’s working and what it looks like when it starts to break down. Then, instead of thinking a student isn’t motivated (he has car trouble), we will look to see if it is attention, memory, language, organizing, graphomotor or higher order thinking that needs an intervention (the spark plug, the battery or the generator).

Cars don’t stop because they are not motivated. Neither do children. There’s something under the hood that needs attention when a car has trouble, and there’s something “under the hood” that needs attention when a student is not learning or motivated to learn what we want them to learn.

So whose job is it to motivate students? It is every teacher’s job to motivate every student. Learning more about the brain and the development of the mind, studying the new information on learning, making learning meaningful and learning about learning, watching the learning process, monitoring closely for breakdowns, and celebrating the successes of every student – these are our challenges and our privileges as we create schools that honor diversity – the schools all children deserve.

References

Bennett, B. & Rolheiser, C. (2001). Beyond monet: The artful science of instructional integration. Toronto: Bookation, Inc.

Berninger, V. W. & Richards, T. L. (2002). Brain literacy for educators and psychologists. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Brooks, R. & Goldstein, S. (2002). Raising resilient children: Fostering strength, hope, and optimism in children. Paul Brooks Publishing Company.

Levine, M. D. (2002). Educational care (Second Edition). Cambridge, MA: Educator’s Publishing Service.

Levine, M. D. (1998). Developmental variation and learning disorders (Second Edition). Cambridge, MA: Educator's Publishing Service.

Moats, L. C. (2000). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Rolheiser, C., ed. (1996). Self-evaluation...Helping students get better at it! Ajax, Ontario: VisuTronx.

Sternberg, R. J. (1996). Successful intelligence. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Thomas, A., ed. (1997). Plain talk about k.i.d.s . Cambridge, MA: Educator's Publishing Service.

Thomas, A., Thorne, G., Small, R., DiSanti, P., & Lawson, C. (1998). MINDWORKS! ...and How mine works. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thomas, A., ed. (2004). Plain talk about kids. Covington, LA: Learning Success Press.

Thomas, A. & Thorne, G. (2005). Language, learning and a place called school. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thomas, A. & Thorne, G. (in press). Organization: Processing and ordering information. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thomas, A. & Thorne, G. (in press). Higher order thinking…it’s HOT! Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thorne, G. & Thomas, A. (in press). Paying attention to attention. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thorne, G. & Thomas, A. (in press). The mechanics of remembering. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Thorne, G. & Thomas, A. (in press). Graphomotor skills: When your fingers do the writing. Covington, LA: Center for Development and Learning.

Tomlinson, C.A. (1999). The differentiated classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Vail, P. (1994). Emotion: The on/off switch for learning Rosemont, NJ: Modern Learning Press.

Alice Thomas is the president and CEO of the Center for Development and Learning. She may be reached at athomas@cdl.org.