Motivation and Engagement (1)

Unstoppable Learning includes a far ranging framework for management engagement. This is the first post exploring the topic.

Podcast is AI generated, and will make mistakes. Interactive transcript available in the podcast post.

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“Present this to your students, and tell them that in three days, every single one of them will be able to say what will calculate its area.”

Two teachers presented me with a problem. They shared a mixed ability Year 8 class, which included a large contingent of what they called 'the desktop truants,’ students there in body, but not in spirit.

The truants are not the problem.

We have been working together now for a few months, and the truants are fully bought in. No longer truant, they are fully engaged, bought in, motivated, working through dozens of tasks every lesson with glee and aplomb.

The problem is Darren.

Darren is one of their high attainers. He’d be in your top set.

When you ask him what would calculate the area of this shape:

He insists on telling you it’s 325.

“Yes I know, Darren, but what’s the calculation?”

“What does it matter, sir? The area’s 325.”

Not only that, he’s bored. This is too easy. Why just write 25 * 13 when I can tell you it’s 325?

Another part of the problem is that of course this mixed ability Year 8 class has previously been taught how to calculate the area of a rectangle. Yes, some of them still cannot do that, or have forgotten how. Yes the aims of our co-created area unit are ultimately high, but Darren doesn’t know that. All he knows is that he’s being asked to do something he learnt years ago, and can now do with nary a thought.

My proposal is the trapezium task above.

A carrot for Darren, and a very serious commitment to everyone in the class this is all going somewhere rather special. This goes along with some carefully chosen words about how you know you’re retreading old ground, but you’re doing it in part because you want everyone along on this journey - so out of respect for the others in the room, please go along with me; and also, Darren, you need to try things a little differently if you’re going to grab that carrot in a few days time.

The teachers' modified the suggestion and went with this in the end:

And, in their words, ‘Darren’s mind was blown.’ Now he was along for the ride.

This is just one approach in our motivational framework. Others include:

• Narrative structure

• The Headache / Aspirin framework

  • Historical Headaches

  • Visceral Headaches

• Success

Subscribe to stay informed when we cover each of these, and to learn more about discursive versus epistemic curiosity.

Now, most maths teachers I know have been able to work out the answer to the trapezium question, but only one so far has worked out the answer to this ratio question:

Given that a ratio is 2a:3a:3x:4p and that one part of the ratio is worth 5Q, what would calculate each share?

But any group, even your mixed ability or bottom set Year 7s can answer this if you present an expansion sequence like the one below: