The End In Mind

One of the biggest complaints I heard when working in a middle school was, “I shouldn’t have to teach that.”    Teachers were very frustrated and defensive about their efforts to engage apathetic students in the classroom.   What usually resulted was a mixture of coercion and discipline.   The coercion was to force students into a learning situation and the discipline was the result when they did not comply.

Most teachers will agree that about half of their secondary students make no consistent effort to learn.  Nowhere are there more frustrated people than the teachers in  classrooms who are attempting the impossible task of persuading large numbers of students to work in school.  

Dr. William Glasser author of Choice Theory in The Classroom, and Schools Without Failure says, “We are mistaken if we believe that discipline, dropouts and drugs are what is wrong with today’s schools.  Serious as they are, they are symptoms of a much larger underlying problem, which is that far too many capable students make little or no effort to learn.   Choice theory explains why this problem exists and how though learning teams we can begin to solve it.”

Glasser suggests that creating learning teams in the classroom engages more students and eliminates the type of competition that leads many students to frustration and failure.   Moving to working together in small learning teams motivates almost all students for the following reasons:

1. Students can gain a sense of belonging by working together in learning teams of two to five.  The teacher selects teams so that they are made up of a range of low, middle and high achievers.
2. Belonging provides the initial motivation for students to work, and as they achieve academic success, students who had nor worked previously begin to sense that knowledge is power and will want to work harder.
3. The stronger students find it need fulfilling to help the weaker ones.  They  find power and friendship that are part of a high performing team.
4. The weaker students find it need fulfilling to contribute as much as they can to the team effort because now their contribution matters.  When they worked alone a little effort got them nowhere.
5. Students need not depend only on the teacher.  Their own creativity and other members frees them from dependence from the teacher and gives them both power and freedom.

Many teachers will be tempted to reject this model simply because it is in conflict with the traditional picture that exists in their heads.   Even a system that is flawed continues to be supported because it takes a shift in perspective to embrace change.   In essence teaching is just structuring the way you want to learn.  To achieve the end in mind a teacher must create the best environment in which students can excel.