Educational Psychology

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teaching offers the privilege of helping diverse young people realize their potential while continuously growing as a person through the challenge of designing meaningful learning experiences, despite the inevitable frustrations that accompany these rewards.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core motivations for teaching: witnessing student growth and joy in learning, encouraging lifelong learning for yourself and others, and experiencing the challenge of creating engaging activities.
• The teacher's privilege: helping students of all backgrounds realize their talents and potential as contributors to society.
• The satisfaction of complexity: designing and orchestrating activities that communicate ideas effectively, exercising judgment and artistry that improve over time.
• Common confusion: every joy has a related frustration—complexity can feel overwhelming instead of satisfying, and novelty can become chaos rather than excitement.
• Teaching has changed significantly: increased diversity, instructional technology, and accountability have transformed both opportunities and challenges in the profession.

💡 Why people choose to teach

💡 Personal connection to students

• Ashley teaches for specific individuals: Nadia who smiles and tries hard, Lincoln who needs help, and twenty other students—each is a distinct reason.
• She also teaches for herself: to challenge herself to keep up with twenty-two young people at once and accomplish something worthwhile.
• Teaching allows you to keep growing as a person, connecting with others, and learning new ideas.

🌱 Witnessing growth and diversity

A teacher's job—in fact a teacher's privilege—is to help particular "young people" to realize their potential.

• Students can be six years old or sixteen or older; they can be rich, poor, or in between; they can come from any ethnic background; their first language may or may not be English.
• All students have potential as human beings: talents and personal qualities (possibly not yet realized) that can contribute to society as leaders, experts, or supporters of others.
• Example: In one classroom, you might have five kids who speak English as a second language, two or three with reading disabilities, and a wide range of abilities—all with different potentials to unlock.

📚 Encouraging lifelong learning

• You will not teach any one student forever, but you work with them long enough to convey a crucial message: there is much in life to learn—more than any one teacher or school can provide in a lifetime.
• The immensity of knowledge (whether science, math, reading, sports, music, or art) can be a source of curiosity, wonder, and excitement.
• Teachers have the advantage of not only teaching valuable knowledge and skills, but also pointing students beyond what they will be able to learn from you.
• As an old limerick put it: "The world is full of such a plenty of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

🎨 The craft of teaching

🎨 Designing and orchestrating activities

• Teaching offers the satisfaction of designing and orchestrating complex activities that communicate new ideas and skills effectively.
• This is where teachers exercise judgment and "artistry" most freely and frequently.
• Students depend on your skill at planning and managing, though sometimes without realizing how much they do so.

🗣️ Essential teaching skills

Teachers need to know how to:

• Explain ideas clearly
• Present new materials in a sensible sequence and at an appropriate pace
• Point out connections between new learning and students' prior experiences

These skills take a lifetime to master, but can be practiced successfully even by beginning teachers and improve steadily with continued teaching over time.

🎭 The complexity and novelty of classroom life

• The very complexity of classroom life virtually guarantees that teaching never needs to get boring.
• Something new and exciting is bound to occur just when you least expect it.

Examples of unexpected moments:

• A student shows an insight you never expected to see—or fails to show one you were sure they had
• An activity goes better than expected—or worse, or merely differently
• You understand for the first time why a particular student behaves as she does, and begin thinking of how to respond more helpfully
• After teaching a particular learning objective several times, you realize you understand it differently than the first time you taught it

The job never stays the same; it evolves continually—as long as you keep teaching, you will have a job with novelty.

⚖️ Joys and their corresponding challenges

⚖️ Every joy has a related frustration

Every joy of teaching has a possible frustration related to it.

Joy	Related Frustration
Making a positive difference in students' lives	Trouble reaching individuals; a student seems not to learn much, or to be unmotivated, or unfriendly
Pointing to the immensity of knowledge	Might accidentally discourage a student by implying they can never learn "enough"
Complexity of designing instruction	Can sometimes seem overwhelming instead of satisfying
Unexpected events and novelty	Can become chaos rather than an attractive novelty

🛡️ The value persists despite challenges

• To paraphrase a popular self-help book, sometimes "bad things happen to good teachers."
• But the "bad things" of teaching do not negate the value of the good.
• If anything, the undesired events make the good, desired ones even more satisfying, and render the work of teaching all the more valuable.
• There are resources for maximizing the good, the valuable, and the satisfying—you will not need to "go it alone" in learning to teach well.
• However, you will be personally responsible for becoming and remaining the best teacher you can possibly be; the only person who can make that happen will be you.

🔄 How teaching has changed

🔄 Teaching is different from the past

In the past decade or two, teaching has changed significantly—schools may not be what some of us remember from our own childhood. Changes have affected both the opportunities and challenges of teaching, as well as the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to prepare for a teaching career.

🌍 Increased diversity

• There are more differences among students than there used to be.
• Diversity has made teaching more fulfilling as a career, but also more challenging in certain respects.
• Example: Nathan's class has five kids who speak English as a second language, two or three with reading disabilities (one with a part-time aide)—he didn't expect this level of diversity.

💻 Increased instructional technology

• Classrooms, schools, and students use computers more often today than in the past for research, writing, communicating, and keeping records.
• Technology has created new ways for students to learn (for example, online textbooks would not be possible without Internet technology).
• It has altered how teachers can teach most effectively, and even raised issues about what constitutes "true" teaching and learning.
• Example: Nathan had to learn more about using computers than he ever expected—there are many curriculum materials online now, and computers help kids who need more practice or who finish activities early.

📊 Greater accountability in education

• Both the public and educators themselves pay more attention than in the past to how to assess (or provide evidence for) learning and good quality teaching.
• The attention has increased the importance of education to the public (a good thing) and improved education for some students.
• But it has also created new constraints on what teachers teach and what students learn.
• Example: Nathan is doing more screening and testing of kids than he expected, and it all takes time away from teaching.

⏰ A typical teaching day

Jennifer Fuller's tenth-grade teaching day illustrates the complexity:

• Arrives at 7:45, checks email (messages from principal, administrators, parents concerned about their child's performance, students reporting absences)
• Has two hours before first class to do marking, prepare lab demonstrations, or attend staff meetings
• Teaches three periods of biology (periods 2, 3, and 5)
• After school: finishes unfinished work, meets with Ecology Club (as faculty advisor)
• Often has to finish work in the evening, but always quits by 9:00 to watch TV or read

Don't confuse: The complexity of a teacher's day includes not just classroom instruction, but also communication, preparation, extracurricular responsibilities, and administrative tasks—all of which take time and energy.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Every joy of teaching has a related frustration, but these challenges do not negate the value of the good aspects and can even make the satisfying moments more meaningful.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• The simple answer is "yes": every positive aspect of teaching has a possible frustration connected to it.
• Examples of challenges: trouble reaching individual students, accidentally discouraging learners, overwhelming complexity, and unexpected chaos instead of novelty.
• Common confusion: "bad things" happening does not mean teaching loses its value—undesired events actually make the good ones more satisfying.
• Personal responsibility: you must take charge of becoming and remaining the best teacher you can be; no one else can make that happen for you.
• Resources are available: professional knowledge, common sense, and resources (like this book) help maximize the good and valuable aspects of teaching.

😓 The dual nature of teaching challenges

😓 Every joy has a related frustration

• The excerpt emphasizes that challenges are directly connected to the positive aspects of teaching.
• You may wish to make a positive difference, but you may also struggle to reach individuals.
• A student may seem unmotivated, unfriendly, or simply not learning much.

🪤 Subtle problems

• Some teaching problems are not obvious or dramatic.
• Example: when you highlight the wonderful immensity of an area of knowledge, you might accidentally discourage a student by implying they can never learn "enough."
• Don't confuse: showing enthusiasm for a subject can backfire if students feel overwhelmed by how much there is to know.

🌪️ When complexity becomes overwhelming

• The complexity of designing and implementing instruction can sometimes feel overwhelming instead of satisfying.
• Unexpected events in your classroom can turn into chaos rather than attractive novelty.
• The excerpt paraphrases a self-help book: "bad things happen to good teachers."

💎 Why challenges don't negate value

💎 Bad things do not cancel out the good

The "bad things" of teaching do not negate the value of the good.

• Undesired events actually make the good, desired ones even more satisfying.
• They render the work of teaching all the more valuable.
• This is similar to how challenges work in the rest of life.

🛠️ Resources for maximizing the good

• There are resources available for maximizing the good, the valuable, and the satisfying aspects of teaching.
• You can bring these resources to your work, along with:
  • Growing professional knowledge
  • A healthy dose of common sense
• You will not need to "go it alone" in learning to teach well.

🎯 Personal responsibility and support

🎯 You are personally responsible

• You will be personally responsible for becoming and remaining the best teacher you can possibly be.
• The only person who can make that happen is you.
• Don't confuse: having resources and support available does not remove your personal responsibility—you must actively use them.

📚 Support described in this book

• Many resources for becoming the best teacher are described in the chapters ahead.
• The book aims to provide tools and knowledge to help teachers maximize positive outcomes.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teaching has changed significantly in recent decades due to increased student diversity, instructional technology, accountability demands, and teacher professionalism, requiring educators to develop new skills and approaches while drawing on resources like educational psychology.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Four major trends reshaping teaching: increased diversity (language, disabilities, age range), instructional technology (computers and Internet), greater accountability (high-stakes testing, certification requirements), and increased professionalism (action research, higher standards).
• Diversity creates both opportunities and challenges: teachers now serve students from varied language backgrounds, with special educational needs, and across a broader age spectrum (preschool through adult education).
• Technology changes teacher roles: shifts educators from "delivering information" to "facilitating students' own constructions of knowledge," though practical constraints (limited computers, cost) and pedagogical questions (what truly benefits from technology) remain.
• Common confusion about accountability: high-stakes testing affects not only student outcomes but also teacher evaluation and instructional decisions, raising fairness questions about whether tests serve all students equitably.
• Professionalism means greater responsibility: teachers now take personal responsibility for work quality, require specialized training, and use action research to systematically study and improve their own practice.

🌍 The transformation of student diversity

🗣️ Language diversity in classrooms

• In the United States, about 14% of the population is Hispanic; approximately 20% speak primarily Spanish and another 50% speak only limited English.
• Challenge for classroom teachers: must communicate with students whose English is limited while students are simultaneously learning English fluency.
• Relatively few teachers are Hispanic or speak fluent Spanish, making adjustments difficult.
• Teachers must balance two goals:
  • Plan lessons and tasks students actually understand
  • Keep track of major curriculum learning goals
• Example: A teacher designs a science lesson that uses visual demonstrations and simplified vocabulary so second-language learners can follow along while still covering required content standards.

♿ Special educational needs inclusion

• Major shift since the 1970s: passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975, amended 2004 in the U.S.; similar legislation in Canada) guarantees free, appropriate education for children with disabilities.
• Disabilities covered include physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral impairments.
• Laws provide for special supports: teaching assistants, individualized educational plans.
• Result: most teachers now have at least a few students with special educational needs, even without special education training.
• Teachers work as part of a professional team focused on helping these students learn and participate in school life.
• New challenges raised:
  • Planning: how to find time to plan for individuals?
  • Philosophical: what in the curriculum is truly important to learn?

👶👴 Lifelong learning and age range expansion

Younger students (preschool):

• In many nations, half or most three- and four-year-olds attend educational programs (part-time preschool or full-time child care).
• Some public schools have added nursery/preschool programs as a new "grade level" before kindergarten.
• Teachers of very young children use flexible, open-ended plans and develop more personal, family-like relationships.
• Educational debate: Do preschool/day care programs risk becoming inappropriate substitutes for families? Or can teachers of older students learn from early childhood education's flexibility?

Older students (adult education):

• Many individuals take courses well into adulthood, often in workplaces, public high schools, community colleges, or universities.
• Adult students may be completing high school credentials or learning trade-related skills.
• Unique characteristics:
  • Strengths: life experiences that enhance and motivate learning
  • Constraints: significant personal responsibilities (parenting, full-time jobs) that compete for study time; impatience with irrelevant teaching
• Teachers must adjust strategies to challenge and respect adults' special strengths and constraints.
• Example: An adult education instructor designs a welding course with evening sessions and focuses only on skills directly applicable to certification, respecting students' time constraints and career goals.

💻 Technology's role in teaching and learning

💻 What technology means for teachers

For most teachers, "technology" means using computers and the Internet as resources for teaching and learning.

• The Internet provides easy access to up-to-date information on practically any subject, often with pictures, video clips, and audio.
• Potential vs. reality: technology has the potential to transform school-based learning, but has not always been integrated thoroughly into teachers' practices.

🔧 Practical constraints on technology use

Limited access issues:

• In many societies and regions, classrooms contain only one or two computers at most.
• Many schools have at best only limited access to the Internet.
• Waiting for a turn or arranging computer lab visits limits how much students use the Internet.
• When access is limited, computers tend to function in traditional ways: as a word processor ("fancy typewriter") or reference book similar to an encyclopedia.

Single-computer classroom possibilities:

• Present upcoming assignments or supplementary material to students (one at a time or small groups).
• Give students more flexibility about when to finish old tasks or begin new ones.
• Enrich learning of individual students with special interests or motivation.
• Provide additional review to students who need extra help.
• Important shift: moves teachers away from simply delivering information toward facilitating students' own constructions of knowledge—from "full-frontal teaching" to "guide on the side."

🚀 When technology is abundant

With numerous computers and full Internet access:

• Students can direct their own learning more independently.
• Teachers can focus much more on helping individuals develop and carry out learning plans.
• Teachers can assist individuals with special learning problems.
• Result: makes the teacher more effective through a significant role change.

⚠️ Technology challenges and limitations

Challenge type	What the excerpt says
Cost	Equipping classrooms and schools fully costs money that is often scarce; may mean depriving students of other valuable resources (additional staff, books, supplies)
Information quality	Students need help sorting trustworthy information/websites from "fluff"—unreliable or even damaging websites; providing this help can be challenging even for experienced teachers
Pedagogical fit	Some educational activities simply do not lend themselves to computerized learning (sports, driver education, choral practice)

• Don't confuse: having technology available with technology being appropriate—new teachers must assess both what technologies are possible and what will actually be assisted by them.

📊 Accountability and its consequences

📊 What accountability means

Accountability in education: schools and teachers are held responsible for implementing particular curricula and goals, and students are held responsible for learning particular knowledge.

Effects on teacher preparation:

• Increased legal requirements for becoming and remaining certified as a teacher.
• In the United States, preservice teachers need more subject-area and education-related courses than in the past.
• Must spend more time practice teaching than in the past.
• Must pass one or more examinations of knowledge of subject matter and teaching strategies.
• Specifics vary among regions, but the general trend is toward more numerous and "higher" levels of requirements.
• Impact: affects individuals' experiences of becoming a teacher—especially the speed and cost of doing so.

🎯 High-stakes testing

High-stakes testing: tests taken by all students in a district or region that have important consequences for students' further education.

Characteristics:

• May influence grades students receive in courses.
• May determine whether students graduate or continue to the next level of schooling.
• Often a mixture of essay and structured-response questions (such as multiple-choice items).

Issues raised:

• What should teachers teach, and how?
• Should (and how should) teachers help students pass the examinations?
• Is high-stakes testing fair to all students?
• Is it consistent with other ideals of public education (giving students the best possible start in life vs. disqualifying them from educational opportunities)?

Impact on teachers:

• Results are sometimes used to evaluate the performance of teachers, schools, or school districts.
• Ensuring students' success becomes an obvious concern for teachers.
• Affects instructional decisions on a daily basis.

🎓 The rise of teacher professionalism

🎓 What makes teaching a profession

An occupation is a profession if its members take personal responsibility for the quality of their work, hold each other accountable for its quality, and recognize and require special training in order to practice it.

How teaching has become more professional:

• Teachers have increased responsibility not only for students' academic success but also for their own development as teachers.
• Becoming a new teacher now requires more specialized work than in the past (reflected in increased certification/licensing requirements).
• Increased requirements are partly a response to complexities created by increasing student diversity and increasing use of technology.

🔬 Action research as professional practice

Action research (also called teacher research): a form of investigation carried out by teachers about their own students or their own teaching.

Purpose: leads to concrete decisions that improve teaching and learning in particular educational contexts.

Examples from the excerpt:

1. Reading development: A teacher observes and tracks one child's reading progress carefully for an extended time to get clues about how to help that child and others read better.
2. Questioning strategies: A high school social studies teacher videotapes his own lessons and systematically compares students' responses to open-ended questions vs. more closed questions (ones with fixed answers).
3. Creative risk-taking: An art teacher examines students' drawings carefully for signs of visual novelty and innovation, then sees if the signs increase when she encourages novelty and innovation explicitly.

📋 Action research process

The excerpt provides two detailed examples in a table format:

Example 1: Students' use of the Internet

• Purpose: "How successful are my students at finding high-quality, relevant information?"
• Who: Classroom teacher (elementary) and school computer specialist
• How information is gathered: Assessing students' assignments; observing students while they search; interviewing students about search experiences
• How analyzed: Look for obstacles and "search tips" expressed by several students; look for common strengths and problems with research cited
• How reported: Write and give brief reports to fellow staff

Example 2: Teacher's helpfulness to ESL students

• Purpose: "Am I responding to my ESL students as fully and helpfully as to my English-speaking students, and why or why not?"
• Who: Classroom teacher (senior high)—studying self; possibly collaborating with others
• How information is gathered: Videotaping self during class discussions; journal diary of experiences with ESL vs. other students; interviews with ESL students
• How analyzed: Look for differences in type and amount of interactions; look for patterns; try altering patterns and observe results
• How reported: Write summary in journal; share with fellow staff and with students

Key distinction: Action research resembles "especially good teaching practice" but is planned more thoughtfully, carried out and recorded more systematically, and shared with fellow teachers more thoroughly and openly.

Trade-off: Yields special benefits to teachers as professionals, but takes special time and effort; simultaneously reflects increasing professionalism while creating higher standards for teachers.

🧠 How educational psychology supports teachers

🧠 The role of educational psychology

• Educational psychology can help teachers prepare for and navigate the changes in teaching.
• This textbook draws heavily on concepts, research, and fundamental theories from educational psychology.
• Topics are selected and framed around problems, challenges, and satisfactions faced by teachers daily, especially teachers new to the profession.
• Selection criteria for topics:
  1. Importance as reported by teachers and other educational experts
  2. The ability of educational psychology to comment helpfully on particular problems, challenges, and satisfactions

🎯 What teachers need to know

• There is a lot to learn about teaching, and much of it comes from educational psychology.
• Teaching has distinctive features now that it did not have a generation ago.
• The new features make it more exciting in some ways, as well as more challenging than in the past.
• The changes require learning teaching skills that were less important in earlier times.
• Reassurance: the new skills are quite learnable.

🤝 Support systems for new teachers

• Many current teacher education programs provide a balance of experiences in tune with current and emerging needs.
• Programs offer more time for practice teaching in schools.
• Teacher education instructors often make deliberate efforts to connect concepts and ideas of education and psychology to current best practices.
• These features of contemporary teacher education make it easier to become the kind of teacher you want to be and need to be.

Don't confuse: The challenges of modern teaching with impossibility—while teaching is more complex than in the past, resources (educational psychology, teacher education programs, this textbook) are available to help teachers develop the necessary skills and knowledge.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Educational psychology helps teachers navigate modern challenges by offering research-based information, advice, and perspectives on students as learners, instruction and assessment, and teachers' psychological and social awareness.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What educational psychology offers: concepts, research, and theories selected and framed around daily problems, challenges, and satisfactions faced by teachers, especially new ones.
• Selection criteria: topics are chosen based on (1) their importance as reported by teachers and educational experts, and (2) educational psychology's ability to comment helpfully on particular issues.
• Three core areas of help: (1) students as learners, (2) instruction and assessment, and (3) psychological and social awareness of teachers.
• Modern teaching context: four major trends shape today's teaching—increased student diversity, instructional technology, accountability expectations, and teacher professionalism—each bringing both opportunities and new dilemmas.
• Common confusion: learning vs. temporary change—learning requires permanence; changes that disappear quickly (like forgetting a phone number immediately) do not count as learning.

📚 What educational psychology provides

📚 Content selection approach

The text draws on educational psychology but frames everything around practical teaching realities:

• Concepts, research, and theories are selected rather than comprehensively covered.
• The framing centers on "problems, challenges, and satisfactions faced by teachers daily."
• Special emphasis on teachers new to the profession.

⚖️ Two selection factors

Topics are chosen and emphasized in proportion to:

Factor	What it means
Importance	As reported by teachers and other educational experts
Helpfulness	Educational psychology's ability to comment constructively on particular problems

• Not every educational psychology topic appears—only those that matter most to practicing teachers and where the field has useful guidance.
• Example: If teachers consistently report a challenge and educational psychology has research-based solutions, that topic receives more coverage.

🎯 Three areas of teaching support

👥 Students as learners

Educational psychology provides insights into how students learn, develop, and change.

• The excerpt includes a concrete illustration: a father demonstrates a classic conservation task (pouring water between containers) to show how children's thinking differs from adults'.
• The child initially agrees water amount stays the same but reverts to believing there's less in the pie plate—showing learning didn't occur because the change wasn't permanent.

📝 Instruction and assessment

Educational psychology informs how to design effective teaching and evaluate student progress.

• This area addresses the "challenge and excitement of designing effective instruction" mentioned as one of teaching's satisfactions.
• Connects to modern accountability trends requiring teachers to demonstrate student learning.

🧠 Psychological and social awareness of teachers

Teachers need self-awareness and understanding of social dynamics.

• This goes beyond knowing content or pedagogy—it involves understanding oneself and classroom social contexts.
• Supports teachers in navigating the interpersonal and emotional dimensions of the profession.

🌍 Modern teaching context

🌈 Increased student diversity

One of four major trends reshaping teaching.

• Presents "new opportunities to students and teachers."
• Also "raises new issues for teachers" requiring new skills.
• Educational psychology helps teachers "make constructive use" of diversity and "deal with the dilemmas that accompany" it.

💻 Instructional technology

Technology has spread into schools and classrooms.

• Represents both opportunity and challenge.
• Requires "teaching skills that were less important in earlier times."
• The excerpt reassures: "the new skills are quite learnable."

📊 Accountability expectations

Increased expectations for demonstrating educational results.

• Changes how teachers experience their work.
• Educational psychology provides frameworks for understanding and meeting accountability demands.

🎓 Teacher professionalism

Teaching has developed as a more professional field.

• "Distinctive features now that it did not have a generation ago."
• Makes teaching "more exciting in some ways, as well as more challenging than in the past."

🔑 Core concept: What counts as learning

🔑 Definition and key feature

Learning is generally defined as relatively permanent changes in behavior, skills, knowledge, or attitudes resulting from identifiable psychological or social experiences.

The key feature is permanence:

• Changes must last to count as learning.
• Temporary changes do not qualify.

❌ What doesn't count as learning

The excerpt provides clear non-examples:

• Forgetting a phone number "the minute after you dial" → not learning.
• Eating vegetables "only when forced" → not learning (behavior doesn't persist).
• Sneezing "simply by catching cold" → not learning (purely physiological, not from psychological/social experience).

✅ What does count as learning

Learning can take multiple forms:

• Physical: skills like riding a bicycle or throwing (mentioned but cut off in excerpt).
• Cognitive: knowledge and thinking skills.
• Social: interpersonal behaviors and attitudes.
• Emotional: affective responses and emotional skills.

Don't confuse: Learning is not only cognitive/academic—it encompasses physical skills, social behaviors, and emotional development, as long as the change is relatively permanent and results from identifiable experiences.

🧪 The water conservation example

The excerpt illustrates learning's permanence requirement through a real classroom demonstration:

• A father (the author) demonstrates Piaget's conservation task to education students.
• The child (Michael) initially changes his answer when told water amount stays the same.
• By session's end, Michael reverts to his original belief (less water in the pie plate).
• Conclusion: Michael did not "learn" the conservation concept because the change wasn't permanent.
• Example shows that compliance or temporary agreement ≠ learning; genuine learning requires lasting change.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teachers typically view learning as curriculum-focused, deliberately sequenced classroom activity that must transfer to new situations, rather than as incidental change that happens anywhere.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Curriculum-centered definition: Teachers equate learning primarily with what is taught deliberately in schools—especially academic achievement in language, mathematics, and other official curriculum areas.
• Teaching ≠ learning: What a teacher teaches is not the same as what students understand or retain; assigning content does not guarantee students have learned it.
• Readiness has two meanings: Traditional readiness asks if students are prepared for school; a second meaning asks if teachers and schools are prepared to adjust to students' needs.
• Transfer as the goal: Learning in classrooms is valued especially when it can be used outside the classroom in new or future situations.
• Common confusion: Incidental learning (learning "accidentally" without deliberate effort) happens everywhere, but teachers focus on deliberate, conscious learning because of curriculum responsibilities.

📚 How teachers define learning

📚 Learning as curriculum and academic achievement

For teachers, learning usually refers to things that happen in schools or classrooms, even though every teacher can describe examples of learning that happen outside these places.

• Teachers emphasize what is taught deliberately in schools: the official curriculum plus behaviors and routines that make classrooms run smoothly.
• In practice, this means equating learning with major forms of academic achievement—especially language and mathematics, and to a lesser extent music, physical coordination, or social sensitivity.
• Why this happens: Public education makes teachers responsible for certain content (books, reading) and the skills these activities require (answering questions, writing essays).
• Not because: Teachers are biased or unaware that students learn outside school; it is a structural result of their professional responsibilities.

🤝 Social interaction becomes something to manage

• In a classroom with dozens of students, teachers think of learning as either:
  • Requiring concentration (to avoid distraction by others), or
  • Benefiting from collaboration (to take advantage of others' presence).
• Contrast with the wider world: Outside school, learning often happens incidentally, "accidentally," without conscious interference or input from others.
  • Example: You learn what a friend's personality is like without either of you deliberately trying to make this happen.
• Teachers sometimes see and welcome incidental learning in classrooms, but curriculum responsibility focuses effort on conscious, deliberate learning.
• Key question in classrooms: Are classmates helping or hindering individual students' learning?

⚠️ The teaching ≠ learning trap

• Focusing on curriculum can tempt teachers to assume what is taught equals what is learned—even though most teachers know this is a mistake.
• Example: Assigning a reading about the Russian Revolution does not mean all students:
  • Read the same words,
  • Learned the same content,
  • Understood or remembered it.
• Reality of diverse outcomes:
  • Some students read and learned everything assigned.
  • Others read everything but misunderstood or remembered only some.
  • Still others neither read nor learned much.
• Don't confuse: Teaching (what the teacher does) with learning (what students actually understand and retain).

🪜 Sequencing and readiness

🪜 What readiness traditionally means

Readiness: students' preparedness to cope with or profit from the activities and expectations of school.

• For young children: A kindergarten child is "ready" if they:
  • Are in good health,
  • Show moderately good social skills,
  • Can take care of personal physical needs (eating lunch, using bathroom unsupervised),
  • Can use a pencil to make simple drawings.
• For older students: The term becomes prerequisites—required prior experiences.
  • Example: To take a physics course, a student must first study advanced algebra or calculus.
  • Example: To begin work as a public school teacher, a person must first engage in practice teaching.

🔄 The second meaning: teacher readiness

• Traditional readiness focuses on students adjusting to school, but there is a legitimate second meaning: schools and teachers adjusting to students.
• Example: If 5-year-old children normally need to play a lot and keep active, their kindergarten teacher needs to be "ready" by planning a program that allows play and physical activity.
  • If the teacher cannot or will not do so, this failure is not the children's responsibility.
• For older students: If a teacher has a student with a disability (e.g., visually impaired), the teacher must adjust their approach—not simply expect the child to "sink or swim."
• Don't confuse: Student readiness (is the student prepared for school?) with teacher/school readiness (is the school prepared to meet students' needs?).

📊 Reading readiness example

Signs of readiness in the child	Signs of readiness to teach reading
Productive vocabulary of 5,000–8,000 words	Teacher answers children's questions when possible
Understands and uses complete sentences	Teacher encourages child to find out more through other means
Questions tend to be relevant to the task	Teacher asks questions to elaborate or expand child's thinking
Correctly uses most common grammatical constructions	Teacher highlights letters and sounds in the classroom
Can match some letters to some sounds	Teacher provides lots of paper and marking tools
Can string a few letters together to make simple words	Teacher assists child with initial writing of letters
Can tell and retell stories, poems, and songs	Teacher encourages children to enact stories, poems, and songs

🌉 Transfer as a crucial outcome

🌉 What transfer means

Transfer: the ability to use knowledge or skill in situations beyond the ones in which they are acquired.

• Learning to read and solve arithmetic problems are major elementary school goals because those skills are meant to be used outside the classroom as well as inside.
• Teachers intend for these skills to "transfer," even while doing their best to make the skills enjoyable during learning.

🎯 The "gold standard" of teaching

• Making learning fun is a good thing to do.
• Making learning useful as well as fun is even better.
• Combining enjoyment and usefulness is the "gold standard" of teaching—teachers generally seek it for students, even though they may not succeed all the time.
• In the world of teachers, even more than in other worlds, usefulness (transfer) is a key criterion for evaluating learning.

🧠 Major theories of learning

🧠 The "screen" of education

• Teachers' ideas about learning (curriculum, teaching vs. learning, sequencing, readiness, transfer) form a "screen" through which to understand and evaluate what psychology offers education.
• Many theories and concepts from educational psychology are consistent with teachers' professional priorities and helpful in solving classroom teaching problems.

🗂️ Two main perspectives

Educational psychologists have developed theories that can be grouped by whether they focus on:

Perspective	Focus
Behaviorism	Learning as changes in overt behavior (what students say or do)
Constructivism	Learning as changes in thinking

Constructivism can be further divided:

• Psychological constructivism: Changes in thinking resulting from individual experiences.
• Social constructivism: Changes in thinking due to assistance from others.

🎬 Behaviorism: changes in what students do

Behaviorism: a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals' observable behaviors—changes in what people say or do.

• When we all use this perspective: At some point everyone focuses on whether they can actually do something, not whether they can describe or explain it.
  • Example: The first time driving a car, the concern is whether you can actually drive, not whether you can describe how to drive.
  • Example: When beginning to cook, the focus is on producing edible food, not on explaining recipes to others.
  • Example: A new teacher's first year is more focused on day-to-day survival (doing the job) than on pausing to reflect on what they are doing.
• Important caveat: Focusing on behavior instead of "thoughts" may be desirable at a given moment, but not necessarily desirable indefinitely or all the time.
  • Even as a beginner, there are times when it is more important to describe how to drive or cook than to actually do these things.
  • There are many times when reflecting on teaching is important, not just doing it.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Educational psychology offers several theories of learning—behaviorism (focusing on observable behavior changes) and constructivism (focusing on how learners build knowledge)—that describe classroom learning and guide teaching practices.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Two major perspectives: Behaviorism describes learning as changes in observable behavior; constructivism describes learning as changes in thinking.
• Behaviorism divides into two models: Respondent (classical) conditioning links neutral stimuli to automatic responses; operant conditioning links behaviors to their consequences.
• Constructivism divides into two versions: Psychological constructivism emphasizes individual knowledge-building; social constructivism emphasizes learning with expert guidance.
• Common confusion: Behaviorism is not just "bribery"—external reinforcement often works alongside intrinsic motivation, not replacing it.
• Why it matters: Each perspective suggests practical strategies teachers can use to make student learning more productive in classrooms.

🎯 Behaviorism: learning as behavior change

🎯 What behaviorism focuses on

Behaviorism: a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals' observable behaviors—changes in what people say or do.

• Behaviorism is useful when you need to attend to what students actually do, not just their inner thoughts.
• It is most helpful for identifying relationships between specific actions, their immediate precursors, and their consequences.
• Example: A beginning driver focuses on whether they can actually drive the car, not on whether they can explain how to drive.
• Don't confuse: Focusing on behavior is not inherently less valuable than focusing on thinking; teachers need to attend to both.

🔄 Two models within behaviorism

Behaviorism relies on two basic models:

Model	What it describes
Respondent (classical) conditioning	How neutral stimuli become associated with involuntary responses
Operant conditioning	How consequences and cues make voluntary behaviors more or less frequent

🔔 Respondent conditioning: learning new associations

🔔 How respondent conditioning works

Respondent conditioning (also called classical conditioning): the process by which a neutral stimulus becomes able to elicit an involuntary response through repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

• Originally studied by Ivan Pavlov with dogs that learned to salivate at the sound of a bell paired with food.
• The process involves four key elements:
  • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): naturally triggers a response (e.g., food)
  • Unconditioned response (UCR): automatic reaction to UCS (e.g., salivation)
  • Conditioned stimulus (CS): neutral stimulus that becomes associated with UCS (e.g., bell)
  • Conditioned response (CR): learned reaction to CS (e.g., salivation to bell alone)

🏫 Respondent conditioning in classrooms

Respondent conditioning describes changes in students' attitudes and feelings relatively well.

Positive example: A child who smiles when the teacher smiles may eventually smile just from being in the classroom, even without the teacher present—the classroom itself becomes a conditioned stimulus for happy feelings.

Negative example: A child with "Mr Horrible" who frowns frequently may eventually feel anxious just from being in that classroom, even when Mr Horrible is absent.

• These changes affect students' intrinsic motivation—desire originating from within the student.
• Contrast with extrinsic motivation—desire originating from outside consequences.

🔧 Three key mechanisms in respondent conditioning

🔧 Extinction

• The disappearance of the association between conditioned stimulus and conditioned response.
• Happens when the CS is no longer paired with the UCS over time.
• Example: If a teacher who smiled frequently leaves mid-year, the student's positive response to the classroom will gradually fade.
• Important: Extinction unfolds over time, not suddenly.

🔧 Generalization

• The tendency for similar stimuli to elicit the conditioned response.
• Example: A child conditioned to smile in one teacher's classroom may also smile in other, similar classrooms.
• This is similar to the concept of transfer—extending prior learning to new situations.
• Can be positive (generalizing love of one classroom to school in general) or negative (generalizing fear across settings).

🔧 Discrimination

• Learning not to generalize—responding to one stimulus but not to similar ones.
• Happens when only one specific stimulus is consistently paired with the UCS.
• Example: A middle school student learns to smile only in one teacher's room (where the teacher smiles) but not in others (where teachers don't smile).
• Trade-off: Discrimination prevents both positive generalization (liking school broadly) and negative generalization (fearing all classrooms).

⚙️ Operant conditioning: behaviors and consequences

⚙️ How operant conditioning works

Operant conditioning: learning that focuses on how the consequences of behaviors make those behaviors more or less frequent.

• Originally studied by B. F. Skinner with laboratory rats that learned to press a lever to receive food pellets.
• Key terms:
  • Operant: the voluntary behavior that "operates" on the environment (e.g., pressing lever)
  • Reinforcement: the consequence that makes the behavior more likely (e.g., food pellet)
  • Schedule of reinforcement: the pattern or frequency of reinforcement

🏫 Operant conditioning in classrooms

Operant conditioning is widespread in classrooms—more so than respondent conditioning.

Common examples:

• A student makes a silly face (operant) → classmates giggle (reinforcement)
• A kindergartner raises her hand (operant) → teacher calls on her (reinforcement)
• A restless child sits still for five minutes (operant) → teaching assistant compliments him (reinforcement)
• A student reads a library book (operant) → teacher posts a gold star by her name (reinforcement)

Important points:

• Operant conditioning happens across all grades and subjects.
• Teachers are not the only source of reinforcement—classmates and the activity itself can also reinforce.
• Multiple examples often happen simultaneously in one classroom.

🔀 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in operant conditioning

Operant conditioning often stimulates both types of motivation at once:

• Intrinsic motivation: reinforcement comes from the activity itself (e.g., enjoying reading)
• Extrinsic motivation: reinforcement comes from outside consequences (e.g., gold stars, praise)

Example: A student who reads library books may be reinforced both by the pleasure of reading itself (intrinsic) and by receiving gold stars (extrinsic).

Don't confuse: External reinforcement may alter intrinsic motivation but does not necessarily destroy or replace it—operant conditioning is not simply "bribery in disguise."

🔧 Key concepts in operant conditioning

🔧 Extinction in operant conditioning

• The disappearance of the operant behavior due to lack of reinforcement.
• Example: A student who stops receiving gold stars for reading may decrease or stop reading library books.

🔧 Generalization in operant conditioning

• The tendency for behaviors similar to the operant to be conditioned along with the original.
• Example: If getting gold stars for reading library books is reinforced, the student may generalize to reading newspapers, even without direct reinforcement.

🔧 Discrimination in operant conditioning

• Learning not to generalize the operant behavior to inappropriate times.
• Example: A student reinforced for contributing to discussions must learn when to speak (when called on) versus when not to speak (when others are busy).

🔧 Schedule of reinforcement

• The pattern or frequency by which reinforcement follows the operant.
• Key finding: Partial or intermittent schedules cause learning to take longer but also cause extinction to take longer.
• Implication for teachers: Praising students intermittently (not every time) makes constructive behaviors more lasting, but also makes inappropriate behaviors harder to extinguish.

🔧 Cues

• A stimulus before the operant that signals whether reinforcement is available.
• Example: A teacher calling on a student is a cue that speaking at that moment may be reinforced with praise.
• Cues help students learn when a behavior is acceptable versus when it is not.

📊 Comparing respondent and operant conditioning

Concept	In respondent conditioning	In operant conditioning
Extinction	Disappearance of CS-CR association	Disappearance of operant behavior due to lack of reinforcement
Generalization	Similar stimuli elicit the CR	Similar behaviors get conditioned along with the operant
Discrimination	Learning not to respond to similar stimuli	Learning not to emit similar behaviors
Schedule	Pattern of pairing CS with UCS	Pattern of pairing reinforcement with operant
Cue	Not applicable	Stimulus signaling availability of reinforcement

🧱 Constructivism: learning as building knowledge

🧱 What constructivism focuses on

Constructivism: a perspective on learning focused on how students actively create (or "construct") knowledge out of experiences.

• Constructivist models differ in how much learners construct knowledge independently versus with help from experts.
• Two main versions:
  • Psychological constructivism: individual construction through personal experiences
  • Social constructivism: construction with assistance from more capable others

🧠 Psychological constructivism: the independent investigator

🧠 Core idea

The main idea is that a person learns by mentally organizing and reorganizing new information or experiences, partly by relating them to prior knowledge.

• Associated with John Dewey (early 20th century), who argued teachers should adjust curriculum to fit students' prior knowledge and interests.
• More recent example: Jean Piaget's cognitive theory.

🧠 Piaget's model: assimilation and accommodation

Assimilation: the interpretation of new information in terms of pre-existing concepts, information, or ideas.

Accommodation: the revision or modification of pre-existing concepts in terms of new information or experience.

Example: A preschooler initially calls all flying objects "birds" (assimilation), then gradually revises the concept to include only certain flying objects like robins and sparrows, excluding butterflies and airplanes (accommodation).

• Assimilation and accommodation work together to create cognitive equilibrium—a balance between relying on prior information and being open to new information.
• Over time, learners build a growing repertoire of schemata (singular: schema)—mental representations that include vocabulary, actions, and experiences related to a concept.

🧠 Limitations of psychological constructivism

• The model is "individualistic"—it does not emphasize how other people (teachers, parents) assist learning.
• Piaget recognized the importance of social transmission (support from others) but did not emphasize it.
• His theory is often considered more about development (long-term change) than about learning.
• Educators find Piaget's ideas especially helpful for thinking about students' readiness to learn.

🤝 Social constructivism: learning with expert guidance

🤝 Core idea

Social constructivism focuses on relationships and interactions between a learner and more knowledgeable individuals.

Jerome Bruner proposed instructional scaffolding—temporary support (like a building framework) that allows a stronger structure to be built within it. He believed any subject could be taught effectively to any child at any stage if appropriate guidance is provided.

Lev Vygotsky proposed that learners perform better when helped by an expert than when performing alone.

🤝 Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Zone of proximal development (ZPD): the difference between what a learner can do alone versus what they can do with expert assistance.

• Learning is like assisted performance—initially, knowledge resides mostly "in" the expert helper.
• The expert arranges experiences that allow the novice to practice skills or construct knowledge (like a coach).
• Gradually, the novice appropriates (makes their own) the skills or knowledge that originally resided only with the expert.

🤝 The expert's responsibility

The expert must:

• Have knowledge and skill themselves
• Know how to arrange experiences that make learning easy and safe
• Break content into manageable parts
• Offer parts in a sensible sequence
• Provide suitable and successful practice
• Bring parts back together at the end
• Relate the experience to knowledge already meaningful to the learner

🛠️ Implications of constructivism for teaching

🛠️ Strategy 1: Organize content systematically

Bloom's taxonomy is a widely used framework for organizing content:

Bloom's taxonomy: a classification of six kinds of learning goals, ranging from simple recall to complex evaluation.

Level	Definition	Example (Goldilocks and the Three Bears)
Knowledge	Remembering or recalling facts	List three things Goldilocks did in the house
Comprehension	Understanding facts, interpreting information	Explain why Goldilocks liked the little bear's chair best
Application	Using concepts in new situations	Predict what Goldilocks might use in your house
Analysis	Distinguishing parts of information	Select the part where Goldilocks seemed most comfortable
Synthesis	Combining elements into something new	Tell how the story would differ if about three fishes
Evaluation	Assessing and judging value	Decide whether Goldilocks was bad and justify your position

• Bloom's taxonomy helps pinpoint students' zones of proximal development.
• Example: A biology student who doesn't know species terms (knowledge/comprehension level) needs support at that level before comparing species (analysis level).

🛠️ Strategy 2: Encourage metacognition

Metacognition: an ability to think about and regulate one's own thinking.

• As students gain experience, they can reflect on how they learn best.
• Teachers can transfer some responsibility for arranging learning to students themselves.
• Example: Help a biology student not only learn to compare species but also think about how to learn that information independently.
• Metacognition gradually frees learners from dependence on expert teachers—reflective learners become their own expert guides.

🛠️ Comparing psychological and social constructivism

• Social constructivism assigns a more visible role to expert helpers (teachers) and seems more complete as a description of classroom interactions.
• Psychological constructivism is valuable for planning instruction and thinking about appropriate sequencing of learning and development.
• Both perspectives offer important ideas to educators, even though psychological constructivism seems to "omit" mentioning teachers in detail.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Understanding students' long-term developmental changes—rather than just short-term learning—helps teachers plan appropriate activities and hold realistic expectations across different ages and grade levels.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Development vs learning: Development refers to long-term, multi-sourced changes (like music skill over ten years), while learning refers to faster, simpler changes (like memorizing planet names).
• Why teachers need developmental knowledge: It helps distinguish what changes can happen soon from what takes a year or more, and what differences come from age vs recent experience.
• Two ways developmental trends vary: (1) generality—some changes happen to virtually everyone, others only to some people or under certain conditions; (2) sequencing—some follow a strict "staircase" order, others are more "kaleidoscope-like" without uniform sequence.
• Common confusion: Single-grade teachers may find it harder to see developmental patterns because age similarities are obscured by individual differences, but developmental knowledge is still useful for planning.
• Risk of grand theories: Broad, universal models help integrate many features efficiently but can over-generalize or confuse what does happen (e.g., to middle-class children) with what should happen to all children.

🎯 What development means

🎯 Definition and scope

Development: long-term personal changes that have multiple sources and multiple effects.

• It is not about week-to-week changes, but changes over years (e.g., age five to age fifteen).
• Some developments are very broad and take a lifetime (e.g., reading others' moods); others are faster and more focused (e.g., crossword puzzle skill).
• Example: A pianist at age fifteen compared to age five shows development—slow, gradual, from becoming more widely skilled about music in general, not just from simple practice.

🔄 Development vs learning

• The difference is a matter of degree, not a sharp boundary.
• Learning: faster, simpler, fewer experiences needed.
  • Example: A child learns to name the planets—doesn't need a lot of time or a multitude of experiences.
• Development: slower, more complex, multiple sources and effects.
  • Example: The pianist's evolving music skills over ten years.
• Don't confuse: The same change can be called "learning" if it's quick and focused, or "development" if it's long-term and broad.

🏫 Why development matters for teachers

🏫 Single-grade vs multi-grade teaching

Teaching context	What you notice	What's obscured	How developmental knowledge helps
Single grade (e.g., third grade only)	Differences in spite of similar ages	Similarities because of similar ages	Helps distinguish long-term developmental changes from short-term experience differences; guides appropriate activities and expectations
Multiple grades (e.g., specialists, middle/high school)	Wide age differences daily	(Less obscured)	Need is more obvious; helps answer what activities and expectations fit each age group

• In both cases, the instructional challenge is the same: knowing what activities and expectations are appropriate.
• You need to know not only how students are unique, but also general trends of development during childhood and adolescence.

🔍 What changes soon vs what takes longer

• Developmental psychology helps answer: Which changes can you expect relatively soon from your current activities, and which may take a year or more to show up?
• Example: If you teach kindergarten at one time and sixth-graders at another, students differ obviously because of age plus other factors like recently learned skills.

🌍 Two ways developmental trends vary

🌍 Generality: universal vs specific

• Universal changes: happen to virtually every person, often at predictable points.
  • Example: Virtually every toddler acquires a spoken language; every teenager forms a sense of personal identity.
  • Individuals who don't experience these are rare (though not necessarily disabled).
• Specific changes: happen only to some people or under certain conditions.
  • Example: Developing a female gender role happens only to females, and details vary by family, community, or society.

🪜 Sequencing: staircase vs kaleidoscope

• Staircase model: changes happen in a specific order and build on each other; the order cannot be reversed.
  • Example: Young people must have tangible, hands-on experience with new materials before they can reason about them in the abstract.
• Kaleidoscope model: change happens, but without a uniform sequence or end point.
  • Example: A person who becomes permanently disabled may experience complex long-term changes in values and priorities that differ in timing and content from most people's pathway.

⚖️ Grand theories: benefits and risks

⚖️ Why educators prefer universal, sequential models

• Educational psychologists tend to emphasize explanations that are relatively general, universal, and sequential (sometimes called "grand theories").
• Benefits:
  • Concisely integrate many features of development.
  • Describe the kind of people children or adolescents usually end up to be.
  • Make sense for educators who need to work with and teach large numbers of diverse students both efficiently and effectively.

⚠️ Risks of over-generalization

• Risk 1: Over-generalizing or over-simplifying the experiences of particular children and youth.
• Risk 2: Confusing what does happen with what should happen.
  • Example: Imagine two children of the same age—one grows up in poverty, another financially well-off. In what sense do they experience the same underlying developmental changes? How much should they even be expected to do so?
• Developmental psychology highlights the "sameness" or common ground, serving as counterpoint to knowledge of their obvious uniqueness.
• Don't confuse: What happens to middle-class children as they develop is not necessarily what should happen to all children.

🧒 Physical development during school years

🧒 Why physical development matters for all teachers

• Physical development is not just the concern of physical education teachers—it is a foundation for many academic tasks.
• Examples:
  • First grade: Can children successfully manipulate a pencil?
  • Later grades: How long can students sit still without discomfort (a real physical challenge)?
  • All grades: What are students' health needs related to age or maturity? Who may become ill, and with what? What physical activities are reasonable and needed?

📏 Trends in height and weight

Average height and weight of well-nourished children:

Age	Height (cm)	Weight (kg)
2	85	7.0
6	115	20.0
10	135	31.0
14	162	52.0
18	169	60.5

• Diversity: At age 6, average height is 115 cm, but some are 109 and others 125 cm; average weight is 20 kg, but ranges 16–24 kg (about 20% variation in either direction).
• Gender differences: Boys and girls are quite similar during childhood, but diverge in early teenage years (puberty). For a time (age 10–14), the average girl is taller (but not much heavier) than the average boy. After that, the average boy becomes both taller and heavier—though individual exceptions remain.
• Weight diverges more than height: Among 18-year-olds, the heaviest weigh almost twice as much as the lightest, but the tallest are only about 10% taller than the shortest.
• Racial/ethnic background: Children of Asian background tend to be slightly shorter; European/North American children are in between; African children tend to be taller. Body shape also differs slightly (e.g., Asian youth tend to have arms and legs a bit short relative to torsos; African youth tend to have relatively long arms and legs). These are only averages; large individual differences are more relevant for teachers.

🌟 Puberty and its effects

Puberty: the set of changes in early adolescence that bring about sexual maturity.

• Physical changes: Internal changes in reproductive organs; outward changes like growth of breasts in girls and penis in boys; relatively sudden increases in height and weight.
• Social/emotional changes: By age 10 or 11, most children experience increased sexual attraction to others (usually heterosexual, though not always), affecting social life in and out of school. By the end of high school, more than half report having experienced sexual intercourse at least once.
• Gender role accentuation: Some girls who excelled at math or science in elementary school may curb their enthusiasm to avoid limiting popularity or attractiveness. Some boys may dedicate themselves to athletics to affirm masculinity. Some who once worked together successfully may no longer feel comfortable doing so—or may seek to be partners for social rather than academic reasons.
• Variability: Changes do not affect all youngsters equally, nor any one youngster equally on all occasions. A student may act like a young adult one day, more like a child the next.
• Teaching implication: Teachers need to respond flexibly and supportively.

🏃 Development of motor skills

• At kindergarten: Fundamental motor skills are already developing but not yet perfectly coordinated. Five-year-olds can walk satisfactorily; running may still look like a hurried walk but becomes more coordinated within a year or two. Jumping, throwing, catching are possible but often clumsy, improving noticeably during early elementary years.
• Who is responsible: Physical education teachers (where they exist) or classroom teachers during designated PE activities.
• Importance of noticing delays: If a child does not keep to the usual developmental timetable, arrange for special assessment or supports.
• Impact on self-esteem: Students who are clumsy are aware of it and worry about peer respect. In the long term, self-consciousness and poor self-esteem can develop, especially if peers, teachers, or parents place high value on athletic success.
  • Example: One study found that losers in athletic competitions tend to become less sociable and more apt to miss subsequent practices than winners.

🏥 Health and illness

• General health: By world standards, children in economically developed societies tend to be remarkably healthy on average, but much depends on family income and health care availability. Children from higher-income families experience far fewer serious or life-threatening illnesses.
• Frequency of illness: Children get far more illnesses than adults (6–10 colds per year vs 2–4 for adults), probably because their immune systems are less fully formed and they are continually exposed to other children at school. Teachers also report more frequent minor illnesses (about five colds per year) than adults in general.
• Impact on learning: "Simple" illnesses are not life-threatening but cause many lost school days for students and teachers, and days when a student is present but functions below par while infecting classmates.
• Unequal distribution: Illness is particularly common where living conditions are crowded, health care is scarce or unaffordable, and individuals live with frequent stresses—often (but not always) the circumstances of poverty.

Health effects of children's economic level (poor vs non-poor):

Health problem	Comparison
Delayed immunizations	3 times higher
Asthma	Somewhat higher
Lead poisoning	3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from accidents	2–3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from disease	3–4 times higher
Condition limiting school activity	2–3 times higher
Days sick in bed	40% higher
Seriously impaired vision	2–3 times higher
Severe iron-deficiency (anemia)	2 times higher

🚬 Health risks in older students

• Alcohol and cigarettes: As of 2004, about 75% of teenagers reported drinking alcohol at least occasionally, and 22% reported smoking cigarettes. Good news: these proportions show a small but steady decline over the past 10 years. Bad news: teenagers show increases in abuse of some prescription drugs (e.g., inhalants that act as stimulants).
• Unequal distribution: A relatively small fraction of individuals account for a disproportionate proportion of usage. A teenager is 3–5 times more likely to smoke or use alcohol, marijuana, or drugs if he or she has a sibling who has also indulged these habits. Siblings are more influential in this case than parents.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Physical development during the school years—including growth, puberty, motor skills, and health—forms a foundation for many academic tasks and affects students' learning, self-esteem, and classroom participation.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Why physical development matters for educators: it underpins academic tasks (e.g., pencil manipulation, sitting still, knowing health needs) and is not just the concern of physical education teachers.
• Growth patterns: children show large individual variation in height and weight; boys and girls diverge at puberty (girls temporarily taller around ages 10–14); weight differences become more extreme than height differences by age 18.
• Puberty's impact: brings sexual maturity, outward physical changes, and can accentuate gender-role differences, affecting social dynamics and academic behavior (e.g., some girls curbing enthusiasm in math/science).
• Motor skills and self-esteem: clumsiness can negatively affect peer respect and lead to poor self-esteem, especially if athletics are highly valued; skills improve noticeably during early elementary years.
• Common confusion—health and socioeconomic status: illness is not uniformly distributed; children from lower-income families experience far more serious illnesses and health problems, and crowded/stressful conditions increase illness prevalence.

📏 Growth Trends and Individual Variation

📏 Typical height and weight patterns

• The excerpt provides average values (e.g., at age 6, average height ~115 cm, weight ~20 kg; at age 18, ~169 cm and ~60.5 kg).
• Key point: averages hide large individual differences—at age 6, height ranges from 109 to 125 cm, weight from 16 to 24 kg (about 20% variation in either direction).
• As children age, weight differences diverge more radically than height differences: among 18-year-olds, the heaviest weigh almost twice as much as the lightest, but the tallest are only ~10% taller than the shortest.

🚻 Gender differences across development

• Boys and girls are quite similar in height and weight during childhood.
• Puberty divergence: approximately ages 10–14, the average girl is taller (but not much heavier) than the average boy; after that, the average boy becomes both taller and heavier.
• This temporary difference can be awkward for some youth who aspire to older teen/adult appearance, but may not be noticed by those less concerned with "image."

🌍 Racial and ethnic background

• Average height and weight relate somewhat to background:
  • Children of Asian background tend to be slightly shorter.
  • Children of European/North American background are in between.
  • Children from African societies tend to be taller.
• Body shape also differs slightly (e.g., Asian youth: shorter arms/legs relative to torso; African youth: relatively long arms/legs).
• Don't confuse: these are only averages; large individual differences exist and are more relevant for teachers than broad group differences.

⚖️ Social and health concerns

• Modern societies tend to favor relatively short women, tall men, and thin body builds (especially for girls/women).
• Being overweight has become a common, serious problem due to high-fat diets and low-activity lifestyles.
• The educational system has contributed by restricting physical education courses over the past two decades.
• Example: a student who does not fit the "socially correct" height or thinness may face social pressure or self-esteem issues.

🌸 Puberty and Its Effects

🌸 What puberty involves

Puberty: the set of changes in early adolescence that bring about sexual maturity.

• Internal changes: reproductive organs mature.
• Outward changes: growth of breasts in girls, penis in boys, and relatively sudden increases in height and weight.
• By age 10 or 11, most children experience increased sexual attraction to others (usually heterosexual, though not always), affecting social life in and out of school.
• By the end of high school, more than half of boys and girls report having experienced sexual intercourse at least once (though exact proportions are uncertain due to privacy/sensitivity).

🎭 Gender-role accentuation

• At about the same time puberty occurs, gender-role differences accentuate for at least some teenagers.
• Example: some girls who excelled at math or science in elementary school may curb their enthusiasm and displays of success for fear of limiting their popularity or attractiveness as girls.
• Example: some boys not especially interested in sports previously may dedicate themselves to athletics to affirm their masculinity.
• Example: some boys and girls who once worked together successfully on class projects may no longer feel comfortable doing so—or may now seek to be partners for social rather than academic reasons.

🔄 Variability and teaching implications

• Changes do not affect all youngsters equally, nor affect any one youngster equally on all occasions.
• An individual student may act like a young adult one day, but more like a child the next.
• Teaching implication: teachers need to respond flexibly and supportively to children experiencing puberty.

🤸 Motor Skills Development

🤸 Fundamental motor skills in early school years

• Students' fundamental motor skills are already developing when they begin kindergarten, but are not yet perfectly coordinated.
• Five-year-olds generally can walk satisfactorily for most school-related purposes.
• Running may still look like a hurried walk for some fives, but usually becomes more coordinated within a year or two.
• Jumping, throwing, and catching: most children can do these things (though often clumsily) by the time they start school, but improve noticeably during the early elementary years.

🛠️ Who assists and when to seek help

• Assisting motor skill development is usually the job of physical education teachers (where they exist) or classroom teachers during designated physical education activities.
• Important: notice if a child does not keep more-or-less to the usual developmental timetable, and arrange for special assessment or supports if appropriate.

😟 Clumsiness and self-esteem

• Even if physical skills are not a special focus of a classroom teacher, they can be quite important to students themselves.
• Whatever their grade level, students who are clumsy are aware of that fact and how it could potentially negatively affect respect from their peers.
• In the long term, self-consciousness and poor self-esteem can develop for a clumsy child, especially if peers (or teachers and parents) place high value on success in athletics.
• Example: one research study found that losers in athletic competitions tend to become less sociable and are more apt to miss subsequent athletic practices than winners.

🏥 Health and Illness Patterns

🏥 Frequency of illness in children vs. adults

• By world standards, children and youth in economically developed societies tend to be remarkably healthy on average.
• However, children—especially the youngest—get far more illnesses than adults.
• Example: in 2004, children get an average of 6–10 colds per year, but adults get only 2–4 per year.
• Why: children's immune systems are not as fully formed as adults', and children at school are continually exposed to other children, many of whom may be contagious.

👩‍🏫 Impact on teachers and learning

• An indirect result: teachers (along with airline flight attendants) also report more frequent minor illnesses than adults in general—about five colds per year instead of 2–4.
• "Simple" illnesses are not life-threatening, but they are responsible for many lost days of school (for both students and teachers), as well as days when a student may be present physically but functions below par while simultaneously infecting classmates.
• In these ways, learning and teaching often suffer because health is suffering.

💰 Socioeconomic disparities in health

• The problem is not only the prevalence of illness as such, but that illnesses are not distributed uniformly among students, schools, or communities.
• Illness is particularly common where living conditions are crowded, where health care is scarce or unaffordable, and where individuals live with frequent stresses of any kind—often (but not always) the circumstances of poverty.
• Children from higher-income families experience far fewer serious or life-threatening illnesses than children from lower-income families.

Health problem	Comparison: poor vs. non-poor
Delayed immunizations	3 times higher
Asthma	Somewhat higher
Lead poisoning	3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from accidents	2–3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from disease	3–4 times higher
Having a condition that limits school activity	2–3 times higher
Days sick in bed	40% higher
Seriously impaired vision	2–3 times higher
Severe iron-deficiency (anemia)	2 times higher

🚬 Health risks in older students

• As students get older, illnesses become less frequent, but other health risks emerge.
• The most widespread: consumption of alcohol and smoking of cigarettes.
• As of 2004, about 75% of teenagers reported drinking an alcoholic beverage at least occasionally, and 22% reported smoking cigarettes.
• Good news: these proportions show a small but steady decline over the past 10 years or so.
• Bad news: teenagers also show increases in the abuse of some prescription drugs (e.g., inhalants that act as stimulants).

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Uneven distribution of drug use

• The prevalence of drug use is not uniform; a relatively small fraction of individuals account for a disproportionate proportion of usage.
• Example: one survey found that a teenager was 3–5 times more likely to smoke, use alcohol, smoke marijuana, or use drugs if he or she has a sibling who has also indulged these habits.
• Don't confuse: siblings are more influential in this case than parents.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Jean Piaget's cognitive stage theory explains how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically through four distinct, sequential stages from birth through adolescence.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core mechanism: Cognition develops through the interplay of assimilation (adjusting new experiences to fit prior concepts) and accommodation (adjusting concepts to fit new experiences), leading to long-term developmental change.
• Four sequential stages: sensorimotor (birth–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), and formal operational (11+), each transforming and incorporating the previous stage.
• Stage properties: stages always happen in the same order, no stage is skipped, each is a significant transformation, and each later stage incorporates earlier stages—a "staircase" model.
• Common confusion: formal operational thinking is desirable but not sufficient for school success; many people never use it fully or consistently, and it does not guarantee motivation, behavior, or other skills.
• Educational relevance: Piaget's theory is especially popular among educators because it explains how children's thinking capabilities change and what kinds of tasks they can handle at different ages.

🧱 Foundational concepts

🧱 What cognitive development means

Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term changes in these processes.

• Piaget is described as a psychological constructivist: learning proceeds by the interplay of assimilation and accommodation.
• These two processes lead not only to short-term learning but also to long-term developmental change.
• The long-term developments are the main focus of Piaget's cognitive theory.

🪜 The staircase model of stages

Piaget proposed that cognition developed through distinct stages with four key features:

Feature	What it means
Same order	Stages always happen in the same sequence
No skipping	No stage is ever skipped
Transformation	Each stage is a significant transformation of the stage before it
Incorporation	Each later stage incorporates the earlier stages into itself

• This is called the "staircase" model of development.
• Each stage is correlated with an age period of childhood, but only approximately.

👶 Sensorimotor stage: birth to age 2

👶 Thinking through senses and actions

The sensorimotor stage is defined as the period when infants "think" by means of their senses and motor actions.

• Infants continually touch, manipulate, look, listen to, and even bite and chew objects.
• According to Piaget, these actions allow them to learn about the world and are crucial to their early cognitive development.
• The infant's actions allow the child to represent (or construct simple concepts of) objects and events.

🧸 Object permanence

Object permanence: a belief that objects exist whether or not they are actually present.

• Example: A toy animal may be just a confusing array of sensations at first, but by looking, feeling, and manipulating it repeatedly, the child gradually organizes sensations and actions into a stable concept, toy animal.
• The representation acquires a permanence lacking in the individual experiences of the object, which are constantly changing.
• Because the representation is stable, the child "knows" that toy animal exists even if the actual toy is temporarily out of sight.
• This is a major achievement of sensorimotor development and marks a qualitative transformation in how older infants (24 months) think compared to younger infants (6 months).

🔬 Piaget's clever experiments

• During much of infancy, a child can only barely talk, so sensorimotor development initially happens without the support of language.
• Piaget devised several simple but clever experiments to get around infants' lack of language.
• Example: He simply hid an object (like a toy animal) under a blanket. Doing so consistently prompts older infants (18–24 months) to search for the object, but fails to prompt younger infants (less than six months) to do so.
• "Something" motivates the search by the older infant even without the benefit of much language, and the "something" is presumed to be a permanent concept or representation of the object.

🎭 Preoperational stage: age 2 to 7

🎭 Representing without full logic

In the preoperational stage, children use their new ability to represent objects in a wide variety of activities, but they do not yet do it in ways that are organized or fully logical.

• One of the most obvious examples is dramatic play, the improvised make-believe of preschool children.
• Example: Ashley holds a plastic banana to her ear and says: "Hello, Mom? Can you be sure to bring me my baby doll? OK!" Then she hangs up the banana and pours tea for Jeremy into an invisible cup.

🧠 Early metacognition through play

Metacognition: reflecting on and monitoring of thinking itself.

• Children immersed in make-believe seem "mentally insane" in that they do not think realistically, but they are not truly insane because they have not really taken leave of their senses.
• At some level, Ashley and Jeremy always know that the banana is still a banana and not really a telephone; they are merely representing it as a telephone.
• They are thinking on two levels at once—one imaginative and the other realistic.
• This dual processing of experience makes dramatic play an early example of metacognition, a highly desirable skill for success in school that teachers often encourage.
• Teachers of young children (preschool, kindergarten, and even first or second grade) often make time and space in their classrooms for dramatic play, and sometimes even participate in it themselves to help develop the play further.

🧮 Concrete operational stage: age 7 to 11

🧮 Operating on concrete objects

The concrete operational stage: children mentally "operate" on concrete objects and events.

• As children continue into elementary school, they become able to represent ideas and events more flexibly and logically.
• Their rules of thinking still seem very basic by adult standards and usually operate unconsciously, but they allow children to solve problems more systematically than before.
• Example: A child may unconsciously follow the rule: "If nothing is added or taken away, then the amount of something stays the same." This helps children understand certain arithmetic tasks (adding or subtracting zero) and classroom science experiments (judgments of amounts of liquids when mixed).
• They are not yet able, however, to operate (or think) systematically about representations of objects or events—a more abstract skill that develops later, during adolescence.

🔄 Reversibility

Reversibility: the ability to think about the steps of a process in any order.

• Example: Both preoperational and concrete operational children can recall and describe the steps in a science experiment (placing objects in water to see if they sink or float), but only the concrete operational child can recall them in any order.
• This skill is very helpful on any task involving multiple steps—a common feature of classroom tasks.
• Example: A teacher might tell students: "First make a list of words in the story that you do not know, then find and write down their definitions, and finally get a friend to test you on your list." This involves repeatedly remembering to move back and forth between steps—easy for concrete operational students and most adults, but confusing for preoperational children.
• If younger children are to do this task reliably, they may need external prompts, such as having the teacher remind them periodically.

🎯 Decentration

Decentration: the ability to focus on more than one feature of a problem at a time.

• There are hints of decentration in preschool children's dramatic play, which requires being aware on two levels at once—knowing that a banana can be both a banana and a "telephone."
• But the decentration of the concrete operational stage is more deliberate and conscious than preschoolers' make-believe.
• Example: "Find all of the problems that involve two-digit subtraction and that involve borrowing from the next column. Circle and solve only those problems." Following these instructions is quite possible for a concrete operational student because they can attend to the two subtasks simultaneously—finding the two-digit problems and identifying which actually involve borrowing.

⚖️ Conservation

Conservation: the belief that an amount or quantity stays the same even if it changes apparent size or shape.

• In real classroom tasks, reversibility and decentration often happen together; a well-known example is Piaget's experiments with conservation.
• Example: Imagine two identical balls made of clay. Any child will agree that the two have the same amount of clay because they look the same. But if you squish one ball into a long, thin "hot dog," the preoperational child is likely to say that the amount has changed—either because it is longer or because it is thinner. The concrete operational child will not make this mistake.
• Why the concrete operational child gets it right: "you could squish it back into a ball again" (reversibility) and "it may be longer, but it is also thinner" (decentration).
• Piaget would say the concrete operational child "has conservation of quantity."
• The development of concrete operational skills supports students in doing many basic academic tasks; in a sense they make ordinary schoolwork possible.

🔬 Formal operational stage: age 11 and beyond

🔬 Operating on abstract representations

The formal operational stage: the period when the individual can "operate" on "forms" or representations.

• The child becomes able to reason not only about tangible objects and events, but also about hypothetical or abstract ones.
• With students at this level, the teacher can pose hypothetical (or contrary-to-fact) problems: "What if the world had never discovered oil?" or "What if the first European explorers had settled first in California instead of on the East Coast of the United States?"
• To answer such questions, students must use hypothetical reasoning, meaning that they must manipulate ideas that vary in several ways at once, and do so entirely in their minds.

🧪 Scientific problem-solving

• The hypothetical reasoning that concerned Piaget primarily involved scientific problems, so his studies of formal operational thinking often look like problems that middle or high school teachers pose in science classes.
• Example: A young person is presented with a simple pendulum, to which different amounts of weight can be hung. The experimenter asks: "What determines how fast the pendulum swings: the length of the string holding it, the weight attached to it, or the distance that it is pulled to the side?"
• The young person is not allowed to solve this problem by trial-and-error with the materials themselves, but must reason a way to the solution mentally.
• To do so systematically, he or she must imagine varying each factor separately, while also imagining the other factors that are held constant.
• This kind of thinking requires facility at manipulating mental representations of the relevant objects and actions—precisely the skill that defines formal operations.

⚠️ Advantages and limitations

Advantages:

• Students with an ability to think hypothetically have an advantage in many kinds of school work: by definition, they require relatively few "props" to solve problems.
• In this sense they can in principle be more self-directed than students who rely only on concrete operations—certainly a desirable quality in the opinion of most teachers.

Limitations:

• Formal operational thinking is desirable but not sufficient for school success.
• It is far from being the only way that students achieve educational success.
• Formal thinking skills do not insure that a student is motivated or well-behaved, nor does it guarantee other desirable skills, such as ability at sports, music, or art.
• The fourth stage is really about a particular kind of formal thinking: the kind needed to solve scientific problems and devise scientific experiments.
• Since many people do not normally deal with such problems in the normal course of their lives, research finds that many people never achieve or use formal thinking fully or consistently, or that they use it only in selected areas with which they are very familiar.

🔍 Don't confuse formal operations with general intelligence

• Formal operational thinking is a specific cognitive skill related to abstract, hypothetical reasoning—especially scientific reasoning.
• It does not encompass all aspects of intelligence, motivation, behavior, or other competencies.
• The limitations of Piaget's ideas suggest a need for additional theories about development—ones that focus more directly on the social and interpersonal issues of childhood and adolescence.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Social development in students involves three interconnected areas—self-concept and relationships, personal motives, and moral reasoning—each explained by a major theory that helps teachers understand and support students' growth beyond cognitive skills.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three main areas of social development: changes in self-concept and relationships (Erikson), changes in basic needs or personal motives (Maslow), and changes in sense of rights and responsibilities (Kohlberg and Gilligan).
• Erikson's psychosocial crises: development proceeds through eight stages, each a turning point involving a dilemma where one choice is healthier; resolution affects personality and later crises.
• Maslow's hierarchy: basic deficit needs (physiological, safety, love, esteem) must be satisfied before being needs (cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization) can emerge; deficit needs can reappear and must be re-satisfied.
• Common confusion: Maslow's stages are not irreversible like Piaget's or Erikson's—earlier needs can return at any age depending on circumstances, requiring satisfaction again before higher needs motivate behavior.
• Why it matters for teaching: teachers function like caregivers in supporting trust, autonomy, initiative, and industry; they must recognize that students' deficit needs (especially in poverty) can block attention to learning and growth needs.

🌱 Erik Erikson's psychosocial crises

🧩 What psychosocial crises are

Psychosocial crisis: a turning point in a person's relationships and feelings about himself or herself, consisting of a dilemma or choice that carries both advantages and risks, with one choice normally considered more desirable or "healthy."

• Each crisis is a stage in social development from birth through old age.
• How one crisis is resolved affects how later crises are resolved and helps create an individual's developing personality.
• Erikson proposed eight crises total; four occur during school years.

👶 Early childhood crises (birth to age 6)

Crisis	Age	Core dilemma	Healthy resolution
Trust vs. mistrust	Birth–1 year	Will the caregiver meet my needs reliably?	Baby learns to trust caregiver's attentiveness
Autonomy vs. shame	1–3 years	Can I take care of my own basic needs without being criticized?	Child asserts autonomy; caregiver supports efforts without shaming
Initiative vs. guilt	3–6 years	Can I pursue my own projects and desires without harming others?	Child takes initiative; caregiver limits behavior but not internal feelings

Relevance to teaching (all ages):

• Students who are fundamentally mistrustful have serious problems coping with school life; teachers must prove worthy of trust through flexibility and attentiveness.
• Students need to make choices and undertake initiatives even if not every choice is practical; teachers should support resources and guide efforts, not criticize intentions.
• Example: A teacher who says "that's bound to fail" about a student's project idea undermines initiative, even if the teacher is privately correct.

🏫 The school-age crisis: industry vs. inferiority (age 6–12)

Industry vs. inferiority: the crisis of becoming competent and worthy in the eyes of classmates and teachers; requires sustained, focused effort on skills.

The dilemma:

• To gain esteem, the child must develop skills (reading, cooperation, being a "true student") that require effort with no guarantee of success.
• Success → satisfaction of a job well done (industry).
• Failure → lasting feelings of inferiority compared to others.

Teacher's role:

• Set realistic academic goals that tend to lead to success.
• Provide materials and assistance to help students reach goals.
• Express confidence when students get discouraged.
• Avoid hinting (even accidentally) that a student is a "loser."
• Don't confuse: Too much emphasis on perfection can undermine confidence by making goals seem beyond reach, fostering inferiority instead of industry.

🔍 The adolescent crisis: identity vs. role confusion (age 12–19)

Identity vs. role confusion: the crisis of defining "who am I?" by integrating talents and attitudes into a coherent sense of self, acknowledged by others.

The dilemma:

• Some talents may be poorly developed or undesirable to others.
• Who a person wants to be may not match who they actually are or who others want them to be.
• Result: role confusion.

Teacher strategies:

• Offer diverse role models (in reading materials, guest speakers) to show many ways to be respected and successful.
• Be alert to students' confusions about their futures; refer to counselors or outside services.
• Tolerate changes in students' goals and priorities (sudden shifts in activities or post-graduation plans) because students are still trying roles out.

🌳 Adult crises (age 19+)

Crisis	Age	Focus
Intimacy vs. isolation	19–25+	Establishing deep, sustainable relationships; risk of feeling isolated
Generativity vs. stagnation	25–50+	Contributing to society and future generations; making life productive and creative
Integrity vs. despair	50+	Accepting personal life history, forgiving self and others; alternative is despair from believing life was lived badly with no hope of correction

Relevance to school-age students:

• Precursors exist during school years: students desire lasting relationships (intimacy), welcome chances to serve others authentically (generativity), and need to take responsibility for their personal past (integrity).
• Personal isolation is a particular risk for students with disabilities or whose cultural/racial backgrounds differ from classmates or teachers.

🏔️ Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of motives and needs

🧩 Core structure of the hierarchy

Hierarchy of needs: basic or "lower-level" needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become important or motivating.

Two main types:

• Deficit needs: basic requirements of physical and emotional well-being; must be satisfied before being needs can be addressed.
• Being needs (growth needs): desires to become fulfilled as a person or be the best you can be.

Key difference from Piaget/Erikson:

• Maslow's stages are universal but not irreversible.
• Earlier stages can reappear later in life depending on circumstances; they must be satisfied again before later stages can redevelop.
• Example: A student who previously felt safe may experience family instability and return to focusing on safety needs, unable to focus on learning.

🍎 Deficit needs: the basics

Need level	Description	School example
Physiological	Food, sleep, clothing	A student not getting enough to eat won't feel interest in learning
Safety and security	Stability, protection, structure, limits	A child from an abusive family may appreciate a well-organized classroom with predictable rules, even if it doesn't provide much real learning
Love and belonging	Making friends, being a friend, positive relationships	A student may make approval from peers or teachers a top priority
Esteem	Recognition, respect, self-respect	A student may be unusually concerned with achievement if it earns public recognition

Important for teachers:

• Deficit needs are likely to return chronically for students whose families lack economic or social resources or who live with poverty-related stress.
• Without basic needs met, "elevated" or self-fulfilling concerns are impossible.

🌟 Being needs: becoming your best self

Being needs: desires to become fulfilled as a person; include cognitive needs (knowledge and understanding), aesthetic needs (appreciation of beauty and order), and self-actualization needs (fulfillment of one's potential).

Key characteristics:

• Emerge only after all deficit needs have been largely met.
• Unlike deficit needs, being needs beget more being needs—they don't disappear once met but create desire for even more satisfaction.
• Example: Thirst for knowledge leads to further thirst for knowledge; aesthetic appreciation leads to more aesthetic appreciation.
• Maslow sometimes grouped all three (cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization) into the single category "self-actualization needs" because they are less hierarchical.

🦋 Self-actualization: rare but recognizable

Qualities of self-actualizing individuals:

• Value deep personal relationships but also value solitude.
• Have a sense of humor but don't use it against others.
• Accept themselves as well as others.
• Are spontaneous, humble, creative, and ethical.

Reality for teachers:

• True self-actualization is rare, especially among young people who haven't lived long enough to satisfy earlier deficit needs.
• However, students can display moments of self-actualization—times when they show care, respect, spontaneity, humility, or sound ethical sense.
• Don't confuse: Students are not fully self-actualized, but they can display these positive qualities at their best moments; teachers should recognize both students' deficit needs and their capacity for being needs.

🧭 Moral development: rights and responsibilities

🧩 What morality and moral development are

Morality: a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad.

Moral development: changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity.

Important distinctions:

• Moral beliefs ≠ moral behavior: it's possible to know the right thing to do but not actually do it.
• Morality ≠ social conventions: conventions are arbitrary customs needed for smooth operation of society, though they may have a moral element.
• Example: Driving on the correct side of the street is a convention (practical purpose: smooth traffic flow) but also has a moral element (wrong choice can cause injury or death).

🏫 Moral choices in classroom life

Woven into everyday teaching:

• Moral choices are not restricted to dramatic incidents but appear in almost every aspect of classroom life.
• Example dilemma: When students are taking turns reading aloud, should you give every student equal time (fairness as equality) or give more time to students who need extra help (fairness as meeting needs), even if it bores classmates and deprives others of equal floor time?
• Such dilemmas happen daily at all grade levels because students are diverse and class time is limited.

Note: The excerpt introduces moral development as a topic area with theorists Kohlberg and Gilligan mentioned, but does not provide details of their theories in this section.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Moral development involves forming beliefs about right and wrong through two complementary frameworks—justice (focused on fairness and rights) and care (focused on responsibility and consideration for others)—both of which are essential for understanding how students develop ethical reasoning in classroom contexts.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Morality vs. behavior and convention: Moral beliefs are about right and wrong, distinct from both actual behavior (you can know the right thing but not do it) and social conventions (arbitrary customs with practical purposes).
• Two moral frameworks needed: A morality of justice emphasizes fairness, impartiality, and individual rights; a morality of care emphasizes responsibilities, consideration for others' needs, and interdependence.
• Kohlberg's justice stages: Moral reasoning progresses from preconventional (obedience and self-interest) through conventional (peer/societal approval) to postconventional (democratic process and universal principles).
• Gilligan's care positions: Ethical care develops from survival orientation (self only) through conventional caring (others only) to integrated caring (coordinating self and others).
• Common confusion: Justice and care are not opposing theories but complementary—students and teachers need both; also, don't confuse moral beliefs with moral behavior or with social conventions.

⚖️ Justice vs. Care: Two Moral Frameworks

⚖️ Morality of justice

A morality of justice is about human rights—or more specifically, about respect for fairness, impartiality, equality, and individuals' independence.

• Focuses on rights and fairness.
• Asks: "Is this fair? Is everyone treated equally?"
• Example: Should every student get the same reading time, or should struggling readers get more time? Justice asks which is more fair and impartial.

🤝 Morality of care

A morality of care is about human responsibilities—more specifically, about caring for others, showing consideration for individuals' needs, and interdependence among individuals.

• Focuses on responsibilities and relationships.
• Asks: "Who needs help? How do we care for each other?"
• Example: In the same reading scenario, care asks which option shows more consideration for individual needs and acknowledges that students depend on the teacher's attention.

🔍 Why both are necessary

• Classroom dilemmas are woven into almost every aspect of teaching, not just dramatic incidents.
• Students are diverse, and class time and teacher energy are finite, creating daily moral choices.
• Don't confuse: These are not competing theories; both themes must be kept in mind when thinking about how students develop beliefs about right and wrong.

📊 Kohlberg's Stages of Justice Development

📊 Overview of the stage model

• Lawrence Kohlberg proposed six stages grouped into three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.
• Individuals experience the stages universally and in sequence as they form beliefs about justice.
• The model is similar to Piaget's stage approach.

Level	Stage	Definition of "good"
Preconventional	1: Obedience and punishment	Action that is rewarded and not punished
	2: Market exchange	Action agreeable to the child and child's partner
Conventional	3: Peer opinion	Action that wins approval from friends or peers
	4: Law and order	Action that conforms to community customs or laws
Postconventional	5: Social contract	Action that follows socially accepted ways of making decisions
	6: Universal principles	Action consistent with self-chosen, general principles

🍼 Preconventional level: self-centered morality

🚨 Stage 1: Ethics of obedience and punishment

• Coincides approximately with preschool and Piaget's preoperational thinking.
• The child is still relatively self-centered and insensitive to moral effects on others.
• Rightness determined by consequences: If an action is rewarded by authorities (parents, teachers), it's "good"; if punished, it's "bad".
• Example: Taking a cookie is morally good if it brings smiles, bad if it brings scolding.
• The child does not (and cannot at this stage) think about why an action might be praised or scolded.

🔄 Stage 2: Ethics of market exchange

• The child learns to produce positive consequences by exchanging favors with others.
• Morally good = mutual benefit: An action is good if it favors both the child and another person directly involved; bad if it lacks reciprocity.
• Introduces a type of fairness for the first time, but still ignores larger context and effects on people not directly involved.
• Example: Trading lunch items is morally good if both parties agree it's fair; paying a classmate to do homework would also be considered "good" if both see it as fair—even though adults would disagree.

👥 Conventional level: conformity to groups

👫 Stage 3: Ethics of peer opinion

• As children's lives expand to include more peers, beliefs shift to what this larger array of people agree on.
• Reference group = immediate peers: If peers believe politeness is morally good, the child agrees and sees it as more than just convention.
• More stable than Stage 2 because it considers reactions of many people, not just one.
• Risk: Can lead astray if the group settles on beliefs adults consider wrong (e.g., "Shoplifting for candy is fun and desirable").

🏛️ Stage 4: Ethics of law and order

• As the social world expands further, the young person encounters more disagreements about ethical issues.
• Morally good = legal or customarily approved: An action is good if it's legal or approved by the majority of society, including strangers.
• Even more stable than Stage 3, but still not immune from ethical mistakes.
• Example: A society may agree that people of a certain race should be treated with disrespect, or that dumping waste into shared water is acceptable—following these norms would be Stage 4 thinking, but ethically flawed.

🌍 Postconventional level: principled morality

📜 Stage 5: Ethics of social contract

• Requires abstract thinking (Piaget's formal operations).
• Focus shifts from what the community believes to how beliefs are formed: An action is morally good if created through fair, democratic processes that respect affected people's rights.
• Example: Laws requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets—Stage 5 asks whether cyclists, doctors, and families were consulted and gave consent, not just whether the law exists.
• Key insight: Reasonable people can disagree on an issue but both think at Stage 5 if they focus on due process.
• Limitation: Places more faith in democratic process than it sometimes deserves; doesn't pay enough attention to the content of what gets decided.

⭐ Stage 6: Ethics of universal principles

• Recognizes that ethical means can sometimes serve unethical ends (e.g., a society could democratically decide to kill a racial minority).
• Morally good = based on personally held universal principles: Principles apply to both immediate life and the larger community.
• May include belief in democratic process (Stage 5) plus other principles like dignity of all human life or sacredness of nature.
• Universal principles guide beliefs even if they mean disagreeing with custom (Stage 4) or law (Stage 5).

💝 Gilligan's Positions of Care Development

💝 Overview of the care framework

• Carol Gilligan developed a morality of care as a complement to Kohlberg's justice framework.

Morality of care: a system of beliefs about human responsibilities, care, and consideration for others.

• Proposes three moral positions representing different extents or breadth of ethical care.
• Not strictly developmental: Positions can be ranked hierarchically by depth/subtlety, but Gilligan doesn't claim they form a strict sequence (semi-developmental, like Maslow's hierarchy).

Position	Definition of morally good
1: Survival orientation	Action that considers one's personal needs only
2: Conventional care	Action that considers others' needs or preferences, but not one's own
3: Integrated care	Action that attempts to coordinate one's own personal needs with those of others

🛡️ Position 1: Caring as survival

• Focus = personal welfare only: A person is concerned primarily with his or her own welfare.
• Example: A teenage girl considering abortion thinks entirely about effects on herself—what creates least stress and disrupts her life least. Responsibilities to others (baby, father, family) play little or no part.
• Not always negative: For a child who has been bullied or abused, focusing on one's own needs (speaking out) is both healthy and morally desirable—the victim is taking care of herself.
• Classroom limitation: If every student only looked out for themselves, classroom life would be unpleasant; not satisfactory on a widespread scale.

🎁 Position 2: Conventional caring

• Focus = others' happiness and welfare: Concerned about reconciling or integrating others' needs where they conflict.
• Example: In considering abortion, the teenager thinks primarily about what other people prefer—father, parents, doctor. The morally good choice = whatever pleases others best.
• More demanding than Position 1 ethically and intellectually (requires coordinating several persons' needs).
• Limitation: Ignores one crucial person—the self.

🏫 In classrooms

• Students at Position 2 can be very desirable: eager to please, considerate, good at fitting in and working cooperatively.
• Teacher temptation: These qualities are welcome in busy classrooms, so teachers may reward them.
• Problem with rewarding Position 2: Neglects the student's own development—their academic and personal goals or values. Personal goals and identity need attention eventually, and educators have a responsibility to help students discover and clarify them.

🌟 Position 3: Integrated caring

• Focus = coordination of personal needs and values with those of others: The morally good choice takes account of everyone including yourself, not everyone except yourself.
• Example: In considering abortion, a woman thinks about consequences for father, unborn child, and family, and also about consequences for herself—how would bearing a child affect her own needs, values, and plans?
• Most comprehensive but also more prone to dilemmas because the widest possible range of individuals are considered.

🏫 In classrooms

• Most likely to surface when teachers give students wide, sustained freedom to make choices.
• Little flexibility = little moral choice: "Do the homework on page 50 and turn it in tomorrow" → main issue is compliance, not moral choice.
• Wide freedom = moral challenges: "Over the next two months, figure out an inquiry project about water resources. Organize it any way you want and share it meaningfully with the class."
  • Students must decide what aspect matters to them (personal values).
  • Students must consider how to make it meaningful to others in class.
  • Students must weigh personal priorities (time with friends/family) against educational priorities (working on the assignment).
• Don't confuse: Some students may struggle with this freedom, and teachers may be cautious about giving such assignments—but the difficulties are part of the point. Integrated caring is more demanding than survival or conventional caring; not all students may be ready for it.

🔑 Key Distinctions and Classroom Implications

🔑 Morality vs. behavior vs. convention

Morality: a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad.

Moral development: refers to changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity.

• Moral beliefs ≠ moral behavior: It is possible to know the right thing to do but not actually do it.
• Morality ≠ social conventions: Social conventions are arbitrary customs needed for smooth operation of society; they have a primarily practical purpose.
  • Conventions may have a moral element, but they are not the same as morality.
  • Example: Driving on the right side of the street (U.S.) or left (Great Britain) is a convention for smooth traffic flow. Following it also has a moral element because driving on the wrong side can cause injuries or death—so the choice is morally wrong, though it's also unconventional.

🏫 Moral choices woven into classroom life

• Moral choices are not restricted to occasional dramatic incidents but are embedded in almost every aspect of classroom life.
• Example: Reading to second-graders taking turns—should you give every student the same time (fairness/justice) or more time to students who need help (consideration/care), even if it bores classmates and deprives others of equal shares?
• Simple dilemmas like this happen every day at all grade levels because students are diverse and class time and teacher energy are finite.

📚 Understanding "the typical student"

• Developmental theory often speaks of "the" child or student in a generalized way, as if a single typical individual exists.
• Reality: A class of 25–30 students contains 25–30 individuals each developing along distinct pathways.
• Why study developmental patterns? Because underlying their diversity, students show important similarities that relate to the job of teaching.
• Don't confuse: References to "the" student should not be understood as supporting simple-minded stereotypes; they describe underlying similarities, not rigid categories.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Developmental theory speaks of "the typical student" to describe common patterns, but teachers must understand that these generalizations refer to tendencies woven among real diversity, not simple stereotypes.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• The paradox of generalization: developmental theory often refers to "the" student as if one typical pathway exists, yet every classroom contains 25–30 individuals developing along distinct paths.
• Why study patterns at all: despite obvious diversity, students show important underlying similarities that relate directly to teaching.
• Common confusion: references to "the" student should not be mistaken for simple-minded stereotypes; they describe common tendencies, not fixed categories.
• The flock metaphor: pointing to developmental changes is like pointing to a flock of birds—the flock has a general location, but individual birds have their own locations and flight paths.
• Joint understanding required: development and diversity must be understood together, not separately; similarities are woven among differences, and differences are woven among commonalities.

🦅 The flock metaphor: generalization and individuality

🦅 How the metaphor works

The excerpt uses a vivid comparison to explain the relationship between general patterns and individual variation:

Pointing to developmental changes is like pointing to a flock of birds in flight: the flock has a general location, but individual birds also have their own locations and take individual flight paths.

• The flock represents developmental patterns or stages that apply broadly.
• Individual birds represent each student's unique pathway.
• Both levels are real and meaningful simultaneously.
• You can describe where the flock is going without denying that each bird flies its own path.

🎯 What "the" student really means

• When developmental theory refers to "the" child, student, or youngster, it sounds like a single typical or average individual exists.
• Don't confuse: these references are not supporting simple-minded stereotypes.
• Instead, they refer to common tendencies of real, live children and youth.
• The generalization is a tool for recognizing patterns, not a claim that all students are identical.

🧩 Why study developmental patterns

🧩 The practical value for teachers

The excerpt addresses a fundamental question: if every student is different, why bother with general developmental theory?

The answer: because underlying their obvious diversity, students indeed show important similarities.

• A class of 25 or 30 students will contain 25 or 30 individuals each learning and developing along distinct pathways.
• Yet these individuals share enough commonalities that understanding developmental patterns helps teachers.
• The chapter (referring to the broader text) has indicated some of these similarities and how they relate to the job of teaching.

📚 Appropriate expectations and perspective

Understanding development helps teachers in two key ways:

• Hold appropriate expectations for students (knowing what is reasonable to expect at different stages).
• Keep students' individual diversity in perspective (understanding which differences are typical variation and which require special attention).

🔗 Development and diversity as inseparable

🔗 The weaving metaphor

The excerpt emphasizes that development and diversity cannot be separated:

There are indeed similarities woven among the differences in students, but also differences woven among students' commonalities.

• Similarities woven among differences: even when students differ, common developmental threads run through their experiences.
• Differences woven among commonalities: even when students share developmental stages, individual variation persists within those stages.
• This is not an either/or situation; both dimensions exist simultaneously.

🔄 Joint understanding required

Development and diversity therefore have to be understood jointly, not separately.

• You cannot fully understand development without acknowledging diversity.
• You cannot fully understand diversity without a framework of developmental patterns.
• The excerpt recommends reading the development chapter together with the next chapter on student diversity.
• This joint reading reflects the joint nature of the concepts themselves.

🎓 Implications for teaching practice

🎓 Avoiding stereotypes while using patterns

Teachers face a practical challenge:

• They need general knowledge about developmental stages to plan curriculum and set expectations.
• They must simultaneously recognize that no student perfectly fits the general pattern.
• The solution is to use developmental knowledge as a starting point, not a rigid prescription.

🎓 Balancing the general and the particular

Example scenario: A teacher knows that students at a certain age typically develop abstract reasoning abilities (a general pattern). However, in the classroom:

• Some students may already show strong abstract thinking.
• Others may still rely heavily on concrete examples.
• The teacher uses the general pattern to guide lesson design but remains alert to individual variation and adjusts accordingly.

Don't confuse: using developmental patterns as a guide with assuming every student will match the pattern exactly or at the same time.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Students have preferred ways of learning and thinking (learning styles and cognitive styles), but teachers should balance supporting these preferences with encouraging flexibility, rather than locking students into fixed categories.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Learning styles vs. reality: Students have preferred strategies (e.g., diagrams vs. outlines), but they can usually learn with other methods too, so preferences shouldn't become rigid labels.
• Cognitive styles are more specific: These are typical ways of perceiving, remembering, and problem-solving (e.g., field dependence/independence, impulsivity/reflectivity) that show modest stability across situations.
• Common confusion: Don't confuse "preference" with "necessity"—a student may prefer hearing over seeing, but can still learn effectively through both modalities.
• Two teaching approaches: Build on existing style strengths and encourage balance for students who need it (e.g., help a field-dependent student develop analytic skills).
• Why it matters: Understanding styles helps tailor instruction, but should never replace students' own choices or lock them into narrow learning modes.

🎨 Learning styles: preferences, not fixed categories

🎨 What learning styles are

Learning styles: preferred ways of learning that students habitually use.

• The term may imply more consistency than actually exists—students aren't the same across all situations.
• Example: One student prefers making diagrams for reading assignments; another prefers sketchy outlines.
• Key insight: In many cases, students could reverse strategies and still learn the material, though they might feel less comfortable.

⚖️ The balanced approach teachers should take

• Support preferences where possible and appropriate, but not all the time.
• It is neither necessary nor desirable to classify students into fixed learning style labels and allow them to learn only that way.
• Example: A student may prefer hearing explanations over watching videos, but can tolerate or even prefer visual demonstrations sometimes—and may learn best by encountering material both ways.
• Don't confuse: "Preference" ≠ "only way to learn." Habitual preferences don't mean inability to learn through other methods.

🧠 Cognitive styles: typical ways of thinking

🧠 What cognitive styles are

Cognitive styles: typical ways of perceiving and remembering information, and typical ways of solving problems and making decisions.

• More specific than learning styles or preferences.
• Show modest stability across situations for a given person, but not complete consistency.

🌐 Field dependence vs. field independence

Cognitive style	How they perceive	Work preference	Subject preference
Field dependence	Perceive patterns as a whole rather than focusing on parts separately	Work better in groups	Prefer "open-ended" fields like literature and history
Field independence	Analyze overall patterns into their parts	Work better alone	Prefer highly analytic studies like math and science

• These are only tendencies—many students contradict the trends.
• Don't confuse: These styles are useful for tailoring instruction approximately, but cannot and should not "lock" students to particular modes or replace their own expressed preferences.

⚡ Impulsivity vs. reflectivity

Cognitive style	Reaction speed	Error rate	Better suited for
Impulsive	Reacts quickly	Makes comparatively more errors	Spontaneous tasks (e.g., cooperative group partner, athletic team member)
Reflective	Reacts more slowly	Makes fewer errors	Academic skills benefiting from reflection (e.g., math problem-solving, certain reading tasks)

• Research confirms reflective style suits many academic demands better.
• However, some school-related skills develop better with relative impulsivity.
• Example: Being a good cooperative learning partner may depend on responding spontaneously to others' suggestions; effective athletic team membership may require not reflecting carefully on every move.

🛠️ Two ways to use cognitive style knowledge

🛠️ Build on existing strengths

• Support students' current style preferences and strengths.
• Example: A field-independent and reflective student can be encouraged to explore analytic tasks requiring independent work.
• Example: A field-dependent and impulsive student can be supported to try more social or spontaneous tasks.

🌱 Encourage balance for students who need it

• Less obvious but important: help students develop styles they lack.
• Example: A student who lacks field independence may need explicit help organizing and analyzing key academic tasks (like organizing a lab report in science class).
• Example: A highly reflective student may need encouragement to try ideas spontaneously (as in creative writing lessons).

🧩 Intelligence: single ability vs. multiple forms

🧩 Classical view: intelligence as single broad ability

Intelligence (classical definition): a single broad ability that allows a person to solve or complete many sorts of tasks, especially academic tasks like reading, vocabulary knowledge, and logical problem-solving.

• Research evidence supports the existence of such a global ability.
• Fits with society's everyday beliefs about intelligence.
• Has led to a mini-industry of publishing intelligence, academic ability, and achievement tests.

⚠️ Problems with the single-ability view

• Conceiving intelligence as one general ability tends to put it beyond teachers' influence.
• Implication: Students either have a lot of intelligence or they don't; strengthening it becomes a major challenge or even impossible.
• This conclusion is troubling to educators, especially as achievement testing has become more common and students more diverse.
• Alternative views exist that portray intelligence as having multiple forms (excerpt ends before elaborating on these alternatives).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences proposes that people possess eight independent forms of intelligence in varying combinations, offering teachers a framework to diversify instruction and honor diverse student talents rather than rating students on a single ability scale.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core claim: Intelligence is not a single ability but eight independent forms that function separately and combine uniquely in each person.
• How it works in practice: Different students can succeed on the same task (e.g., writing an essay) by drawing on different intelligence profiles—one using interpersonal strength to get help, another working alone with verbal skill.
• Evidence cited: Individuals with exceptional talent in one area but average in others; brain-damaged individuals who lose one intelligence but retain others.
• Common confusion: The theory relies on anecdotes rather than widespread data, so many psychologists do not consider the evidence strong enough to replace the "classical" view of general intelligence.
• Why it matters for teaching: The model encourages diversifying instruction to respond to diverse student talents, regardless of whether the exact classification is accurate.

🧩 The eight intelligences

🧩 What the theory proposes

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences: there are eight different forms of intelligence, each of which functions independently of the others.

• Each person has a mix of all eight abilities—more of one, less of another—that constitutes their individual cognitive profile.
• The eight are not subparts of a single broader ability; they are separate intelligences in their own right.
• Most tasks require several forms of intelligence and can be completed in more than one way, so people with various profiles can succeed equally well.

🎨 The eight forms

Form of intelligence	What it is	Example activities
Linguistic	Verbal skill; ability to use language well	Verbal persuasion; writing a term paper skillfully
Musical	Ability to create and understand music	Singing, playing a musical instrument; composing a tune
Logical-Mathematical	Logical skill; ability to reason, often using mathematics	Solving mathematical problems easily and accurately; developing and testing hypotheses
Spatial	Ability to imagine and manipulate the arrangement of objects in the environment	Completing a difficult jigsaw puzzle; assembling a complex appliance (e.g. a bicycle)
Bodily-kinesthetic	Sense of balance; coordination in use of one's body	Dancing; gymnastics
Interpersonal	Ability to discern others' nonverbal feelings and thoughts	Sensing when to be tactful; sensing a "subtext" or implied message in a person's statements
Intrapersonal	Sensitivity to one's own thoughts and feelings	Noticing complex or ambivalent feelings in oneself; identifying true motives for an action in oneself
Naturalist	Sensitivity to subtle differences and patterns found in the natural environment	Identifying examples of species of plants or animals; noticing relationships among species and natural processes in the environment

📝 How different profiles succeed on the same task

• Example: writing an essay.
  • Student A (high interpersonal, average verbal): uses interpersonal strength to get a lot of help and advice from classmates and the teacher.
  • Student B (high verbal, average interpersonal): works well alone, without the benefit of help from others.
  • Both students might end up with essays that are good, but good for different reasons.
• Don't confuse: success on a task does not mean using the same intelligence; different profiles can achieve the same outcome through different routes.

🔬 Evidence and debate

🔬 What Gardner cites as evidence

• Individuals with exceptional talent in one area: someone with exceptional talent in one form of intelligence (e.g., playing the piano) but who is neither above nor below average in other areas.
• Brain damage cases: individuals with brain damage who lose one particular form of intelligence (like the ability to talk) but retain other forms.

⚠️ Why many psychologists are skeptical

• The evidence for multiple intelligences is not strong enough to give up the "classical" view of general intelligence, in the opinion of many psychologists.
• Problem with the evidence: it relies primarily on anecdotes—examples or descriptions of particular individuals who illustrate the model—rather than on more widespread information or data.
• Don't confuse: anecdotes (specific cases) vs. widespread data (systematic evidence across many people).

🎓 Implications for teaching

🎓 Why teachers find it appealing

• The perspective has gained in popularity among teachers in recent years, probably because it reflects many teachers' beliefs that students cannot simply be rated along a single scale of ability, but are fundamentally diverse.
• It suggests the importance of diversifying instruction in order to honor and to respond to diversity in students' talents and abilities.

🎓 How to use the model practically

• Whether Gardner's classification scheme is actually accurate is probably less important than the fact there is (or may be) more than one way to be "smart."
• It may not be important to label students' talents or intellectual strengths.
• More important: simply provide important learning and knowledge in several modes or styles, ways that draw on more than one possible form of intelligence or skill.
• Example: In the end, as with cognitive and learning styles, the principle is to offer instruction in multiple modes rather than to categorize students rigidly.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Gifted and talented students require differentiated instruction through acceleration and enrichment to reach their full potential, and they are best understood as examples of diversity rather than disability.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Broadened definition: "gifted and talented" now includes unusual talents in many areas (music, creative writing, arts), not just high verbal skills or test scores.
• Key qualities: they learn faster and more independently, have advanced language skills, are highly motivated on challenging tasks, and hold themselves to high standards.
• Common confusion: gifted students are NOT necessarily socially awkward, less healthy, or narrow in interests—they come from all economic and cultural groups and are often well-rounded.
• The real challenge: without appropriate modifications, gifted students can become bored and their talents may stagnate or disappear as peers catch up.
• Two main strategies: acceleration (moving faster through material or skipping grades) and enrichment (providing additional or different activities beyond the standard curriculum).

🎯 Understanding giftedness today

🎯 Traditional vs. modern definitions

Traditionally, "gifted" referred only to students with unusually high verbal skills, demonstrated especially well on standardized tests of general ability or school achievement.

• The meaning has broadened to include unusual talents in a range of activities: music, creative writing, the arts.
• Educators now use the dual term "gifted and talented" to reflect this expanded view.
• This shift connects to the idea of multiple intelligences—there is more than one way to be "smart."

🌟 Core characteristics

Gifted and talented students typically show some combination of these qualities:

• Learning pace: they learn more quickly and independently than most students their own age.
• Language skills: often have well-developed vocabulary, plus advanced reading and writing skills.
• Motivation: very motivated, especially on tasks that are challenging or difficult.
• Standards: hold themselves to higher than usual standards of achievement.

🚫 Debunking stereotypes

Don't confuse: Common impressions vs. reality

Common misconception	What the excerpt says
Socially awkward	NOT necessarily awkward socially—quite the contrary
Less healthy	NOT less healthy
Narrow interests	NOT narrow in their interests
Only from privileged backgrounds	Come from all economic and cultural groups

🏫 Educational challenges and needs

🏫 The risk of neglect

• Despite obvious strengths as learners, gifted students often languish in school unless teachers provide more than the usual curriculum challenges.
• Example: A kindergarten child precociously advanced in reading may make little further progress if teachers don't recognize and develop her skill; her talent may effectively disappear from view as peers gradually catch up to her initial level.
• Without accommodation to their unusual level of skill or knowledge, these students can become bored, and boredom can even turn into behavior problems.

🔄 Gifted students as diversity, not disability

• Gifted students have sometimes been regarded as the responsibility of special education, discussed alongside students with intellectual disabilities, physical impairments, or major behavior disorders.
• There is some logic: they are quite exceptional and require modifications of usual school programs to reach full potential.
• Key difference from disabilities: students' potential—by definition, gifted students are capable of creative, committed work at levels that often approach talented adults, and they reach these levels sooner and more frequently.
• Many educators therefore think of the gifted and talented as examples of diversity, not disability—the responsibility of all teachers to differentiate instruction, not just special education specialists.

🚀 Support strategies: acceleration and enrichment

🚀 Acceleration approach

Acceleration involves either a child's skipping a grade, or else the teacher's redesigning the curriculum within a particular grade or classroom so that more material is covered faster.

How it works:

• Children who have skipped a grade usually function well in the higher grade, both academically and socially.

Limitations:

• Cannot happen repeatedly unless teacher, parents, and students are prepared to live with large age and maturity differences within single classrooms.
• No guarantee that instruction in the new, higher-grade classroom will be any more stimulating than in the former classroom.
• Redesigning the curriculum is beneficial but impractical on a widespread basis; many non-gifted students would be left behind, and teachers may lack time.

🎨 Enrichment approach

Enrichment involves providing additional or different instruction added on to the usual curriculum goals and activities.

Examples:

• Instead of books at more advanced reading levels, a student might read a wider variety of types of literature at the student's current reading level, or try writing additional types of literature himself.
• Instead of moving ahead to more difficult math, the student might work on unusual logic problems not assigned to the rest of the class.

Benefits and limitations:

• Enrichment curricula exist to help classroom teachers and save them time creating materials.
• Works well up to a point.
• Risk: Since enrichment is not part of the normal, officially sanctioned curriculum, it may be perceived as busywork rather than intellectual stimulation, particularly if the teacher is not familiar with the enrichment material or unable to involve herself in it fully.

🔀 Combining strategies

• Acceleration and enrichment can sometimes be combined.
• A student can skip a grade AND be introduced to interesting "extra" material at the new grade level.
• A teacher can move a student to the next unit faster than the rest of the class, while also offering additional activities not directly related to the unit.

🎓 The real teaching challenge

🎓 Beyond choosing strategies

• The real challenge is not simply to choose between acceleration and enrichment.
• Teachers must observe the student, get to know him or her as a unique individual, and offer activities and supports based on that knowledge.
• This is essentially the challenge of differentiating instruction—needed not just by the gifted and talented, but by students of all kinds.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Gender differences in the classroom reflect social roles rather than purely biological sex, affecting physical behavior, social interaction, and academic choices, though individual variation within each gender is far larger than differences between genders.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Gender vs. sex distinction: gender differences relate to social roles (behaviors, attitudes, expectations), while sex differences relate only to physiology and anatomy.
• Physical patterns: boys tend to be more physically active and restless, and more prone to physical aggression, which can conflict with classroom demands.
• Social interaction styles: boys gravitate toward large groups and physical play; girls more often maintain close friendships and share intimate information.
• Academic trends: girls are more motivated and earn higher grades on average, but by high school may choose courses along conventional gender lines (literature/arts vs. math/science).
• Common confusion: these are average trends with many individual exceptions—differences within each gender are far larger than differences between genders, so stereotyping individual students is unjustified.

🏃 Physical behavior patterns

🏃 Activity levels and classroom fit

• Boys tend to be more physically active than girls and more restless when required to sit for long periods.
• Boys are also more prone to rely on physical aggression when frustrated.
• Both tendencies are inconsistent with typical classroom demands, making school potentially more difficult for boys even if they never actually get in trouble.

⚽ Motor skill development

• During the first 2–3 years of elementary school, gross motor skills (running, jumping, throwing) develop at about the same average rate for boys and girls.
• Toward the end of elementary school, boys pull ahead at these skills even before puberty begins.
• The most likely reason: boys participate more actively in formal and informal sports due to expectations and support from parents, peers, and society.
• Puberty later adds to this advantage by making boys taller and stronger on average, especially for sports relying on height and strength.

🤔 Implications for teachers

• Individual differences mean it is hard to justify providing different levels of support or resources to boys vs. girls for sports, athletics, or physical education.
• Individual students who contradict gender stereotypes about physical abilities may benefit from emotional support or affirmation from teachers, since they may be less likely to receive such affirmation elsewhere.

👥 Social interaction differences

👥 Group dynamics during leisure

• Boys' social patterns: gravitate to large groups that fill up a lot of space, often including roughhousing and organized or "semi-organized" competitive games or sports.
• Girls' social patterns: more likely to seek and maintain one or two close friends and share more intimate information and feelings with these individuals.
• These differences can make girls less visible or noticeable than boys, at least in leisure play situations where children choose companions freely.
• Don't overgeneralize: differences do not occur uniformly—there are boys with close friends and girls who play primarily in large groups.

💬 Classroom interaction patterns

• Boys, on average, are more likely to speak up during class discussions—sometimes even if not called on or if they don't know as much about the topic as others.
• When working on a project in a small co-ed group, boys tend to ignore girls' comments and contributions.
• Example: This pattern parallels interaction patterns in many parts of society, where men also tend to ignore women's comments and contributions.

📚 Academic motivation and performance

📚 Motivation and grades

• On average, girls are more motivated than boys to perform well in school, at least during elementary school.
• By high school, some girls may try to downplay their own academic ability to make themselves more likeable by both sexes.
• Even if this occurs, it does not affect their grades: from kindergarten through twelfth grade, girls earn slightly higher average grades than boys.

🔬 Course selection and achievement

• As youngsters move into high school, they tend to choose courses or subjects conventionally associated with their gender:
  • Math and science for boys
  • Literature and the arts for girls
• By the end of high school, this difference in course selection makes a measurable difference in boys' and girls' academic performance in these subjects.
• Important caveat: individuals of both sexes often behave and choose counter to the group trends.

🧠 Cognitive ability comparisons

• Many studies have found no cognitive ability differences at all between boys and girls.
• A few others have found small differences: boys slightly better at math, girls slightly better at reading and literature.
• Still other studies have found the differences are not only small, but [excerpt ends here].

Aspect	Boys (average trend)	Girls (average trend)
Physical activity	More active, more restless	Less active
Aggression	More prone to physical aggression	Less prone
Social groups	Large groups, competitive games	One or two close friends
Classroom participation	Speak up more, may dominate discussions	Less vocal, contributions may be ignored
Academic motivation	Lower on average	Higher on average
Grades K-12	Slightly lower on average	Slightly higher on average
Course selection (high school)	Math and science	Literature and arts

⚠️ Critical cautions for teachers

⚠️ Individual variation is larger than group differences

The excerpt emphasizes: "Differences within each gender group generally are far larger than any differences between the groups."

• These are average trends with numerous individual exceptions.
• Every teacher knows individual boys who are not athletic or particular girls who are especially restless in class.
• Stereotyping based on gender is unjustified because individual variation is so large.

🎯 Sources of gender differences

• Gender role differences have a variety of sources: primarily parents, peers, and the media.
• Teachers are not the primary cause of gender role differences.
• However, teachers can influence them by their responses to and choices made on behalf of students.

🤝 Supporting students who contradict stereotypes

• Students whose behaviors contradict gender stereotypes may need extra emotional support or affirmation from teachers.
• Reason: they may be less likely than usual to receive such affirmation from elsewhere (parents, peers, society).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Cultural differences in language use, beliefs about identity, and social practices create diverse classroom behaviors that teachers must understand and accommodate rather than misinterpret as disrespect or incompetence.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Culture is broad: encompasses attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors—everything from holidays to subtle beliefs about intelligence and storytelling—not just "high-brow" arts.
• Language differences are multilayered: bilingualism exists in many forms (fluent, unbalanced, language loss), and cultures differ not only in languages spoken but also in how language is used (eye contact, wait time, question purposes).
• Identity beliefs shape behavior: independent self (unique, autonomous) vs. interdependent self (defined by relationships and responsibilities) leads to different preferences for cooperation, public visibility, and time use.
• Common confusion: what teachers interpret as indifference, rudeness, or cheating may actually reflect culturally appropriate behavior (e.g., avoiding eye contact as respect, sharing answers as cooperation, not interrupting as politeness).
• Why it matters: misunderstanding cultural patterns can lead to unfair judgments; recognizing diversity allows teachers to turn it into a resource rather than a problem.

🌍 What culture means in the classroom

🌍 Defining culture and ethnicity

Culture: the system of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that constitute the distinctive way of life of a people.

• The excerpt uses culture broadly—not just symphony concerts and expensive restaurants, but also baseball games and McDonald's.
• Culture is nearly synonymous with ethnicity: the common language, history, and future experienced by a group within society.
• Culture includes obvious elements (unique holidays, customs) and subtle features (beliefs about intelligence, proper storytelling).

🧩 Why cultural diversity is complex

• When a classroom draws students from many cultures, students bring considerable diversity in habitual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Teachers need to understand how students differ from each other and from the teacher.
• The excerpt organizes cultural diversity by how directly features relate to language differences vs. other social and psychological features, though these overlap and influence each other.

🗣️ Language differences: bilingualism in the classroom

🗣️ Forms and degrees of bilingualism

Bilingual: understanding and using two languages.

• The majority of children worldwide are bilingual; in the U.S., more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, including about 10 million children/youths in public schools.
• Bilingualism exists on a spectrum:
  • One extreme: fluent in both English and another language.
  • Other extreme: limited versions of both languages.
  • In between: speak home/heritage language much better than English, or have partially lost heritage language while learning English.
• A student may speak a language satisfactorily but struggle with reading or writing it.

✅ Balanced (fluent) bilingualism

• A fully fluent bilingual student has a cognitive advantage: better positioned to express concepts in more than one way and to be aware of doing so.
• Example: a young bilingual child is less likely to be confused by "What if a dog were called a cat? Could the 'cat' meow?"
• This skill is a form of metacognition (using language as an object of thought), helpful for writing essays and interpreting complex texts.

⚖️ Unbalanced bilingualism

• English language learner (ELL) or limited English learner (LEL): still learning English.
• The dilemma: how to respect the original language and culture while helping the student join the mainstream (English-speaking) culture.
• Programs range from total immersion ("sink or swim") to phasing in English over several years (additive approach).
• Evaluations favor additive approaches: both languages are developed and supported; students ideally become able to use either language permanently, though often for different situations (e.g., English at work, Spanish at home).

📉 Language loss

• Common in immigrant populations: first-generation immigrants learn just enough English for work/daily needs but use their original language at home; their children experience strong pressure to learn English, diluting experience with the heritage language; by adulthood, children speak English better than the heritage language and may not use it with their own children.
• Why language loss is a problem:
  • Limits students' ability to learn English as well or quickly: having a large vocabulary in a first language saves time in learning vocabulary in a second language, but only if the first language is preserved.
  • Impairs intervention: if a student has impaired skill in all languages, a speech-language specialist is more effective if they speak and use the first language as well as English.
  • Reduces parent-teacher communication: preserving both languages enriches students' and parents' ability to communicate, helping parents stay "in the loop" and support homework.
• Don't confuse: acquiring English is not automatically good if it comes at the cost of losing the heritage language; both languages should be supported.

💬 Cultural differences in how language is used

💬 When to speak

• In some cultures, it is polite or intelligent not to speak unless you have something truly important to say; "chitchat" (talk that affirms personal ties) is considered immature or intrusive.
• In a classroom, this habit can make a child seem unfriendly, even though it helps the child learn not to interrupt others.

👁️ Eye contact

• In many African American and Latin American communities, it is appropriate and respectful for a child not to look directly at an adult speaking to them.
• Teachers often expect a lot of eye contact ("I want all eyes on me!") and may misinterpret lack of eye contact as indifference or disrespect.

📏 Social distance

• Some cultures prefer standing relatively close during conversation; others prefer standing farther apart.
• A student who expects a closer distance than the teacher may seem overly familiar or intrusive; one who expects a longer distance may seem overly formal or hesitant.

⏱️ Wait time

Wait time: the gap between the end of one person's comment or question and the next person's reply or answer.

• In some cultures, wait time is relatively long (three or four seconds); in others, it is a "negative" gap (acceptable to interrupt before the end of the previous comment).
• In classrooms, wait time is customarily about one second; after that, the teacher moves on.
• A student who expects a longer wait time may seem hesitant and not be given many chances to speak; one who expects a "negative" wait time may seem overeager or rude.

❓ Purpose of questions

• In most non-Anglo cultures, questions are intended to gain information; the person asking truly does not have the information.
• In most classrooms, teachers regularly ask test questions: questions to which the teacher already knows the answer, simply assessing whether the student knows it too (e.g., "How much is 2 + 2?").
• If the student is unaware of this purpose, they may become confused, think the teacher is ignorant, or feel the teacher is deliberately shaming them by revealing their ignorance to others.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Cultural differences in beliefs about identity

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Independent vs. interdependent self

Belief	Independent self	Interdependent self
Definition	Self is unique and autonomous—a source of decisions, choices, and actions that stands by itself	Self is defined by relationships and responsibilities
Worthy person	Unusual, stands out in a crowd	Gets along well with family and friends, meets obligations reliably and skillfully
Cultural prevalence	White, middle-class American culture	Majority of non-white cultures and ethnic groups
School alignment	Well entrenched: students expected to take responsibility individually, tested and evaluated individually	Emphasized significantly more in many non-white cultures than in schools

• The difference is one of emphasis: we all value interpersonal skill to some extent, but non-white cultures emphasize interdependence significantly more than white middle-class society and schools.
• Don't confuse: these are tendencies, not straightforward predictions; there are also differences among students as individuals.

🤝 Preference for cooperation over competition

• Many school activities are competitive (e.g., who gets the highest marks, who is the best athlete, whose contributions get the most recognition).
• If a teacher deliberately organizes activities competitively (e.g., "Let's see who finishes the math sheet first"), classroom life becomes explicitly competitive, which can interfere with cultivating supportive relationships.
• For students who prioritize relationships, competition can seem confusing or threatening.
• Example: what the student views as cooperative sharing (helping with answers) may be seen by the teacher as laziness, "freeloading", or even cheating.

🙈 Avoidance of standing out publicly

• Teachers often interact with students one at a time while allowing many others to observe—a pattern called the IRE cycle (teacher initiates, student responds, teacher evaluates).
• IRE cycles are often witnessed publicly, which can be stressful or embarrassing for students who do not value standing out but do value belonging to the group, especially if they feel unsure about their knowledge or skill.
• To keep such students from "clamming up," teachers should consider limiting IRE cycles to times when they are truly productive: talking privately, confirming knowledge the student can already display competently, or using "choral" speaking (responding together in unison).

⏰ Interpersonal time vs. clock time

• All schools rely on fairly precise units of time (fixed minutes for lessons, recess, lunch); punctuality is especially valued.
• Punctuality is not always conducive to strong personal relationships, which develop best when activities "finish themselves" naturally rather than ending unilaterally or arbitrarily.
• If personal relationships are a broad priority for a student, it may take effort to learn the extent to which schools expect punctuality.
• Punctuality includes obvious aspects (showing up when school begins) and subtleties (starting and finishing tasks when told, answering a question promptly rather than later when discussion has moved on).

🔧 Turning diversity into a resource

🔧 The challenge and the opportunity

• The important question is what to do about diversity—how to accommodate it and turn it into a resource rather than a burden or challenge.
• The excerpt includes suggestions throughout and promises more in the rest of the book: not only knowing how different students can be, but also diversifying teaching to acknowledge this fact.
• Differences among students remain a challenge during all phases of teaching: planning instruction, implementing lessons and activities, and assessing students' learning.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Student diversity—spanning learning styles, gender, culture, language, and social practices—requires teachers to diversify instruction by using cooperative activities, avoiding individual spotlighting, and exercising patience with cultural differences in communication and time orientation.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What diversity encompasses: individual differences (learning styles, cognitive styles, intelligence profiles), gender differences (motor abilities, social relationships, academic motivation), and cultural/linguistic differences (bilingualism, communication practices, self-identity views).
• Cultural communication differences: turn-taking, eye contact, social distance, wait time, and question use vary across cultures and affect classroom interaction.
• Common confusion: punctuality vs. relationship-building—schools value clock time and promptness, but strong personal relationships develop when activities "finish naturally" rather than arbitrarily; students prioritizing relationships may need practice learning school expectations.
• Teaching implications: use cooperative activities where appropriate, avoid highlighting individual accomplishments or failures, and be patient about students learning punctuality.
• Why it matters: diversity affects all teaching phases—planning, implementing lessons, and assessing learning—and must be turned into a resource rather than a burden.

🌍 Cultural differences in language practice

🗣️ How language is used differently

Beyond language differences themselves, students differ according to culture in how language is practiced:

• Turn-taking patterns in conversation
• Eye contact norms
• Social distance (physical proximity during interaction)
• Wait time (pauses before responding)
• Use of questions

These differences are not random preferences but stem from deeper cultural attitudes about self-identity.

🪞 Independent vs. interdependent self

Cultural differences in attitudes about self-identity: non-Anglo cultures tend to support a more interdependent view of the self than Anglo culture or schools.

View of self	Cultural tendency	Implications
Independent self	Anglo culture, schools	Emphasizes individual achievement, autonomy
Interdependent self	Non-Anglo cultures	Emphasizes group harmony, collective identity

• This fundamental difference shapes communication practices and classroom behavior.
• Example: A student from a culture valuing interdependent self may avoid speaking up individually or may wait longer before answering to maintain group harmony.

Don't confuse: These are cultural tendencies, not absolute rules—individual exceptions exist within any cultural group.

⏰ Time and relationships in school

⏰ Punctuality as a school value

Schools operate on clock time:

• Teachers allot fixed minutes to each lesson, class, recess, lunch
• "Being on time becomes especially valued in schools, as it is in many parts of society"
• Punctuality includes obvious expectations (showing up when school begins) and subtleties (starting/finishing tasks when told, answering questions promptly rather than later when discussion has moved on)

💞 When punctuality conflicts with relationships

Personal relationships develop best when individuals do not end joint activities unilaterally or arbitrarily, but allow activities to "finish themselves"—to finish naturally.

• Strong personal relationships require letting interactions conclude organically, not by the clock.
• If personal relationships are a broad, important priority for a student, learning school punctuality expectations "may take effort and practice."
• Example: A student may continue a conversation or activity past the teacher's signal to stop because ending abruptly feels socially inappropriate in their cultural context.

Don't confuse: This is not about students being "late" or "disrespectful"—it reflects different cultural priorities about time vs. relationships.

🎓 Teaching strategies for diversity

🤝 Use cooperative activities

• Where appropriate, structure learning around group work rather than individual competition.
• Aligns with interdependent self-views common in non-Anglo cultures.
• Reduces pressure on students uncomfortable with individual spotlighting.

🙈 Avoid highlighting individuals

• Do not publicly emphasize individual students' accomplishments or failures.
• Public recognition can be uncomfortable or inappropriate for students from cultures valuing collective identity.
• Example: Instead of praising one student's answer in front of the class, acknowledge the group's progress or learning.

⏳ Be patient about punctuality

• Recognize that students may need time and practice to learn school expectations around clock time.
• Understand that delays or "late" responses may reflect cultural communication norms (e.g., longer wait time) rather than inattention.
• Example: A student answering a question after discussion has moved on may be following their culture's norm for thoughtful response time.

🔄 Diversity across all teaching phases

📋 Ongoing challenge

The excerpt emphasizes that "differences among students remain a challenge during all phases of teaching":

• Planning instruction
• Implementing lessons and activities
• Assessing students' learning after lessons or activities are finished

🌱 Turning diversity into a resource

• The goal is not merely to tolerate diversity but to accommodate it—"working with students' diversity and turning it into a resource rather than a burden or challenge."
• The rest of the book (beyond this excerpt) offers further suggestions on diversifying teaching to acknowledge student differences.
• One example mentioned: including students with disabilities in classroom life as "one of the more telling examples of accommodating to diversity."

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Three historically marginalized individuals—Phillis Wheatley, Helen Keller, and Sue Rubin—were all defined by society as intellectually disabled despite their genuine abilities, illustrating how assumptions about race and disability have forced people to prove their competence beyond what is normally required.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Common thread: All three individuals faced intellectual dismissal—Wheatley due to race, Keller and Rubin due to physical disabilities—despite demonstrating literacy and creative abilities.
• Burden of proof: Each had to work harder not only to acquire literacy but also to prove their literacy was genuine and worthy of respect.
• Skepticism and tribunals: Society assembled formal panels of judges or experts to assess whether these individuals were truly capable of their achievements.
• Common confusion: Physical disability or racial identity was wrongly equated with intellectual incompetence; society assumed inherent inability rather than recognizing genuine capacity.
• Historical progress: Since Wheatley's time, legal and social changes (e.g., desegregation in 1954, disability rights legislation starting in the 1970s) have begun to recognize the rights and competence of marginalized groups.

👥 The three individuals

📜 Phillis Wheatley (1761)

• Background: Captured from West Africa at age six, sold into slavery in Boston, taught herself to read and write by age 17.
• Achievement: Developed special talent for poetry; her owner sought to publish an anthology of her poems.
• Skepticism faced: Publishers resisted because "few people at that time believed Africans to be capable of the thought and imagination needed to write poetry."
• Tribunal: A panel of 18 prominent judges (including the Massachusetts governor and John Hancock) cross-examined her to assess her mental capacity.
• Outcome: The judges finally decided she was capable of writing poetry.

👁️ Helen Keller (century after Wheatley)

• Background: Lost sight and hearing due to illness during infancy.
• Achievement: Devised gestural sign language with a tutor, learned Braille, studied French and Latin, wrote and published a short story at age ten.
• Skepticism faced: Prominent educators accused her of plagiarizing and "parroting" others' ideas without understanding them.
• Tribunal: A panel of professional disability experts was assembled to determine if she was capable of writing what she published.
• Outcome: The panel decided she was capable, but only by a slim margin (five judges vs four).

🗣️ Sue Rubin (born 1978)

• Background: Born with a disability limiting her speech to disordered sounds and occasional echoing of others' phrases.
• Label: Labeled autistic and assumed to be profoundly retarded.
• Achievement: With support from her mother and others, learned to type on a keyboard without assistance at about age 13; went to school, made conference presentations about autism, co-edited a book titled Autism: The Myth of the Person Alone.
• Outcome: Demonstrated effective communication and intellectual capacity despite initial assumptions.

🔗 Shared patterns of marginalization

🚫 Society's false equation

All three were defined by society as disabled intellectually.

• The excerpt emphasizes that society wrongly conflated:
  • Race (Wheatley) with intellectual incompetence
  • Physical disabilities (Keller, Rubin) with intellectual incompetence
• This was an assumption of "inherent incompetence" rather than recognition of actual ability.

⚖️ Double burden

• All three had to work harder than usual in two ways:
  1. Acquire literacy itself: learning to read, write, or communicate despite barriers.
  2. Prove literacy was genuine: convincing skeptical audiences that their achievements were real and worthy of respect.
• Example: Wheatley's owner had to assemble a tribunal to save his own reputation because people thought the poetry was faked.

🔍 Formal assessment by panels

Individual	Panel composition	Purpose
Phillis Wheatley	18 prominent judges (governor, John Hancock)	Assess mental capacity and ability to write poetry
Helen Keller	Professional disability experts	Determine if she was capable of writing her publications
Sue Rubin	(No formal panel mentioned)	Demonstrated capacity through typing and presentations

• Don't confuse: These panels were not educational assessments; they were society's mechanism for questioning whether marginalized people could genuinely possess intellectual abilities.

📈 Historical progress and legal change

🏛️ Legal milestones

• 1954: U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not be segregated by race.
  • This ruling recognized "the intellectual competence of African-Americans" and "the moral obligation of society to provide all citizens with the best possible education."
• 1970s onward: Federal legislation began to guarantee rights of persons with disabilities.
  • The excerpt notes it "has taken longer to recognize legally the rights and competence of persons with disabilities" compared to racial desegregation.

🔄 Shift in attitudes

• Since Wheatley's time, North American society has:
  • Eliminated slavery
  • Made "some progress at reducing certain forms of racism, though much remains to be done"
  • Moved "increasingly toward including people with disabilities into a wide variety of 'regular' activities"
• The excerpt states that legislation "partly stimulated the change in attitudes, but at the same time they partly resulted from the change"—a reciprocal relationship.

🎓 Implications for education

• The chapter introduction notes that these legal and social changes "have altered the work of teachers."
• The excerpt indicates that three major U.S. laws were passed guaranteeing rights of persons with disabilities and of children/students (though details of these laws are not provided in this excerpt).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Since the 1970s, U.S. federal legislation has increasingly guaranteed the rights of people with disabilities to participate in regular activities and education, fundamentally changing teachers' responsibilities in the classroom.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three major laws: Section 504 (1973), ADA (1990), and IDEA (1975, amended 2004) progressively expanded protections and accommodations for people with disabilities.
• IDEA's five core rights: free appropriate education, due process, fair evaluation, least restrictive environment, and individualized educational programs.
• How IDEA affects teachers: creates three new expectations—alternative assessments, least restrictive learning environments, and participation in individual educational planning.
• Common confusion: traditional assessment methods often seriously underestimate students with disabilities because they assume skills (holding a pencil, hearing clearly, working quickly) that these students may not have.
• Historical context: society has moved from dismissing the competence of people with disabilities (like it once did with racial minorities) to legally recognizing their rights and capabilities.

📜 The three major laws

📜 Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504

• What it requires: individuals with disabilities must be accommodated in any program or activity receiving Federal funding.
• Educational impact: protects students' rights in extra-curricular activities and child care/after-school programs that receive Federal funding.
• Key limitation: only applies to programs receiving Federal funding, not all programs.

📜 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

• What it requires: prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, with more specific and "stronger" provisions than Section 504.
• Broader scope: extends to all employment and jobs, not just those receiving Federal funding.
• Physical accommodations: specifically requires accommodations in public facilities—buses, restrooms, telephones.
• Example: wheelchair-accessible doors, ramps, restrooms, and public telephones with volume controls in schools.

📜 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

• When enacted: first passed in 1975, most recently amended in 2004.
• Who it covers: anyone with a disability from birth to age 21.
• Why it matters most for teachers: more focused on education than Section 504 or ADA; directly affects classroom teachers' work.

🎯 IDEA's five core rights

🎯 Free, appropriate education

An individual or an individual's family should not have to pay for education simply because the individual has a disability, and the educational program should be truly educational (i.e. not merely care-taking or "babysitting" of the person).

• Two components: no extra cost for families + genuinely educational program.
• What "appropriate" means: not just custodial care, but actual learning opportunities.

⚖️ Due process

In case of disagreements between an individual with a disability and the schools or other professionals, there must be procedures for resolving the disagreements that are fair and accessible to all parties—including the person himself or herself or the person's representative.

• Why it matters: ensures families and individuals have recourse when they disagree with schools.
• Who can participate: the person with a disability or their representative.

📊 Fair evaluation of performance in spite of disability

Tests or other evaluations should not assume test-taking skills that a person with a disability cannot reasonably be expected to have, such as holding a pencil, hearing or seeing questions, working quickly, or understanding and speaking orally.

• What must change: evaluation procedures should be modified to allow for these differences.
• Scope: applies both to teacher-made evaluations and to school-wide or "high-stakes" testing programs.
• Don't confuse: this is not about lowering standards, but about removing barriers unrelated to what is being assessed.

🌍 Education in the "least restrictive environment"

Education for someone with a disability should provide as many educational opportunities and options for the person as possible, both in the short term and in the long term.

• What it means in practice: including students in regular classrooms and school activities as much as possible.
• Important nuance: "as much as possible" does not always mean totally or 100% of the time.
• Goal: maximize opportunities and options, not isolate students in separate settings.

📝 An individualized educational program

Given that every disability is unique, instructional planning for a person with a disability should be unique or individualized as well.

• How it works: classroom teachers plan individualized programs jointly with other professionals (reading specialists, psychologists, medical personnel) as part of a team.
• Why uniqueness matters: no two disabilities are exactly alike, so one-size-fits-all approaches fail.

👩‍🏫 Three new teacher responsibilities

👩‍🏫 Alternative assessments

Assessment (in the context of students with disabilities): gathering information about a student in order both to identify the strengths of the student, and to decide what special educational support, if any, the student needs.

• Why traditional methods fail: they often seriously underestimate students' competence.
• Skills traditional assessment assumes: holding a pencil, hearing questions clearly, focusing on pictures, marking answers in time, concentrating with others present, answering at the class's pace.
• The problem: for many students, teachers assume these skills can be learned with "just modest amounts of coaching, encouragement, and will power."
• For students with disabilities: comments like "Remember to listen to the question carefully!" may not be sufficient.

What traditional assessment assumes	Why it may fail for students with disabilities
Holding a pencil	Physical disability may prevent this
Hearing a question clearly	Hearing impairment
Focusing on a picture	Visual impairment
Marking an answer in time	Processing speed differences
Concentrating with others present	Sensory or attention differences
Answering at the class's pace	Need for more time

🏫 Least restrictive learning environment

• What teachers must do: arrange a learning environment that is as normal or as "least restrictive" as possible.
• Connection to IDEA: implements the "least restrictive environment" provision in daily classroom practice.

🤝 Participation in individual educational planning

• What teachers must do: participate in creating individual educational plans for students with disabilities.
• Team approach: work jointly with other professionals.
• Connection to IDEA: implements the "individualized educational program" provision.

🔄 Historical and philosophical context

🔄 From dismissal to recognition

• Historical pattern: society once dismissed the intellectual competence of both racial minorities and people with disabilities.
• Three examples mentioned: Phillis Wheatley (racial discrimination), and two individuals with physical disabilities—all were "defined by society as disabled intellectually."
• Common burden: all three had to work harder not only to acquire literacy, but also to prove their literacy was genuine and worthy of respect.

🔄 Progress in civil rights

• Racial justice milestones: elimination of slavery; 1954 Supreme Court ruling that public schools could not be segregated by race.
• What 1954 ruling recognized: the intellectual competence of African-Americans and society's moral obligation to provide all citizens with the best possible education.
• Disability rights timeline: took longer than racial justice; major progress began in the 1970s.

🔄 Democratic philosophy

Considered together, these provisions are both a cause and an effect of basic democratic philosophy. The legislation says, in effect, that all individuals should have access to society in general and to education in particular.

• Bidirectional relationship: legislation partly stimulated attitude change, but also partly resulted from attitude change.
• Core principle: access to society and education for all individuals.

❓ Teacher concerns and questions

❓ Legitimate questions raised

• Will a student with a disability disrupt the class?
• Will the student interfere with covering the curriculum?
• Might the student be teased by classmates?

❓ Author's response

• Many teachers support the philosophy and have welcomed IDEA legislation.
• Others have found applying it in classrooms raises legitimate concerns.
• The excerpt notes these concerns will be addressed later in the chapter (not included in this excerpt).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

The IDEA legislation creates three new expectations for teachers working with students with disabilities: providing alternative assessments, arranging least restrictive environments, and participating in individual educational plans.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three core responsibilities: alternative assessment methods, least restrictive environment placement, and individual educational plan creation.
• Why traditional assessment fails: conventional tests often seriously underestimate competence because disabilities interfere with test-taking skills (holding pencils, hearing questions, marking answers in time), not with knowledge itself.
• Least restrictive environment principle: students with disabilities should participate in regular classrooms and school programs as much as possible, with the specific combination determined by individual circumstances.
• Common confusion: reminders that work for typical students (e.g., "listen carefully!") may not help—and may even harm—students with disabilities; a visually impaired student cannot see better by being told to "look closely."
• Most frequent disabilities: learning disabilities (especially reading impairments) account for about half of all special educational needs—as much as all other types combined.

📋 Alternative assessment methods

🎯 What assessment means for students with disabilities

Assessment: gathering information about a student to identify strengths and decide what special educational support, if any, the student needs.

• In principle, teachers assess all students through tests, assignments, and classroom observations.
• For students with disabilities, traditional strategies often seriously underestimate competence.
• The problem is not lack of knowledge but interference from the disability itself.

🚧 Why conventional tests underestimate competence

Students with disabilities may have trouble with test-taking mechanics, not with the content:

Challenge	Example
Physical	Holding a pencil
Sensory	Hearing a question clearly, focusing on a picture
Timing	Marking an answer in time even when knowing the answer
Environmental	Concentrating on a task in the presence of other people
Pacing	Answering at the pace needed by the rest of the class

• Teachers traditionally assume all students either have these skills or can learn them with modest coaching, encouragement, and will power.
• For students with disabilities, this assumption does not hold.

🛠️ Strategies for modifying assessments

The excerpt describes three practical approaches:

1. Portfolios: collections of student work demonstrating development over time, including reflective or evaluative comments from the student, teacher, or both.
2. Regular observation: devise a system for observing the student regularly (even briefly) and informally recording notes for later consideration.
3. Teacher assistant help: recruit assistants who are sometimes present to help; they can conduct brief tests or activities and report results.

⚖️ Fairness questions raised

• If a student with a disability demonstrates competence one way but other students demonstrate it another, should they receive similar credit?
• Is it fair for one student to get a lower mark because the student lacks an ability—such as normal hearing—that teachers cannot, in principle, ever teach?
• The excerpt acknowledges these ethical issues are legitimate and important.

⚠️ Don't confuse: helpful reminders vs. insensitive comments

• For many students, reminders like "Remember to listen to the question carefully!" may be enough.
• For students with disabilities, such comments may not work and may even be insensitive.
• Example: A student with visual impairment does not need to be reminded to "look closely at what I am writing on the board"—doing so will not cause the student to see the chalkboard more clearly, though the reminder might increase anxiety and self-consciousness.

🏫 Least restrictive environment (LRE)

🌐 What LRE means

Least restrictive environment (LRE): the combination of settings that involve the student with regular classrooms and school programs as much as possible.

• The precise combination is determined by the circumstances of a particular school and of the student.
• The policy favors maximum participation in regular educational settings.

📊 How LRE varies by situation

The excerpt provides contrasting examples:

Student profile	LRE arrangement	Reason
Kindergarten child with mild cognitive disability	Majority of time in regular kindergarten class, working alongside non-disabled classmates, with teacher assistant help	Curriculum adaptation perceived as manageable
High school student with similar disability	Primarily in classes for slow learners, but participates in some school-wide activities	Teachers perceive adaptation as more challenging at "higher" grade levels
Student with strictly physical disability	Virtually all time in regular classes throughout school career	Curriculum adjustment not an issue

• The difference in LREs might reflect teachers' perceptions of how difficult it is to modify the curriculum in each case.
• The excerpt notes teachers are apt to regard adaptation as more challenging at "higher" grade levels (rightly or wrongly).

👨‍🏫 What LRE means for teachers

• If you continue teaching long enough, you will very likely encounter a student with a disability in one or more of your classes, or at least have one in a school-related activity for which you are responsible.
• The special educational needs of these students will most often be the "mildest."

📈 Most frequent types of disabilities

• Learning disabilities (impairments in specific aspects of learning, especially reading): account for about half of all special educational needs—as much as all other types put together.
• Somewhat less common: speech and language disorders, cognitive disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD).
• Because of their frequency, teachers are likely to meet students for whom these labels have been considered.

📝 Individual educational plan (IEP)

📋 What an IEP is

Individual educational plan (IEP): an annual plan for each student with a disability, created by a team of individuals who know the student's strengths and needs.

• Required by IDEA legislation and current educational approaches.
• Developed by teachers and other professional staff.

👥 Who creates the IEP

At a minimum, the team includes:

• One or more classroom teachers
• A "resource" or special education teacher
• The student's parents or guardians

Sometimes the team also includes:

• A school administrator (like a vice-principal)
• Other professionals from outside the school (like a psychologist or physician), depending on the nature of the child's disability

📄 What an IEP contains

An IEP can take many forms, but it always includes:

Component	Description
Current strengths	Student's current social and academic strengths
Current needs	Student's social or academic needs
Goals/objectives	Educational goals or objectives for the coming year
Services	Special services to be provided
Assessment plan	How progress toward the goals will be assessed at the end of the year

📚 Example IEP structure

The excerpt provides a simple example for a student named Sean with reading difficulties:

• Student information: Name, birth date, address, phone, school, grade level, teacher(s)
• Support team: Lists specialists involved (resource teacher, instructional aide)
• Special curriculum needs: General needs description (e.g., "Sean can read short, familiar words singly, but cannot read connected text even when familiar. Needs help especially with decoding and other 'word attack' skills. Some trouble focusing on reading tasks.")
• Note: Actual visual formats of IEP plans vary widely among states, provinces, and school jurisdictions.

🎓 Extension to transition planning

• IEPs originally served mainly students in the younger grades.
• More recently, they have been extended and modified to serve transition planning for adolescents with disabilities approaching the end of their public schooling.
• For these students, plan goals often include activities (like finding employment) to extend beyond schooling.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Disability categories provide a necessary language for educators to discuss and arrange support services, but they inherently oversimplify the complex, context-dependent reality of students' challenges and risk harmful stereotyping.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• The core ambiguity: disabilities are not fixed or distinct like "types of fruit"—a student's challenges vary by situation, are mixed with typical student experiences, and resist neat categorization.
• Why categories persist despite problems: they give professionals a shared language and are required to qualify students for special services, even though educators worry about stigma and self-esteem damage.
• Learning disabilities (LD) defined: a specific academic impairment (reading, writing, math, etc.) that causes major discrepancy between ability and achievement, not explained by other conditions like sensory handicaps, intellectual disability, or learning English as a second language.
• Common confusion: an LD is not a general learning problem—it must be specific to one area (e.g., writing but not reading), and it must remain after teachers' ordinary interventions have failed.
• Scale of the issue: LDs are the most common special need, accounting for half of all special-needs students and 5–20% of all students, meaning most teachers encounter at least one LD student per class each year.

🧩 The inherent ambiguity of disability categories

🧩 Why disabilities resist categorization

The excerpt emphasizes that naming "types" of disabilities falsely implies they are:

• Fixed and stable: in reality, a student's disability-related behavior changes across contexts.
• Distinct: like different vegetables—but real students' challenges overlap and blend with typical student experiences.

The context-dependence problem:

• A student with a reading difficulty struggles in language arts but not in physical education.
• A student with a hearing impairment may "hear" better when the topic interests him than when it does not.

Disabilities are inherently ambiguous: the behavior and qualities of a particular student with a disability can be hard to categorize.

⚠️ The stereotyping risk

• Official descriptions overlook these complexities and risk stereotyping real people.
• The problem is compounded because disability stereotypes are usually stigmatizing, not complimentary.
• Example contrast: most people wouldn't mind being called a "genius" even if inaccurate, but disability labels carry negative connotations.

🤔 Don't confuse: situational vs. inherent

• A challenge is not purely "in" the student—it emerges from the interaction between the student and the situation.
• The same disability "poses problems more in some situations than in others."

⚖️ Why categories are still used

⚖️ The practical necessity

Despite the risks, categories serve two essential purposes:

Purpose	Why it matters
Shared language	Gives teachers, parents, and professionals a frame of reference for discussing disabilities
Access to services	A student must "have" an identifiable, nameable need to qualify for special support

⚖️ The ongoing tension

• Educational authorities continue using categories while expressing continuing concern about harm to students' self-esteem and peer standing.
• The excerpt notes that professionals worry whether the practice "hurts students' self-esteem or standing in the eyes of peers."

🛡️ Best strategy for teachers

The excerpt recommends:

• Understand how disability categories are defined.
• Keep limitations in mind when using them.
• Be ready to explain limitations tactfully to parents or others who use the labels inappropriately.

📚 Learning disabilities: the most common category

📚 What counts as a learning disability (LD)

Learning disability (LD): a specific impairment of academic learning that interferes with a specific aspect of schoolwork and that reduces a student's academic performance significantly.

Core characteristic:

• Shows itself as a major discrepancy between a student's ability and some feature of achievement.
• The student may be delayed in reading, writing, listening, speaking, or doing mathematics—but not in all of these at once.

🚫 What is NOT a learning disability

A learning problem does not qualify as an LD if it stems from:

• Physical, sensory, or motor handicaps
• Generalized intellectual impairment (mental retardation)
• The challenges of learning English as a second language

Genuine LDs are the learning problems left over after these other possibilities are accounted for or excluded.

🔍 The specificity requirement

Key distinction: an LD relates to a fairly specific area of academic learning.

Example from the excerpt:

• A student may be able to read and compute well enough, but not be able to write.

The intervention threshold:

• Typically, the student has not been helped by teachers' ordinary efforts to assist when falling behind.
• (The excerpt notes that what counts as "ordinary effort" differs among teachers, schools, and students.)

📊 How common are LDs

Statistic	What it means
Half of all special-needs students	LDs account for 50% of students with special educational needs in the United States
5–20% of all students	Depending on how numbers are estimated
At least one per class	Most teachers regularly encounter at least one LD student per class in any given school year, regardless of grade level

🌀 The ambiguity within LDs themselves

With so many students defined as having LDs, "the term itself becomes ambiguous in the truest sense of 'having many meanings.'"

Specific features vary considerably. The excerpt provides contrasting examples:

• Albert (eighth grade): has trouble solving word problems that he reads, but can solve them easily if he hears them orally.
• Bill (also eighth grade): has the reverse problem—he can solve word problems only when he can read them, not when he hears them.
• Carole (fifth grade): [excerpt cuts off, but implies another distinct pattern]

Don't confuse: These students all have LDs, but their specific impairments are nearly opposite—one needs auditory input, the other needs visual input. The category "LD" groups together very different learning profiles.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Learning disabilities are specific academic difficulties that persist despite ordinary teaching efforts and cannot be explained by physical handicaps, intellectual impairment, or language barriers, making them the most common special educational need requiring varied instructional approaches.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What qualifies as an LD: a learning problem in a specific area (reading, writing, math, etc.) that remains after excluding physical/sensory handicaps, generalized intellectual impairment, and second-language challenges.
• How common they are: LDs account for half of all special-needs students in the U.S. and 5–20% of all students, meaning most teachers encounter at least one per class each year.
• Key variability: LDs manifest in many different ways—students may struggle with reading aloud but not silently, or with written math but not oral problems—making the term ambiguous.
• Common confusion: not every learning problem is an LD; it must be specific to one academic area and not stem from other identifiable causes.
• Multiple solutions exist: because LDs have no obvious single origin, educators can draw on different learning theories (behaviorism, metacognition, constructivism) to help students.

🔍 What counts as a learning disability

🔍 The exclusion criteria

A learning disability: a learning problem in one or more specific areas (reading, writing, listening, speaking, mathematics) that is not caused by physical, sensory, or motor handicaps, generalized intellectual impairment, or challenges of learning English as a second language.

• LDs are defined by what they are not—they are "the learning problems left over" after other explanations are ruled out.
• A student must struggle in a fairly specific academic area, not across the board.
• Example: A student who reads and computes well but cannot write may have an LD; a student who struggles in all subjects due to a sensory impairment does not.

🚫 What doesn't qualify

The excerpt excludes several conditions:

• Physical, sensory, or motor handicaps
• Generalized intellectual impairment (mental retardation)
• Challenges from learning English as a second language

Don't confuse: A learning problem caused by any of these factors is not considered an LD, even if it affects academic performance.

🎯 The "ordinary efforts" criterion

• Typically, a student with an LD has not been helped by teachers' ordinary efforts when falling behind.
• What counts as "ordinary effort" varies among teachers, schools, and students.
• This criterion helps distinguish LDs from problems that respond to standard interventions.

🎨 How LDs vary in practice

🎨 Many different manifestations

The excerpt provides eight examples of students with LDs, showing the wide range:

Student	Grade	Specific difficulty
Albert	8th	Can solve word problems orally but not when reading them
Bill	8th	Can solve word problems when reading but not when hearing them
Carole	5th	Makes errors reading aloud (leaves out, adds, or substitutes words)
Emily	7th	Terrible handwriting (letters vary in size and wobble)
Denny	4th	Reads very slowly, forgets beginning of sentence by the end
Garnet	6th	"Inventive" spelling despite extra practice
Harmin	9th	Trouble decoding unfamiliar words/letters (reads "conceal" as "concol")
Irma	10th	Adds multi-digit numbers as if they were single digits stuck together

🔄 Why the term becomes ambiguous

• With so many students defined as having LDs, the term takes on "many meanings."
• Specific features vary considerably from student to student.
• Educators sometimes disagree about the nature of LDs and what help students need.
• The good news: This ambiguity "opens the way to try a variety of solutions."

💡 Why controversy is inevitable

• LDs are "by definition learning problems with no obvious origin."
• Without a clear single cause, different theories and approaches compete.
• This lack of obvious origin is both a challenge (disagreement) and an opportunity (flexibility in solutions).

🛠️ Three approaches to helping students with LDs

🎯 Case study: Irma's two-digit addition problem

The excerpt uses Irma (who adds 42 + 59 as 911 instead of 101) to illustrate three different theoretical approaches.

Her pattern: She adds without carrying digits forward from ones to tens or tens to hundreds columns. She gets three out of six problems correct because her incorrect strategy sometimes produces the right answer by chance.

🔁 Behaviorism: reinforcement for wrong strategies

The explanation:

• Irma may have been rewarded heavily for adding single-digit numbers correctly in the past.
• She over-generalized this skill to two-digit problems.
• Because her incorrect strategy still gets many problems right, it's reinforced on a "partial schedule of reinforcement."
• Partial schedules are especially slow to extinguish, so she persists indefinitely.

The solution:

• The desired behavior (carrying correctly) rarely happens, so it can't be reinforced often.
• Reward behaviors that compete directly with the inappropriate strategy:
  • Reduce credit for just getting the correct answer
  • Increase credit for showing work, including carrying digits correctly
  • Discuss Irma's math work frequently to create more occasions for praise when she works correctly

Don't confuse: The problem isn't that Irma doesn't know how to add—it's that the wrong strategy has been reinforced too effectively.

🧠 Metacognition: responding reflectively

The explanation:

• Irma may be too impulsive—she sees numbers and immediately uses the first procedure that comes to mind.
• Her learning style is not reflective enough.
• She shows a failure of metacognition: self-monitoring of her own thinking and its effectiveness.

The solution:

• Encourage Irma to think out loud when completing two-digit problems—literally "talk her way through" each problem.
• If the teacher can't always participate, arrange for a skilled classmate to take her place sometimes.
• Cooperation might help the classmate as well and improve overall social relationships.

Why it works: Verbalizing forces students to slow down and monitor their own thinking process.

🏗️ Constructivism: mentoring and the zone of proximal development

The explanation:

• Irma may have learned how to carry digits forward, but not well enough to use it reliably on her own.
• She constantly falls back on the earlier, better-learned strategy of single-digit addition.
• She has lacked appropriate mentoring from someone more expert who can create a "zone of proximal development."

The solution:

• Irma needs mentoring or "assisted coaching" more than independent practice.
• The teacher, a classmate, or a parent volunteer can serve as mentor.
• The mentor should actively offer help—just enough to ensure Irma completes problems correctly, neither more nor less.

The delicate balance:

• Too much help prevents Irma from taking responsibility for learning the new strategy.
• Too little help causes her to take responsibility prematurely.

Don't confuse: This approach differs from the metacognition approach—the mentor doesn't just listen but actively guides, whereas the reflective approach emphasizes Irma monitoring herself.

📊 Scope and prevalence

📊 How common LDs are

• LDs are "by far the most common form of special educational need."
• They account for half of all students with special needs in the United States.
• They affect 5 to 20 percent of all students, depending on how numbers are estimated.
• Most teachers regularly encounter at least one per class in any given school year, regardless of grade level.

🌍 Practical implication

Because LDs are so common, understanding and addressing them is a routine part of teaching, not an exceptional situation.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

ADHD is a neurologically-based condition involving sustained problems with attention and impulse control that requires classroom strategies focused on structure, predictability, and building students' self-monitoring abilities rather than relying solely on medication or misdiagnosing highly active students.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What ADHD is: a problem with sustaining attention and controlling impulses that appears much more frequently than usual and in multiple settings (not just school).
• Common confusion: highly active students versus true ADHD—true ADHD shows restlessness and distractibility that is widespread and sustained across settings, not just in the classroom.
• Causes are unclear: ADHD likely reflects nervous system functioning problems, but sorting out genetic versus environmental causes is confusing and may not help determine teaching strategies.
• Medication limitations: drugs like Ritalin can reduce symptoms but don't work for all students, cost money, require regular schedules, and are not under teachers' control.
• Teaching approach: the goal is to build metacognitive capacity through clear rules, predictable procedures, shorter work sessions, and student-generated strategies while treating students with respect.

🔍 What ADHD is and isn't

🔍 Defining characteristics

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a problem with sustaining attention and controlling impulses.

• Almost all students have attention and impulse problems occasionally, but students with ADHD show them much more frequently than usual.
• The problems appear both at home and at school, not just in one setting.
• Behaviors may include:
  • Fidgeting and squirming, trouble remaining seated
  • Continually getting distracted and off task
  • Trouble waiting for a turn, blurting out answers
  • Shifting continually from one activity to another
  • Misplacing things, seeming disorganized
  • Trying risky activities without thinking about consequences
• Important: students will not do all of these things, but will do several of them chronically or repeatedly in more than one setting.

⚠️ Distinguishing ADHD from high activity

The key difference: true ADHD involves restlessness, activity, and distractibility that is widespread and sustained across multiple settings.

True ADHD	Merely high activity
Problems appear at school and at home	Problems may appear only at school
Sustained and chronic across settings	May be situational or intermittent
Multiple behaviors over time	May be limited to specific contexts

• Example: A student who shows problems at school but never at home may not have ADHD; he may simply not be getting along with his teacher or classmates.
• Don't confuse: classroom demands (sitting for long periods, avoiding interruptions, staying organized) can aggravate mild restlessness without it being ADHD—classroom life may sometimes aggravate ADHD-like behavior without the teacher intending it.

🚨 Over-diagnosis risks

Teachers sometimes mistake merely active students for students with ADHD because:

• Classrooms make heavy demands on not showing ADHD-like behaviors
• Any tendency to be physically active may contribute to classroom management problems
• A student with only mild or occasional restlessness may fit in well outdoors but feel unusually restless indoors during class

Who is more likely to be over-diagnosed:

• Boys more than girls (gender role expectations cause teachers to be especially alert to high activity in boys)
• Culturally or linguistically non-Anglo students (cultural and language differences may lead teachers to misinterpret behavior)

🧬 Causes and underlying mechanisms

🧬 Nervous system functioning

Most psychologists and medical specialists agree that true ADHD reflects a problem in how the nervous system functions, but they do not know the exact nature or causes of the problem.

👨‍👩‍👧 Family patterns and confusion about causes

• ADHD tends to run in families
• Children—especially boys—of parents who had ADHD are somewhat more likely than usual to experience the condition themselves
• However: this association does not necessarily mean ADHD is inborn or genetic

Why sorting out causes is confusing:

• Parents who formerly had ADHD may raise their children more strictly to prevent their own condition in their children
• Yet their strictness may ironically trigger more tendency toward restless distractibility, not less
• The parents' strictness may also be a result as well as a cause of a child's restlessness

Bottom line for teachers: Sorting out causes from effects is confusing, if not impossible, and in any case may not help much to determine actual teaching strategies to help students learn more effectively.

💊 Medication approach and limitations

💊 How medication works

• ADHD can be reduced for many students if they take certain medications
• Most common: methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin
• These drugs act by stimulating the nervous system
• They reduce symptoms by helping a student pay better attention to the choices he or she makes and to the impact of actions on others

⚠️ Practical problems with medication

Why medication is not a complete solution:

Problem	Why it matters
Doesn't work for all students	Especially ineffective after students reach adolescence
Cost	Problem for families without much money or medical insurance (particularly common in the United States)
Regular schedule required	Must be taken regularly including weekends; difficult if parents' schedules are irregular, differ from child's, work night shifts, or are separated and share custody
Not under teachers' control	Teachers are not doctors and cannot control medication

🎯 Teaching strategies for students with ADHD

🎯 Core goal

The goal for teachers is to build the student's metacognitive capacity while treating the student with respect.

• Metacognitive capacity = self-monitoring of one's own thinking and its effectiveness
• Strategies should strengthen the student's self-direction and ability to screen out the distractions of classroom life

🏗️ Creating structure and predictability

Clear rules and procedures:

• Can reduce the "noise" or chaotic quality in the child's classroom life significantly
• Rules and procedures can be generated jointly with the child
• They do not have to be imposed arbitrarily, as if the student were incapable of thinking about them reasonably

Key principle: Provide an environment where a student with ADHD can organize choices and actions easily and successfully.

🤝 Using peer modeling

• Sometimes a classmate can be enlisted to model slower, more reflective styles of working
• Must be done in ways that do not imply undue criticism of the student with ADHD
• Example: The more reflective student can complete a set of math problems while explaining what he or she is thinking about while doing the work

📋 Practical organizational supports

Specific strategies:

• Make lists of tasks or of steps in long tasks
• Divide focused work into small, short sessions rather than grouping it into single, longer sessions
• Keep strategies consistent and predictable
• Generate strategies with the student as much as possible

Why these qualities matter:

• Consistency and predictability help students organize their choices
• Student-generated strategies strengthen self-direction
• Together these build the ability to screen out distractions

🧠 Connection to metacognition and reflection

🧠 Failure of metacognition

The excerpt connects ADHD to metacognition through an example student (Irma) who is "too impulsive and not reflective enough."

• Her style suggests a failure of metacognition (self-monitoring of her own thinking and its effectiveness)
• Solution: encourage the student to think out loud when completing problems—literally "talk her way through" each problem
• If direct teacher participation is impractical, arrange for a skilled classmate to take the teacher's place some of the time

🤝 Constructivist approach

The excerpt also frames ADHD support through constructivist terms:

• Student may need appropriate mentoring from someone more expert
• Create a "zone of proximal development" where the student can display and consolidate skills more successfully
• Student still needs mentoring or "assisted coaching" more than independent practice
• Mentor should actively offer help—just enough to ensure correct completion, neither more nor less
• Too much help may prevent the student from taking responsibility; too little may cause premature responsibility-taking

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Intellectual disabilities require teachers to provide more time and practice, embed learning in daily functional contexts, and deliberately include students in both social and academic classroom life.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What defines intellectual disability: significant limitations in both cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors, broader than learning disabilities.
• How support levels work: intensity is defined by the amount and frequency of support needed (intermittent to pervasive), not just test scores.
• Three core teaching strategies: give more time and practice, use adaptive/functional skills tied to daily life, and include the student in group activities.
• Common confusion: intellectual disabilities vs. learning disabilities—intellectual disabilities involve broader impairments affecting both cognition and everyday functioning, not just specific academic areas.
• Why inclusion matters: participating in class activities fosters acceptance, teaches "belonging" skills, and stimulates learning from peers.

🧩 Definition and scope

🧩 What intellectual disability means

Intellectual disability: a significant limitation in a student's cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors.

• The student may have limited language or impaired speech and may not perform well academically.
• Compared to students with learning disabilities, students with intellectual disabilities have impairments that are broader and more significant.
• They score poorly on standardized intelligence tests.
• Everyday tasks that most people take for granted (getting dressed, eating a meal) may be possible but take more time and effort than usual.
• Health and safety can sometimes be a concern (e.g., knowing whether it is safe to cross a street).
• For older individuals, finding and keeping a job may require help from supportive others.
• The exact combination of challenges varies from person to person, but it always (by definition) involves limitations in both intellectual and daily functioning.

🏷️ Terminology used

• Slow learner: sometimes used if the disability is mild and the student has no formal special supports (e.g., no teaching assistant).
• Intellectual disability or mental retardation: used if the disability is more marked.
• The excerpt primarily uses "intellectual disability" because it has fewer negative connotations while still describing the key educational aspect (cognitive impairment).
• Keep in mind: actual intellectual disabilities are always more than cognitive—they also involve challenges in adapting to everyday living.

📊 Levels of support

📊 How support levels are defined

• Traditionally, intensity was defined by scores on standardized tests (IQ tests), with lower scores indicating more severe disability.
• Current trend: define intensities by the amount of support needed by the individual, because tests are insensitive to daily social functioning.
• The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAMR) created the most commonly used scheme.

📋 Four levels of support

Level	Duration	Frequency	Setting	Professional assistance
Intermittent	Only as needed	Occasional or infrequent	Usually only one or two (e.g., 1–2 classes or activities)	Occasional consultation or monitoring
Limited	As needed, but sometimes continuing	Regular, but frequency varies	Several settings, but not usually all	Occasional or regular contact
Extensive	Usually continuing	Regular, but frequency varies	Several settings, but not usually all	Regular contact at least once a week
Pervasive	May be lifelong	Frequent or continuous	Nearly all settings	Continuous contact and monitoring

🏫 What teachers are likely to see

• As a classroom teacher, you are most likely to see intellectual disabilities requiring the least support in your classroom.
• A student requiring only intermittent support may need special help with some learning activities or classroom routines, but not others (e.g., help with reading or putting on winter clothes, primarily when there is pressure to do these things quickly).
• Students requiring more support are likely to spend less time in your classroom and more time receiving special help from other professionals (special education teacher, speech and language specialist, or assistants).

🎓 Teaching strategies

⏱️ Giving more time and practice than usual

• If a student has only a mild intellectual disability, he or she can probably learn important fundamentals of the academic curriculum (basic arithmetic, basic reading).
• Because of the disability, the student may need more time or practice than most other students.
• Example: The student may be able to read many words by sight (day, night, morning, afternoon) but need longer than other students to recognize and say them.
• Example: The student may know that 2 + 3 = 5, but need help applying this math fact to real objects (you might need to show that two pencils plus three pencils make five pencils).

How to manage the extra help:

• Reward the student frequently for effort and successes with well-timed praise, especially if focused on specific, actual achievements.
• "You added that one correctly" may be more helpful than "You're a hard worker" (even if both are true).
• Set reasonable, "do-able" goals by breaking skills or tasks into steps the student is likely to learn without becoming overly discouraged.
• Don't confuse: setting appropriate goals vs. setting expectations too low—using materials clearly intended for much younger children insults the student and deprives them of rightful opportunities to learn (a serious ethical and professional mistake).
• Fortunately, there already exist materials that are simplified yet appropriate for older students; special education teacher-specialists can help find them.

🛠️ Adaptive and functional skills

• Core dilemma: Since there is not enough time to teach everything, how do we choose what to teach?
• One basis for selecting activities: relate learning goals to students' everyday lives and activities (just as you would with all students).
• This strategy addresses the other defining feature of intellectual disability: the student's difficulties with adapting to and functioning in everyday living.

Examples of functional approaches:

• In teaching addition and subtraction: create examples about purchasing common familiar objects (e.g., food) and the need to make or receive change.
• In learning new reading or oral language vocabulary: encourage the student to learn words that are especially useful to the student's own life (often the student, not you, is the best person to decide what these words are).
• In learning to read or "tell time" on a clock: focus initially on telling the times important to the student (when he or she gets up in the morning, when school starts); gradually add additional personally meaningful times.
• Even if full knowledge proves slow to develop, the student will at least have learned the most useful knowledge first.

🤝 Include the student deliberately in group activities

• Key word: inclusion—the student should participate in and contribute to the life of the class as much as possible.
• Wherever possible, the student attends special events (assemblies, field days) with the class.
• If the class plays a group game, the student with the disability is part of the game.
• If classmates do an assignment as a group, the student is assigned to one of the groups if at all possible.

Benefits of inclusion:

• For classmates: fosters acceptance and helpfulness toward the child with the disability; classmates learn that school is partly about providing opportunities for everyone, not just about evaluating or comparing individuals' skills.
• For the student with disability: stimulates the student to learn as much as possible from classmates, socially and academically; gives chances to practice "belonging" skills (how to greet classmates appropriately, when and how to ask the teacher a question).
• These are skills that are beneficial for everyone to learn, disabled or not.

🌟 Value of inclusion

🌟 Benefits for everyone

• Including students with disabilities in regular classrooms is valuable for everyone concerned.
• Students with disabilities: tend to experience a richer educational environment, both socially and academically; just as with racial segregation, separate education is not equal education (or at least cannot be counted on to be equal).
• Classmates: potentially meet a wider range of classmates and see a wider range of educational purposes in operation.
• Teachers: experience these benefits, but their programs often benefit in other ways as well.

🎯 Additional teaching benefits

• Many teaching strategies that are good for students with disabilities also turn out to benefit all students.
• Examples of such strategies:
  • Careful planning of objectives
  • Attention to individual differences among students
  • Establishment of a positive social atmosphere in the classroom

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Behavioral disorders are a diverse group of conditions in which students chronically perform highly inappropriate behaviors that are extreme, persistent, socially unacceptable, affect schoolwork, and have no other obvious explanation, requiring teachers to focus on identifying triggers, teaching interpersonal skills explicitly, and disciplining fairly.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What behavioral disorders are: chronic, highly inappropriate behaviors that share five common features (extreme, persistent, socially unacceptable, affect school work, no obvious alternative explanation).
• Frequency and classification challenges: only about 1–2% of students have true behavioral disorders, but classification varies by setting and may overlap with other conditions like ADHD or learning disabilities.
• Core teaching challenge: one disruptive student can interfere with an entire class, making classroom management the primary concern.
• Three key strategies: identify specific triggers for inappropriate behavior, teach interpersonal skills explicitly (not as punishment), and discipline fairly by following the IEP and keeping records.
• Common confusion: focus on the specific circumstances or events that trigger disruptions, not on the student's personality.

🔍 Defining characteristics

🔍 Five common features

Behavioral disorders: a diverse group of conditions in which a student chronically performs highly inappropriate behaviors.

All problematic behaviors share these general features:

Feature	What it means
Extreme	Behaviors go beyond typical misbehavior
Persistent	They continue for extended periods of time
Socially unacceptable	Examples include unwanted sexual advances or vandalism against school property
Affect school work	Academic performance suffers
No other obvious explanation	Not caused by health problems or temporary family disruption

📊 Range of behaviors

The excerpt describes a wide variety of manifestations:

• Seeking attention by acting out disruptively in class
• Behaving aggressively
• Being distractible and overly active
• Seeming anxious or withdrawn
• Seeming disconnected from everyday reality

Don't confuse: The sheer range of signs and symptoms means these disorders cannot be described concisely—each student may present very differently.

📈 Frequency and classification issues

• Only about 1–2% of students (or perhaps less) have true behavioral disorders
• This is about one-half or one-third the frequency of intellectual disabilities
• Why estimates vary:
  • A student may be classified as having a different condition (ADHD, learning disability)
  • The same problem may be labeled a "behavioral disorder" in one school but not in another
  • Some students with behavioral disorders may have other disabilities and not be counted in statistics

🎯 Strategy 1: Identifying triggers

🎯 Why focus on circumstances, not personality

• Dealing with a disruption is more effective when you identify the specific circumstance or event that triggers it
• This approach avoids focusing on the student's personality
• Once triggers are identified, you can either avoid them (if possible) or teach the student alternative, specific ways of responding

🧪 Three categories of triggers

The excerpt identifies a wide variety of factors that can trigger inappropriate behavior:

Physiological effects

• Illness
• Fatigue
• Hunger
• Side-effects from medications

Physical features of the classroom

• Classroom too warm or too cold
• Chairs exceptionally uncomfortable for sitting
• Seating patterns that interfere with hearing or seeing

Instructional choices or strategies that frustrate learning

• Restricting students' choices unduly
• Giving instructions that are unclear
• Choosing activities that are too difficult or too long
• Preventing students from asking questions when they need help

Example: If a student becomes disruptive during long activities, the trigger may be the activity length rather than the student being "difficult"—shortening activities or building in breaks may prevent the behavior.

🤝 Strategy 2: Teaching interpersonal skills explicitly

🤝 Why explicit teaching is needed

• Some students with behavior disorders have had little opportunity to learn appropriate social skills
• Simple courtesies (like remembering to say "please" or "thanks") may be unpracticed and seem unimportant to the student
• Body language (like eye contact or sitting up to listen rather than slouching and looking away) may also need to be taught
• Key principle: Teach these skills in ways that do not make them part of punishment, make them seem "preachy", or put a student to shame in front of classmates

📚 Methods for teaching social skills

Through literature

• Reading or assigning books and stories in which characters model good social skills
• Appropriate for various age or grade levels

Through games

• Games that require courteous language to succeed
• Example from the excerpt: "Mother, May I?"

Through mentoring programs

• Link an older student or adult from the community as a partner to the student at risk
• Example: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America arranges for older individuals to act as mentors for younger boys and girls

🔧 Behaviorist techniques

Strategies based on behaviorist theory have proved effective, especially when students need opportunities to practice social skills they have learned recently and may still feel awkward or self-conscious using.

Contingency contracts

Contingency contracts: agreements between the teacher and a student about exactly what work the student will do, how it will be rewarded, and what the consequences will be if the agreement is not fulfilled.

Advantages of behaviorist techniques:

• Precision and clarity: little room for misunderstanding about expectations
• Less tempting or necessary for the teacher to become angry about infractions
• Consequences tend to be relatively obvious and clear already
• "Keeping your cool" is especially helpful when dealing with behavior that is by nature annoying or disrupting

⚖️ Strategy 3: Disciplining fairly

⚖️ The role of the IEP

Individual educational plan (IEP): a legal agreement among a teacher, other professionals, a student, and the student's parents.

• Many strategies for helping a student with a behavior disorder are spelled out in the IEP
• The plan serves as a guide in devising daily activities and approaches
• Departures from the IEP should be made only cautiously and carefully, if ever

⚠️ Avoiding excessive punishment

The temptation: A student with a behavior disorder may be exasperating enough to make it tempting to use stronger or sweeping punishments than usual (for example, isolating a student for extended times).

The legal protection: Every IEP guarantees the student and parents due process before an IEP can be changed.

What due process means in practice:

• Consulting with everyone involved in the case (especially parents, other specialists, and the student himself)
• Reaching an agreement before adopting new strategies that differ significantly from the past

📝 The importance of record-keeping

Instead of "increasing the volume" of punishments, a better approach is to keep careful records of:

• The student's behavior
• Your own responses to it
• Documentation of the reasonableness of your rules or responses to any major disruptions

Benefits of good records:

• Collaboration with parents and other professionals can be more productive and fair-minded
• Increases others' confidence in your judgments about what the student needs
• In the long term, more effective collaboration leads to better support and more learning for the student (as well as better support for you as teacher)

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Accommodating students with physical disabilities and sensory impairments—primarily hearing and vision loss—requires deliberate teaching adjustments that not only support these students but also benefit all learners in the classroom.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Prevalence and identification: Serious physical and sensory challenges affect a small percentage of students (~1% for hearing loss, ~0.5% for visual impairments), but mild cases are more common and often overlooked or mistaken for other learning problems.
• Extent matters more than cause: For classroom accommodation, the severity of hearing or vision loss is more important than its medical origin; milder impairments are harder to detect but more likely to appear in regular classrooms.
• Observable signs overlap with other issues: Students with mild sensory impairments may show delayed language skills, inattention, or incorrect answers—behaviors that also occur in students without impairments, requiring extended observation across multiple situations.
• Common confusion: Mild sensory impairments vs. other learning difficulties—students may compensate through lip reading or selective participation, hiding their challenges; systematic observation over time is essential.
• Teaching strategies benefit everyone: Accommodations like visual cues, clear instructions, and inclusive classroom community practices help students with sensory impairments and simultaneously improve learning for all students.

👂 Hearing Loss in the Classroom

🔍 Defining hearing loss by extent

Hearing impaired or hard of hearing: students with mild or moderate hearing loss.

Deaf: students with nearly complete hearing loss.

• The cause of hearing loss (disease, childbirth complications, toxic drug reactions) is virtually irrelevant for classroom accommodation.
• The extent of loss determines educational needs and likelihood of placement in regular classrooms.
• Milder hearing loss is more common and more likely to be encountered in regular settings.

🕵️ Recognizing hearing loss

Why identification is difficult:

• Serious/profound loss is noticed quickly and receives help sooner.
• Mild or moderate loss is easily overlooked or mistaken for other learning problems.
• Students may compensate by teaching themselves to lip read or carefully choosing which questions to answer.
• Systematic hearing tests can be misleading because classroom success depends on combining cues from the entire context, not just isolated hearing ability.

Signs to observe (over extended time and multiple situations):

• Delayed language or literacy skills (both written and oral)
• Some ability (usually partial) to read lips
• Less worldly knowledge than usual due to lack of involvement with oral dialogue and/or delayed literacy
• Occasionally, tendency toward social isolation because of communication awkwardness

Don't confuse: A student who doesn't listen or gives incorrect answers may have hearing loss, but students without any loss also show these behaviors for entirely different reasons—persistent combination of signs over numerous occasions is key.

📚 Teaching strategies for hearing loss

Strategy	How to implement	Why it helps
Take advantage of residual hearing	Seat student close to speaker; minimize competing noise; keep instructions concise; check for understanding	Maximizes use of remaining hearing ability
Use visual cues liberally	Make charts/diagrams; look directly at student when speaking; gesture and point; provide handouts	Facilitates lip reading and provides alternative information channels
Include in classroom community	Recruit classmates to "translate" missed comments; learn basic ASL signs; teach signs to classmates	Reduces social isolation and builds supportive environment

Note: Many of these strategies make good advice for teaching all students, not just those with hearing loss.

👁️ Visual Impairment in the Classroom

🔍 Defining visual impairment by extent

Visual impairment: difficulty seeing even with corrective lenses, commonly involving refraction (focusing ability), limited field of view (tunnel vision), or oversensitivity to light.

Legal blindness: significant tunnel vision or visual acuity of 20/200 or less (must be 20 feet away from an object that a person with normal eyesight can see at 200 feet).

Low vision: some vision usable for reading, but often needs special optical devices like magnifying lenses.

• As with hearing loss, milder impairment means more time spent in regular classrooms.

🕵️ Recognizing visual impairment

Common signs (similar to ordinary nearsightedness but more frequent/obvious):

• Rubbing eyes frequently
• Blinking more than usual
• Holding books very close to read
• Complaining of eye itchiness, headaches, dizziness, or nausea after close eye work

Additional symptoms in serious cases:

• Crossed eyes
• Swollen eyelids

Identification challenge: Milder forms are the most subtle to observe and most prone to being overlooked initially. Best strategy: track students whose physical signs occur in combination with learning difficulties and persist for many weeks.

📚 Teaching strategies for visual impairment

Parallels hearing loss advice with obvious differences:

Strategy	How to implement	Why it helps
Take advantage of residual vision	Place student where they can see important classroom parts; ensure good lighting; use materials with sharp contrast	Maximizes use of remaining vision
Use non-visual information liberally	Explain purely visual information (classroom layout, photographs, video storylines); use hands-on materials; allow Braille reading if student knows it	Provides alternative access to information that is by nature only visual
Include in classroom community	Ensure social acceptance; recruit classmates to explain visual material; learn basic Braille and encourage classmates to do the same	Reduces isolation and builds supportive environment

Example: Don't expect a student with visual impairment to learn the layout of the classroom or appearance of photographs without explanation—these are by nature only visual and require alternative presentation.

🌟 The Broader Value of Inclusion

💡 Benefits for students with disabilities

• Experience a richer educational environment, both socially and academically.
• Separate education is not equal education (or cannot be counted on to be equal), similar to the principle behind racial desegregation.

💡 Benefits for classmates without disabilities

• Potentially meet a wider range of classmates.
• See a wider range of educational purposes in operation.
• Experience a richer educational environment overall.

💡 Benefits for teachers and programs

• Teachers experience the same social and academic richness as students.
• Additional notable benefit: Many teaching strategies that are good for students with disabilities also turn out to benefit all students.

Key insight: Inclusion creates value for everyone concerned, not just the students with special needs—it enriches the entire classroom community and improves teaching practices broadly.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Including students with disabilities in regular classrooms enriches the educational environment for everyone—students with disabilities, their classmates, and teachers—and promotes teaching strategies that benefit all learners.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Benefits for students with disabilities: They experience a richer educational environment both socially and academically; separate education is not equal education.
• Benefits for classmates: They meet a wider range of peers and see a wider range of educational purposes in operation.
• Benefits for teachers and programs: Many teaching strategies effective for students with disabilities (careful planning, attention to individual differences, positive social atmosphere) also benefit all students.
• Common confusion: Don't assume that specialized strategies are only for students with disabilities—these approaches improve teaching quality for everyone.

🌟 Benefits for students with disabilities

🎓 Richer educational environment

• Students with disabilities in regular classrooms tend to experience both social and academic enrichment.
• The excerpt draws a parallel to racial segregation: separate education cannot be counted on to be equal education.
• Inclusion provides access to the same quality of instruction and social opportunities as other students.

🤝 Social and academic integration

• Being part of the regular classroom community allows students with disabilities to participate in the full range of classroom activities.
• The excerpt emphasizes that this is not just about physical presence but about experiencing a genuinely richer environment.

👥 Benefits for classmates and teachers

👫 Wider range of experiences for classmates

• Classmates of students with disabilities potentially meet a wider range of peers.
• They see a wider range of educational purposes in operation.
• Example: When classmates help explain visual material to a student with visual impairment or learn basic Braille, they expand their own understanding of communication and learning.

👩‍🏫 Enhanced teaching practices

• Teachers experience the same benefits as students (richer environment, wider range of interactions).
• Their programs often benefit in additional ways beyond these direct experiences.

🎯 Teaching strategies that benefit everyone

📋 Strategies originally designed for disabilities

The excerpt identifies three key teaching strategies that help students with disabilities and turn out to benefit all students:

Strategy	Why it helps everyone
Careful planning of objectives	Clear goals improve learning for all students
Attention to individual differences	Recognizing that all students vary in their needs and strengths
Establishment of a positive social atmosphere	A supportive classroom benefits every learner

🔄 From special to universal

• Don't confuse: These are not "special education strategies" versus "regular education strategies"—they are simply high-quality teaching practices.
• The excerpt notes that these topics will be revisited later in the textbook (Chapters 9 and 10) framed around the needs of all students, whatever their individual qualities.
• This suggests that inclusion helps educators recognize that good teaching principles are universal, not category-specific.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Behaviorist perspectives treat motivation as equivalent to observable student behavior rather than as an inner drive, which can be practical in busy classrooms but risks ignoring students' intrinsic choices and preferences.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core behaviorist claim: motivation and outward behavior are treated as the same thing—no need to distinguish "inner drive" from "outer action."
• Practical advantage: when teachers face time limits or communication barriers, focusing on observable behavior helps guide students constructively without needing to discern hidden motives.
• Operant conditioning reframed: reinforcement increases the likelihood of behavior (learning view) or increases motivation (motivational view); the two perspectives describe the same process.
• Common confusion: what looks like one motive (e.g., attentive eye contact) may actually signal a different motive (e.g., daydreaming or cultural respect norms).
• Key caution: relying only on external rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation, especially when students already find the activity interesting or when rewards are tied to piecemeal performance.

🎯 The behaviorist view of motivation

🎯 Equating inner drive and outer behavior

Behaviorism minimizes or ignores the distinction between the inner drive or energy of students and the outward behaviors that express the drive or energy; the two are considered the same, or nearly so.

• Instead of asking "What does the student feel inside?", behaviorism asks "What does the student do?"
• This approach focuses almost completely on what can be directly seen or heard about a person's behavior.
• It may seem to violate common sense: how can action happen without some feeling or thought behind it?
• Yet this perspective has practical advantages in real classrooms.

🕒 When behaviorist perspectives help

Teachers face two common constraints that make the behaviorist approach useful:

Constraint	Why it matters	Example from the excerpt
Limited time	Multiple demands and many students leave little time to interpret behavior	A student asks many questions—is it curiosity or a desire to look intelligent? No time to decide.
Communication barriers	Language learning, unfamiliar cultural patterns, or disabilities make discerning inner motives harder	A student still learning English or from a different cultural community; extra time is needed, but behavior must still be guided constructively in the meantime.

• Don't confuse: the behaviorist approach is not about ignoring students' inner lives forever; it's about managing immediate classroom needs when deeper interpretation is not yet possible.

🔄 Operant conditioning as motivation

🔄 Reframing operant concepts

The operant conditioning model (associated with B. F. Skinner) can be transformed from a learning account into a motivation account:

• Learning view: a behavior (the operant) increases in frequency because performing it makes a reinforcement available.
• Motivation view: think of the likelihood of response as the motivation and the reinforcement as the motivator.

Example: A student answers questions during class discussions. Each time the student answers (the operant), the teacher praises (reinforces) this behavior.

• Learning interpretation: the student is learning to answer questions.
• Motivation interpretation: the likelihood of answering (the motivation) is increasing because of praise (the motivator).

📋 Key operant concepts in motivational terms

Concept	Learning definition	Motivation definition	Classroom example
Operant	Behavior that becomes more likely because of reinforcement	Behavior that suggests an increase in motivation	Student listens to teacher's comments during lecture
Reinforcement	Stimulus that increases likelihood of a behavior	Stimulus that motivates	Teacher praises student for listening
Positive reinforcement	Stimulus that increases likelihood by being introduced or added	Stimulus that motivates by its presence; an "incentive"	Teacher makes encouraging remarks about homework
Negative reinforcement	Stimulus that increases likelihood by being removed or taken away	Stimulus that motivates by its absence or avoidance	Teacher stops nagging student about late homework
Punishment	Stimulus that decreases likelihood by being introduced or added	Stimulus that decreases motivation by its presence	Teacher deducts points for late homework
Extinction	Removal of reinforcement for a behavior	Removal of motivating stimulus that leads to decrease in motivation	Teacher stops commenting altogether about homework
Shaping successive approximations	Reinforcements for behaviors that gradually resemble a final goal behavior	Stimuli that gradually shift motivation toward a final goal motivation	Teacher praises student for returning homework closer to the deadline; gradually praises for being on time
Continuous reinforcement	Reinforcement that occurs each time an operant behavior occurs	Motivator that occurs each time a behavioral sign of motivation occurs	Teacher praises highly active student every time he works for five minutes without interruption
Intermittent reinforcement	Reinforcement that sometimes occurs following an operant behavior, but not every time	Motivator that occurs sometimes when a behavioral sign of motivation occurs, but not every occasion	Teacher praises highly active student sometimes when he works without interruption, but not every time

🔍 Extinction as loss of motivation

• Learning view: learned behaviors become less likely when reinforcement no longer occurs—a sort of "unlearning" or decrease in performance.
• Motivation view: the decrease in performance frequency can be thought of as a loss of motivation, and removal of reinforcement as removal of the motivator.

⚠️ Cautions and criticisms

⚠️ Ambiguity of behavior

One obvious concern is the ambiguity of students' specific behaviors: what looks like a sign of one motive to the teacher may actually signal a different motive to the student.

• Example: A student looks intently at the teacher while she speaks. Does it mean the student is motivated to learn, or is the student daydreaming?
• Example: A student invariably looks away while the teacher speaks. Does it mean disrespect, or does the student come from a family or cultural group where avoiding eye contact actually shows more respect than direct eye contact?
• Don't confuse: the same outward behavior can have multiple inner meanings depending on the student's background and context.

🎭 Ignoring students' choices and preferences

Another concern is that behaviorist perspectives lead teachers to ignore students' choices and preferences, and to "play God" by making choices on their behalf.

• The distinction between "inner" motives and outward expressions does not disappear just because a teacher (or a theory) chooses to treat them as equivalent.
• Students usually do know what they want or desire, and their wants may not always correspond to what a teacher chooses to reinforce or ignore.
• This is the issue of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation: behavioral approaches are not sensitive enough to students' intrinsic, self-sustaining motivations.

🔬 When extrinsic rewards backfire

A classic research study illustrated the problem:

• Researchers rewarded university students for two activities—solving puzzles and writing newspaper headlines—that they already found interesting.
• Some students were paid to do these activities; others were not.
• Result: students who were paid were less likely to engage in the activities after the experiment than students who were not paid, even though both groups had been equally interested initially.
• Interpretation: the extrinsic reward of payment interfered with the intrinsic reward of working the puzzles.

Later studies confirmed this effect in numerous situations, but also found conditions where extrinsic rewards do not reduce intrinsic rewards:

Condition	Effect on intrinsic motivation
Payment by the hour (flat rate)	Less harmful than piecemeal payment
Payment by the piece (per item completed)	More harmful
Well-defined task (e.g., math problems, solitaire) with high-quality performance expected	Extrinsic rewards less harmful
Task already intrinsically interesting	Extrinsic rewards more likely to undermine intrinsic motivation

🧭 When to use extrinsic rewards

• There are still times and ways when externally determined reinforcements are useful and effective.
• However, extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation often enough that they need to be used selectively and thoughtfully.
• If a teacher relies on rewarding behaviors that she alone has chosen, or persists in reinforcing behaviors that students already find motivating without external reinforcement, reinforcements can backfire.
• Instead of serving as an incentive, reinforcement can become a reminder of the teacher's power and of students' lack of control over their own actions.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Students' achievement goals—whether they aim to master material, perform well for recognition, or avoid failure—shape how deeply they learn and how sustained their engagement becomes, with mastery goals supporting the most thoughtful and lasting learning.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three types of achievement goals: mastery (learning for its own sake), performance (looking successful to others), and performance-avoidance (avoiding failure).
• Mastery vs performance trade-off: mastery goals sustain interest and deeper learning; performance goals often yield higher grades but shallower understanding.
• Common confusion: performance goals can produce good grades, but they encourage competition and isolation, which limits learning depth and collaboration.
• Failure-avoidant goals undermine achievement: students who focus on avoiding failure may self-handicap by doing minimal work or setting unrealistic goals.
• Social goals have mixed effects: relationships with teachers and peers can support or hinder achievement depending on whether they encourage collaboration or competition.

🎯 Three types of achievement goals

🎯 Mastery goals

Mastery goal: the desire to learn or master material as well as possible because it is interesting or will be useful.

• The student's main concern is understanding the content itself, not external recognition.
• Example: Maria wants to learn algebra because she finds it interesting and believes it will help in later courses.
• Mastery goals are a form of intrinsic motivation—the drive comes from within.
• Why it matters: students with mastery goals show sustained interest beyond the course and enroll in further courses in the same subject.

🏆 Performance goals

Performance goal: the focus on looking successful in the eyes of peers and teachers; learning is a vehicle for appearing competent.

• The student cares primarily about top marks and recognition, not the material itself.
• Example: Sara is less concerned about algebra than about getting top marks on exams.
• Performance goals are a form of extrinsic motivation—the drive comes from external rewards or recognition.
• Don't confuse: performance goals can produce higher grades, but they do not guarantee deeper or permanent learning.

❌ Performance-avoidance (failure-avoidance) goals

Performance-avoidance goal: the intention to avoid failure or looking foolish, rather than to learn or succeed competitively.

• The student is not focused on mastery or competitive success, only on not failing.
• Example: Lindsay is primarily concerned about avoiding a poor or failing mark in algebra.
• Why it matters: failure-avoidant goals undermine academic achievement by nature.

🔀 Goals often combine

• Students rarely experience these goals in pure form; they usually hold combinations.
• Example: a student playing clarinet in the school band might want to improve technique (mastery), look talented to classmates (performance), and avoid looking like a failure (performance-avoidance).
• One motive may predominate, but all three can be present.

📊 How goals affect learning outcomes

📚 Mastery goals and sustained interest

• Mastery-oriented students express greater interest in a course and continue that interest well beyond the official end.
• They tend to enroll in further courses in the same subject.
• Mastery goals support intrinsic motivation, which sustains engagement over time.

📈 Performance goals: higher grades, shallower learning

Aspect	What happens	Why
Grades	Performance-oriented students tend to get higher grades (short-term assignments and long-term GPA)	They focus on measures of success
Depth of learning	They do not learn material as deeply or permanently as mastery-oriented students	Test scores often reward shallow memorization, not thoughtful processing
Collaboration	Performance orientation discourages giving and receiving help from classmates	Competition for recognition makes helping peers against self-interest; resulting isolation limits learning

• Common confusion: higher grades do not always mean better learning—performance goals can produce good test scores without deep understanding.

⚠️ Performance-avoidance and self-handicapping

• Failure-avoidant goals are often a negative byproduct of the competitiveness of performance goals.
• If too much emphasis is placed on being the best in class, some students may decide success is beyond reach or not desirable.
• The alternative—simply avoiding failure—may seem wiser and more feasible.

Self-handicapping: deliberate actions and choices that reduce chances of success.

• Ways students self-handicap:
  • Doing only the minimum work necessary to avoid looking foolish or conflict with the teacher
  • Procrastinating about completing assignments
  • Setting unrealistically high goals
• Once a student adopts a failure-avoidant attitude, they may underachieve deliberately.

🤝 Social goals and their complex effects

👨‍🏫 Relationships with teachers

• If a relationship with the teacher is important and reasonably positive, the student is likely to try pleasing the teacher by working hard.
• Note: this effect is closer to performance than mastery—the student is primarily concerned about looking good to someone else, not learning for its own sake.

👥 Relationships with peers

The effects on achievement depend on the student's motives for the relationship and on peers' attitudes.

Motive	Effect on achievement	Why
Desiring to be close to peers personally	May support higher achievement (up to a point)	Leads to asking for and giving help to peers
Desiring to impress peers with skills and knowledge	May reduce achievement	Competitive edge keeps student from collaborating; reduces opportunities to learn

🎓 Peer abilities and context matter

• Low achievement and motivation by peers affects an individual's academic motivation more:
  • In elementary school than in high school
  • In learning mathematics than learning to read
  • If there is a wide range of abilities in a classroom than if there is a narrow range
• Don't confuse: peer effects vary greatly by context; they are not uniformly positive or negative.

🌟 Teachers should facilitate relationships thoughtfully

• Social relationships are valued highly by most students, so teachers should generally facilitate them.
• Keep an eye on their nature and effects on achievement.
• Many assignments can be accomplished productively in groups if groups are formed thoughtfully.
• Relationships can be supported with activities involving students or adults from another class or outside the school (e.g., school or community service projects).
• The majority of students' social contacts will always come from students' own initiatives; the teacher's job is to encourage informal contacts that support rather than interfere with learning.

🌱 Encouraging mastery goals in the classroom

🎯 Why encourage mastery orientation

• A mastery orientation leads to more sustained, thoughtful learning, especially in classrooms where classmates may debate and disagree with each other.
• Even though some performance orientation may be inevitable because of the presence of classmates, it does not have to take over students' academic motivation completely.

✅ Allow student choice

• Let students choose specific tasks or assignments for themselves where possible.
• Their choices are more likely to reflect prior personal interests and thus be motivated more intrinsically than usual.
• Limitation: students may not see connections between their prior interests and the curriculum topics at hand.

🔗 Point out relevance to personal interests

• Look for and point out the relevance of current topics or skills to students' personal interests and goals.
• Example: a student who enjoys the latest styles of music might connect this interest to:
  • Biology (physiology of the ear and hearing)
  • Physics or general science (nature of musical acoustics)
  • History (changes in musical styles over time)
  • English (relationships of musical lyrics and themes with literary themes)
  • Foreign languages (comparisons of music and songs among cultures)

📊 Focus on individual effort and improvement

• Focus on students' individual effort and improvement as much as possible, rather than comparing students' successes to each other.
• How to do this:
  • Give students detailed feedback about how they can improve performance
  • Arrange for students to collaborate on specific tasks and projects rather than compete
  • Show your own enthusiasm for the subject at hand

🧲 Motives as interests

🔍 Effort versus interest

• Students show obvious differences in levels of interest in classroom topics and tasks.
• Example: Frank finds balancing chemical equations boring and forces himself to study it, spending only the time needed for basic learning. Jason enjoys the challenge, thinks of it as an intriguing puzzle, and compares problems to each other.
• Key difference: Frank's learning is based on effort; Jason's learning is based on interest.
• When students learn from interest, they tend to devote more attention to the topic than if they learn from effort.
• Interest is another aspect of intrinsic motivation—energy or drive that comes from within.

🔀 Effort and interest often blend

• The distinction between effort and interest is often artificial because the two motives often get blended in students' personal experiences.
• Most of us can remember times when we worked at a skill that we enjoyed and found interesting, but that also required effort to learn.
• Challenge for teachers: draw on and encourage students' interest as much as possible, and keep the required effort within reasonable bounds—neither too hard nor too easy.

⚡ Situational interest

Situational interests: interests that are triggered temporarily by features of the immediate situation.

• Unusual sights, sounds, or words can stimulate situational interest.
• Example: a teacher might show an interesting image on the overhead projector, play a brief bit of music, or make a surprising comment in passing.
• At a more abstract level, unusual or surprising topics of discussion can also arouse interest when first introduced.

💎 Personal interest

Personal interests: relatively permanent preferences of the student, expressed in a variety of situations.

• In the classroom, a student may (or may not) have a personal interest in particular topics, activities, or subject matter.
• Outside class, he or she usually has additional personal interests in non-academic activities (e.g., sports, music) or even in particular people (a celebrity, a friend who lives nearby).
• Potential conflict: non-academic personal interests may sometimes conflict with academic interest (e.g., going to the shopping mall with a friend may be more interesting than studying even your most favorite subject).

📈 Benefits of personal interest

• Personal interest in an academic topic or activity tends to correlate with achievement related to the topic or activity.
• A student who is truly interested is more likely to:
  • Focus on the topic or activity more fully
  • Work at it for longer periods
  • Use more thoughtful strategies in learning
  • Enjoy doing so
• Why it matters: personal interest supports deeper engagement and better learning outcomes.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Interest-based learning leads students to devote more attention and use more thoughtful strategies than effort-based learning, and teachers can cultivate interest by stimulating situational interest that may gradually become personal interest.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Interest vs effort: Learning from interest (intrinsic motivation) leads to more attention and deeper engagement than learning from effort alone.
• Two types of interest: Situational interest is temporary and triggered by immediate features; personal interest is permanent and expressed across situations.
• Personal interest benefits: Students with personal interest in a topic tend to focus more, work longer, use better strategies, and achieve more.
• Common confusion: The direction of causation—interest can lead to achievement, but achievement can also strengthen interest (both directions likely operate).
• Seductive details caution: Stimulating features (jokes, colorful images, interesting tangents) can arouse interest but may distract if they don't relate to the core material.

🎯 Interest versus effort in learning

🎯 What distinguishes interest-based learning

Interest: an aspect of intrinsic motivation—energy or drive that comes from within.

• Effort-based learning: Student forces themselves to study, spends only the time needed, completes assignments at a basic level.
• Interest-based learning: Student enjoys the challenge, devotes more attention, explores beyond requirements (e.g., comparing problems to each other).
• Example: Frank finds balancing chemical equations boring and studies minimally; Jason enjoys it as an intriguing puzzle and explores it more deeply.

🔀 The blending of effort and interest

• The distinction is often artificial in real experience—most people can remember working at skills that were both interesting and required effort.
• Teacher's challenge: Draw on and encourage students' interest to keep required effort within reasonable bounds (neither too hard nor too easy).
• Don't confuse: Interest doesn't eliminate effort; it makes effort feel more worthwhile and sustainable.

🔍 Two types of interest

🔍 Situational vs personal interest

Type	Definition	Characteristics	Examples
Situational interest	Triggered temporarily by immediate features	Short-term, context-dependent	Unusual sights/sounds, surprising comments, interesting images on projector, brief music clips
Personal interest	Relatively permanent preferences	Long-term, expressed across situations	Persistent interest in specific topics, activities, subject matter (academic or non-academic like sports/music)

⚠️ Conflict between interests

• Non-academic personal interests may compete with academic interests.
• Example: Going to the shopping mall with a friend may be more interesting than studying even a favorite subject.
• This highlights that personal interest alone doesn't guarantee academic engagement—context matters.

📈 Benefits and causation of personal interest

📈 How personal interest supports achievement

When students have personal interest in an academic topic or activity:

• They focus more fully on the topic
• They work at it for longer periods
• They use more thoughtful learning strategies
• They enjoy the process more
• Result: Higher achievement

🔄 The direction-of-causation puzzle

• The ambiguity: Does personal interest lead to higher achievement, or does higher achievement lead to stronger interest?
• Research evidence: At least some influence goes from interest to achievement—elementary students learned more from books they chose themselves than from assigned books.
• But the reverse also happens: As Joe learns more about history, he finds it more interesting; as McKenzie learns more biology, she wants to learn more of it.
• Conclusion: Both directions likely operate—interest can spark learning, and learning can deepen interest.

🎨 Strategies for stimulating situational interest

🎨 When to use these strategies

• When a student has little prior personal interest in a topic or activity.
• Goal: Stimulate initial, situational interest in hopes it will gradually become more permanent and personal.

💡 Effective techniques

Three main strategies the excerpt recommends:

1. Include surprises

   • Tell students facts that are true but counter-intuitive
   • Demonstrate science experiments that turn out differently than expected
   • Example: Show an outcome that contradicts common assumptions

2. Relate to prior experiences

   • Connect new material to students' experiences, even non-academic ones
   • Example: Explain gravitation and acceleration concepts using softball games for a student who enjoys playing softball
   • This bridges academic content with existing personal interests

3. Encourage active response

   • Have students talk about material together
   • Students make their own connections to personal interests
   • Social interaction itself links material to personal, social interests

⚠️ The seductive details problem

⚠️ What are seductive details

Features added to stimulate interest that may actually mislead or distract:

• Deliberately telling jokes in class
• Using colorful illustrations or pictures
• Adding interesting bits of information to explanations

⚠️ When they backfire

• If these features do not really relate to the topic at hand, they may:
  • Create misunderstandings
  • Prevent students from focusing on key material
• Individual differences: Struggling students are more prone to distraction and misunderstanding than students already learning successfully.

✅ Best practice

• Use strategies to arouse situational interest, but assess students' responses continually and honestly.
• Key question: Are students learning because of your stimulating strategies, or in spite of them?
• Don't confuse: Interesting ≠ helpful—the feature must connect meaningfully to the learning goal.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Attributions—students' beliefs about what causes their successes and failures—shape academic motivation most positively when students attribute outcomes to internal, controllable factors like effort and learning strategies rather than to external or uncontrollable factors like luck or fixed ability.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What attributions are: perceptions about the causes of success and failure (e.g., effort, ability, luck, task difficulty).
• Three dimensions: attributions vary in locus (internal vs external), stability (permanent vs changeable), and controllability (influenceable vs not).
• Best combination for motivation: internal and controllable attributions (like effort or strategy choice) support both motivation and achievement.
• Common confusion: ability seems stable, but it actually changes incrementally over time through sustained effort—teachers should frame ability as developable, not fixed.
• How teachers can help: frame feedback around controllable factors, ensure tasks are appropriately difficult, provide help when needed, and recognize that ability grows over time.

🔍 What attributions are and why they matter

🔍 Definition and examples

Attributions: perceptions about the causes of success and failure.

• When a student gets a low mark, they might explain it in different ways:
  • "I didn't study hard enough" (effort)
  • "The test was too difficult" (task difficulty)
  • "I was unlucky" (chance)
  • "I'm just not smart enough" (ability)
• Each explanation attributes the outcome to a different factor.
• These explanations may or may not reflect the truth accurately.
• What matters: attributions reflect personal beliefs about sources of success/failure, and these beliefs affect motivation depending on their nature.

🎯 Why attributions influence motivation

• Attributions shape how students interpret their performance.
• They determine whether students feel they can improve or are helpless.
• Different types of attributions lead to different motivational outcomes (optimism, indifference, pessimism, or disengagement).

📐 Three dimensions of attributions

📍 Locus (internal vs external)

Locus: the location (figuratively) of the source of success or failure.

• Internal locus: the cause is inside the person.
  • Example: attributing a top mark to your own ability → internal.
• External locus: the cause is outside the person.
  • Example: attributing a top mark to easy test questions → external.

⏳ Stability (permanent vs changeable)

Stability: the relative permanence of the attribution.

• Stable: the cause is lasting and doesn't change much over time.
  • Example: attributing success to ability (ability is relatively lasting) → stable.
• Unstable: the cause varies and must be renewed each time.
  • Example: attributing success to effort (effort can vary and disappears if not renewed) → unstable.

🎛️ Controllability (influenceable vs not)

Controllability: the extent to which the individual can influence the cause.

• Controllable: the person can influence the factor.
  • Example: attributing a top mark to studying effort → controllable (you decide how much to study).
• Uncontrollable: the person cannot influence the factor.
  • Example: attributing success to luck → uncontrollable (nothing can influence random chance).

🧩 How attribution combinations affect motivation

✅ Best for motivation: internal + controllable

• Attributing success and failure to internal, controllable factors (like effort or choice of learning strategies) usually helps both motivation and achievement.
• Why it works:
  • Students feel they have agency—they can influence outcomes.
  • Encourages investment in learning because effort pays off.
• Example: "I did well because I studied hard and used good strategies" → motivates continued effort.

⚖️ Mixed effects: internal + stable (ability)

• Attributing success to internal but stable/uncontrollable factors (like ability) is both a blessing and a curse.
• Blessing: can create optimism about future success.
  • Example: "I always do well" → confidence.
• Curse: can lead to problems:
  • Indifference about correcting mistakes (if ability is seen as fixed, why bother improving?).
  • Pessimism if performance drops ("Maybe I'm not as smart as I thought").
• Don't confuse: ability feels stable in the short term, but it actually changes incrementally over time through effort (see below).

❌ Worst for motivation: external attributions

• Attributing performance to external factors (whether stable or unstable) removes incentive to invest in learning.
• Examples:
  • "The teacher was in a bad mood when marking" (external, unstable, uncontrollable) → luck-based thinking.
  • "This material is just too hard" (external, stable, uncontrollable) → learned helplessness.
• Why it's harmful: students feel they have no control over outcomes, so effort seems pointless.

🎯 Summary table

Attribution type	Locus	Stability	Controllability	Effect on motivation
Effort / strategy choice	Internal	Unstable	Controllable	Best: encourages investment in learning
Ability (viewed as fixed)	Internal	Stable	Uncontrollable	Mixed: optimism or indifference/pessimism
Luck	External	Unstable	Uncontrollable	Worst: removes incentive to learn
Task difficulty	External	Stable	Uncontrollable	Worst: removes incentive to learn

🛠️ How teachers can influence students' attributions

💬 Frame feedback around internal, controllable factors

• Teachers should explain success and failure in terms of internal, controllable causes.
• Instead of: "Good work! You're smart!" (internal, stable, uncontrollable)
  • Say: "Good work! Your effort really made a difference, didn't it?" (internal, unstable, controllable)
• Instead of: "Too bad! This material is just too hard for you." (external, stable, uncontrollable)
  • Say: "Let's find a strategy for practicing this more, and then you can try again." (internal, controllable)
• Why this works: emphasizes factors students can influence, not fixed traits or external barriers.

⚙️ Provide conditions where effort actually pays off

• Framing alone is not enough—attributions will only be convincing if teachers create conditions where students' efforts really do lead to success.
• Three essential conditions:

📏 Tasks must be at the right difficulty level

• Academic tasks and materials must be appropriately challenging.
• If tasks are too hard or too easy, students will rightly attribute outcomes to external factors (task difficulty or luck).
• Example: giving advanced calculus to a first-grader → justified external attribution ("This is impossible").
• If assessments produce highly variable, unreliable marks → students attribute performance to luck (external, unstable).

🤝 Be ready to give individual help

• Teachers must be prepared to help students who need it, even if an assignment seems easy or clear.
• Why: it's hard to know in advance exactly how difficult a task will be for particular students.
• Without help, a task that starts difficult may remain difficult indefinitely.
• Result: students make unproductive (though correct) attributions:
  • "I will never understand this."
  • "I'm not smart enough."
  • "It doesn't matter how hard I study."

🌱 Recognize that ability changes incrementally over time

• Don't confuse: ability is usually considered stable, but it actually changes incrementally over the long term.
• Recognizing this fact is one of the best ways to bring about actual increases in students' abilities.
• Example: A middle-years student plays trumpet at a high level—this reflects lots of previous effort and gradual ability increase.
• Example: A second-grader reads fluently now, but in the past couldn't read as well, and even further back couldn't read at all—ability increased through effort.
• Key insight: effort and ability evolve on different time frames.
  • Effort: visible immediately (this week, today, this moment).
  • Ability: develops over many weeks, months, or years.
• Teachers can easily forget this because effort is visible right away, but ability takes longer to show itself.
• Implication: frame ability as something that grows through sustained effort, not as a fixed trait.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Self-efficacy—the belief that you can carry out a specific task—shapes motivation by influencing which tasks students choose, how long they persist, and how they respond to failure, and teachers can strengthen it through genuine success experiences, modeling, encouragement, and managing emotional associations.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What self-efficacy is: a belief about your capacity to do a specific task, not a general judgment about intelligence or likability.
• How it differs from ability: self-efficacy is self-constructed perception, not documented skill; discrepancies between belief and true ability can occur.
• Three main effects: influences task choice, persistence, and response to failure—each with both positive and negative sides depending on accuracy of self-perception.
• Common confusion: self-efficacy vs self-concept/self-esteem—self-efficacy is task-specific belief; self-concept and self-esteem are general identity judgments that only indirectly affect motivation.
• Four sources teachers can use: prior mastery experiences (most powerful), watching others succeed, persuasion/encouragement, and emotions related to stress.

🎯 What self-efficacy is and isn't

🎯 Definition and scope

Self-efficacy: the belief that you are capable of carrying out a specific task or of reaching a specific goal.

• The belief and the action or goal are specific.
• Example: believing you can write an acceptable term paper, repair an automobile, or make friends with a new student.
• It is not about whether you believe you are intelligent in general, always like mechanical work, or are generally likeable.

🔍 How it differs from related concepts

Concept	What it is	Relationship to motivation
Self-efficacy	Belief about capacity for a specific task	Direct, primary explanation for motivation
Self-concept	Beliefs about general personal identity	Indirect influence only
Self-esteem	Evaluations of identity	Indirect influence only

• Self-concept and self-esteem are important in their own right but affect motivation only indirectly.
• Don't confuse: self-efficacy is like everyday "confidence" but defined more precisely and task-specifically.

🧩 Self-efficacy vs actual ability

• Self-efficacy beliefs are self-constructed, meaning personally developed perceptions.
• Discrepancies can exist between self-efficacy and true skill:
  • You can believe you can write a good paper without actually being able to do so.
  • You can believe yourself incapable of writing a paper but discover you are in fact able.
• The optimum level of self-efficacy is either at or slightly above true capacity.
• Large discrepancies between self-efficacy and ability can create motivational problems.

📊 Three main effects on student behavior

📊 Effect 1: Choice of tasks

• Self-efficacy makes students more willing to choose tasks where they already feel confident of succeeding.
• This effect is almost inevitable given the definition and is supported by research.

Positive side:

• If a student believes they can solve math problems, they are more likely to attempt math homework.

Negative side:

• If a student believes they are incapable of math, they are less likely to attempt homework ("What's the use of trying?"), regardless of actual ability.

Complications from misperception:

• All is well if students overestimate capacity but still succeed, or underestimate but discover they can succeed and raise beliefs.
• Problems arise if students don't believe they can succeed and don't try, or if they overestimate by a wide margin, fail unexpectedly, and lower their beliefs.

⏱️ Effect 2: Persistence at tasks

• High self-efficacy increases persistence at relevant tasks.
• Example: If you believe you can solve crossword puzzles but encounter a difficult one, you are more likely to work longer until you solve it.

When persistence is desirable:

• Gives you a chance to improve skill by continuing.

When persistence may be problematic:

• If it interferes with other, more important tasks (e.g., doing homework instead of puzzles).

Low self-efficacy consequences:

• More likely to give up early on difficult tasks.
• Giving up deprives you of chances to improve, but lack of success may provide useful incentive to improve skills.

Misperception effects:

• Excessively high self-efficacy might lead to not preparing or focusing properly, impairing performance.
• Effects vary from individual to individual and situation to situation.

💪 Effect 3: Response to failure

• High self-efficacy improves ability to cope with stressful conditions and recover motivation following failures.
• Example: If you have two assignments due the same day (essay and lab report), you cope better with stress if you believe yourself capable of both tasks than if you believe you can do just one or neither.
• You also recover better if you end up with a poor grade on one or both tasks.

The complication:

• The same resilience can serve non-academic purposes.
• Example: A student with high self-efficacy for both a school assignment and a part-time restaurant job may devote less attention to schoolwork than ideal and end up with a lower grade than capable of.

🚫 Learned helplessness

🚫 What learned helplessness is

Learned helplessness: a perception of complete lack of control in mastering a task.

• Develops when a person's sense of self-efficacy is very low.
• Similar to depression: pervasive apathy and belief that effort makes no difference and does not lead to success.
• Originally studied by psychologist Martin Seligman using experiments where animals were repeatedly shocked in ways that prevented escape, then later didn't bother to escape even when possible.

🧠 Characteristic patterns in people

People with learned helplessness tend to:

• Attribute the source of a problem to themselves (internal).
• Generalize the problem to many aspects of life.
• See the problem as lasting or permanent.

More optimistic individuals:

• Attribute problems to outside sources (external).
• See problems as specific to a particular situation or activity.
• See problems as temporary or time-limited.

Example comparison:

• Learned helplessness response to test failure: "I'm stupid; I never perform well on any schoolwork, and I never will."
• Optimistic response: "The teacher made the test too hard this time, so it doesn't prove anything about how I will do next time or in other subjects."

🔗 Connection to self-efficacy

• The optimistic perspective resembles high self-efficacy.
• Learned helplessness contradicts self-efficacy.
• High self-efficacy is a strong belief in capacity to carry out a specific task successfully, focusing attention on a temporary activity even though the cause of completion (oneself) is internal.
• Teachers can minimize learned helplessness by encouraging self-efficacy beliefs.

🌱 Four sources of self-efficacy beliefs

🏆 Source 1: Prior experiences of mastery (most important)

• Past successes at a task increase beliefs of future success.
• Teachers need to help students build a history of successes.
• Tasks have to end with success more often than with failure.

Critical requirement:

• Successes must represent genuine mastery or truly authentic competence.
• Success at trivial or irrelevant tasks does not improve self-efficacy.
• Praise for successes a student hasn't really had does not work.

Age considerations:

• Younger students (elementary) have relatively short ideas of what counts as "past experience"—may go back only a few occasions.
• Older students (secondary) gradually develop longer views of their personal pasts due to memory improvements and accumulating longer personal history.
• Challenge for any age: ensure students base beliefs on all relevant past experiences, not just selected or recent ones.

👀 Source 2: Watching others' experiences of mastery

Vicarious experience of mastery: observing others' successes.

• Simply seeing someone else succeed can contribute to believing you can succeed too.

When the effect is stronger:

• Observer lacks experience with the task and is unsure of own ability.
• The model is someone respected (teacher or peer with comparable ability).

Limitations:

• Vicarious experience is not as influential as direct experience.
• Example: Witnessing your teacher and a friend sing well may encourage you about your potential, but you'll likely still feel uncertain of your own efficacy; if you have a history of singing well yourself, you'll believe in your efficacy regardless of how others perform.

Teaching implications:

• Teachers can enhance self-efficacy by modeling success or pointing out successful classmates.
• These strategies work because they show how to do a task and communicate that the task can be done.
• Only helpful if backed up with real successes by students themselves.
• Only helpful if "model classmates" are perceived as truly comparable in ability.
• Overuse without real learner success can cause students to disqualify the model as "out of their league" and irrelevant.

💬 Source 3: Social messages and persuasion

• Encouragements (implied and stated) that persuade a person of capacity to do a task.
• Persuasion does not create high efficacy by itself.
• It increases or supports efficacy when coupled with direct or vicarious experience, especially when coming from more than one person.

Teaching implications:

• Encouragement can motivate, especially when focused on achievable, specific tasks.
• Example messages: "I think you can do it" or "I've seen you do this before, so I know you can do it again."
• Teachers should arrange tasks that are in fact achievable by the student to support their encouragement.

Caution about perception:

• Students can perceive teachers' comments and tasks quite differently from how teachers intend.
• Example: Giving excessive detailed help may be intended as support but taken as lack of confidence in the student's ability to work independently.

😰 Source 4: Emotions related to success, stress or discomfort

• Emotions influence expectations of success or failure, though the first three sources are more cognitive/"thinking oriented."
• Feeling nervous or anxious can function like a message saying "I'm not going to succeed," even with good reason to expect success.
• Positive feelings can also raise efficacy beliefs.
• When recalling excitement of past success at an unrelated task, people may overestimate chances at a new task with no previous experience.

Teaching implications:

• Students' motivation can be affected when they generalize from past experience they believe (rightly or wrongly) to be relevant.
• Example problem: Simply announcing a test can make some students anxious before they know anything about it—whether it's easy, difficult, or comparable to other "tests" in their pasts.
• Misleading encouragement: Boosting confidence based on irrelevant past tasks is unhelpful or dishonest.
  • Example: A student who has only written brief opinion papers, never research papers, won't be helped by hearing "it is just like the papers you wrote before."

⚠️ Important limitation of self-efficacy theory

⚠️ Process vs content of motivation

• Self-efficacy theory emphasizes heavily the process of motivation at the expense of the content of motivation.
• The model explains how beliefs affect behavior but says relatively little about which beliefs and tasks are especially satisfying or lead to greatest well-being.
• This matters because teachers might select tasks that are intrinsically satisfying, not merely achievable.

🤔 The gap question

Key question: "Is it possible to feel high self-efficacy about a task that you do not enjoy?"

• Yes, such a gap can exist.
• Example from the excerpt: A student had considerable success solving high school algebra problems, expended effort on homework, and developed high self-efficacy for solving such problems—but never really enjoyed them and later turned away permanently from math/science as a career.
• Self-efficacy theory explained the process of motivation (belief in capacity led to persistence) but not the content (growing dislike of the tasks).

🔄 What's needed

• Accounting for this gap requires a different theory of motivation.
• Need a theory that includes not only specific beliefs but "deeper" personal needs as well.
• The excerpt mentions self-determination theory as an example of this approach.

🛠️ Practical strategies for teachers

🛠️ Summary table of encouragement strategies

Strategy	Example teacher statement
Set goals with students and get commitment	"By the end of the month, I want you to know all of the times table up to 25 x 25. Can I count on you to do that?"
Encourage comparison with own past performance, not other students	"Compare that drawing against the one you made last semester. I think you'll find improvements!"
Point out links between effort and improvement	"I saw you studying for this test more this week. No wonder you did better this time!"
In feedback, focus on information, not evaluative judgments	"Part 1 of the lab write-up was very detailed, just as the assignment asked. Part 2 has a lot of good ideas, but needs to be more detailed and stated more explicitly."
Point out that increases happen gradually by sustained effort, not inborn ability	"Every time I read another one of your essays, I see more good ideas than the last time. They are so much more complete than when you started the year."

🎯 Teacher's two-fold task

1. Discern the variations in self-efficacy effects across individuals and situations.
2. Encourage positive self-efficacy beliefs while being aware of potential misperceptions and their consequences.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Self-determination theory proposes that motivation becomes more intrinsic when three basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are met, allowing students to perceive their actions as self-chosen rather than externally controlled.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three basic needs: autonomy (feeling free of external constraints), competence (feeling capable), and relatedness (feeling connected to others) drive intrinsic motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation is a spectrum: motivation ranges from purely extrinsic (regulated by external rewards/pressures) to purely intrinsic (regulated by personal enjoyment and values), not an either/or category.
• Self-determination vs. self-efficacy: self-efficacy explains the process of motivation (belief → persistence) but not the content (whether tasks are satisfying); self-determination addresses deeper personal needs and enjoyment.
• Common confusion: self-determination does not require the absence of external constraints—students can feel free even within classroom rules if their basic needs are met.
• Practical reality: teachers cannot meet all students' needs perfectly at all times due to class size, curriculum demands, and students' personal histories, so motivation is usually a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic.

🔄 From self-efficacy to self-determination

🔄 The gap self-efficacy cannot explain

• Self-efficacy theory explains how beliefs affect behavior (confidence → effort → persistence) but not which tasks lead to satisfaction or well-being.
• The missing piece: it is possible to have high self-efficacy about a task you do not enjoy.
• Example: A student had considerable success solving high school algebra problems, developed high self-efficacy, and expended effort on assignments—but never enjoyed the work and later permanently turned away from math/science careers.
  • Self-efficacy explained the process (belief in capacity led to persistence).
  • It did not explain the content (growing dislike of the tasks).
• Why this matters: teachers might select tasks that are merely achievable rather than intrinsically satisfying if they rely only on self-efficacy.

🧩 What self-determination adds

• Self-determination theory includes not only specific beliefs but also "deeper" personal needs.
• It accounts for both the process and the content of motivation—why people persist and whether they find the activity satisfying.

🌱 Core concepts of self-determination theory

🌱 Needs vs. beliefs

A need is a relatively lasting condition or feeling that requires relief or satisfaction and that tends to influence action over the long term.

• Needs differ from self-efficacy beliefs:
  • Self-efficacy beliefs are relatively specific and cognitive, affecting particular tasks directly.
  • Needs are broader, psychological (not physical), and about personal growth or development.
• Some needs decrease when satisfied (like hunger), but the needs in self-determination theory do not—you can never get enough of autonomy, competence, or relatedness.
• These needs are about growth, not deficits to eliminate; students will seek to enhance them continually throughout life.

🎯 The three basic psychological needs

Need	Definition	Characteristic
Autonomy	The need to feel free of external constraints on behavior	Psychological freedom, not absence of rules
Competence	The need to feel capable or skilled	Feeling effective at tasks
Relatedness	The need to feel connected or involved with others	Social connection and belonging

• All three are psychological, not physical (hunger and sex are not on the list).
• All three are about personal growth—you seek to enhance them continually, not reduce or eliminate them.

🔑 The key mechanism

• When these basic needs are reasonably well met: students perceive their actions and choices as intrinsically motivated or "self-determined."
  • They can turn attention to a variety of activities that are attractive or important but do not relate directly to basic needs.
  • Example: students might read suggested books or listen attentively to explanations.
• When one or more basic needs are not met well: students feel coerced by outside pressures or external incentives.
  • They may become preoccupied with satisfying the unmet need.
  • They may exclude or avoid activities that might otherwise be interesting, educational, or important.
  • If the persons are students, their learning will suffer.

📊 The intrinsic-extrinsic spectrum

📊 Self-determination emphasizes perception of freedom

• Self-determination means a person feels free, rather than the presence or absence of "real" constraints on action.
• Don't confuse: a student can experience self-determination even if operating within externally imposed rules (e.g., classroom behavior rules), as long as basic needs are met.

📊 Motivation as a matter of degree

• The "intrinsic-ness" of motivation extends from highly extrinsic, through various mixtures, to highly intrinsic.
• At the extrinsic end: learning regulated primarily by external rewards and constraints.
• At the intrinsic end: learning regulated primarily by learners themselves.

Source of regulation	Description	Example
"Pure" extrinsic	Person lacks intention to take action, regardless of pressures or incentives	Student completes no work even when pressured or when incentives are offered
Very external	Actions regulated only by outside pressures, incentives, and controls	Student completes assignment only if reminded explicitly of grades and/or negative consequences
Somewhat external	Specific actions regulated internally, but without reflection or connection to personal needs	Student completes assignment independently, but only because of fear of shaming self or guilt
Somewhat internal	Actions recognized as important or valuable as a means to a more valued goal	Student completes school work independently, but only because of its value in gaining college admission
Very internal	Actions adopted as integral to self-concept and major personal values	Student completes school work independently because being well educated is part of self-concept
"Pure" intrinsic	Actions practiced solely because they are enjoyable and valued for their own sake	Student enjoys every topic, concept, and assignment, and completes work solely because of enjoyment

🎯 Realistic teaching goal

• The teacher's job is not to expect purely intrinsic motivation from students all the time.
• Instead: arrange and encourage motivations that are as intrinsic as possible.
• To do this, support students' basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

🛠️ Classroom strategies to support basic needs

🛠️ Supporting autonomy in learners

• Give students choices wherever possible:
  • Choices about major issues (e.g., whom to choose as partners for a major group project) encourage the greatest feelings of self-control.
  • Choices about minor issues (e.g., how to organize your desk, what folder to use) also encourage some feeling of self-control.
  • Offer choices to all students, including those needing explicit directions; avoid reserving choices only for the best students.
• Minimize external rewards and comparisons:
  • Minimize external rewards like grades.
  • Minimize comparisons among students' performance.
• Orient to students' expressed goals and interests:
  • Example: In teaching about climate change, explore which aspects have already come to students' attention and aroused their concern—not to find out "who knows the most," but to build intrinsic motivations.
  • Any degree of attention to students' individuality and any degree of choice will support autonomy.

🛠️ Supporting the need for competence

• Select activities that are challenging but achievable with reasonable effort and assistance.
• Emphasize activities requiring active response:
  • Select projects, experiments, discussions that require students to do more than simply listen.
  • Expect active responses in all interactions (e.g., ask questions calling for "divergent" or multiple/elaborated answers).
  • Example: Ask "What are some ways we could find out more about our community?" instead of "Tell me the three best ways to find out about our community."
• Respond and give feedback as immediately as possible:
  • Return tests and term papers with comments sooner rather than later.
  • Include your own ideas in discussions while still encouraging students' input.
  • Provide convenient ways for students to consult authoritative sources (you, a teaching assistant, a reading, a computer program) during small group and independent activities.
• Devise tasks with a "natural" solution or ending point:
  • Example: Assembling a jigsaw puzzle of the community, or creating a jigsaw puzzle of the community (if students need a greater challenge).

🛠️ Supporting the need to relate to others

• Arrange activities in which students work together in ways that are mutually supportive, recognize students' diversity, and minimize competition.
• Use "rich group work": deliberately arrange projects requiring a variety of talents.
  • Example: In studying medieval society in small groups, one student contributes drawing skills, another writing skills, another dramatic skills—resulting in a multi-faceted presentation (written, visual, oral).
• Use the jigsaw classroom (two phases):
  • Phase 1: Groups of "experts" work together to find information on a specialized topic.
  • Phase 2: Expert groups split up and reform into "generalist" groups containing one representative from each former expert group.
  • Example: In studying animals of Africa, each expert group focuses on a different category (mammals, birds, reptiles); then generalist groups pool information from the experts for a well-rounded view.
• Develop your own relationships with class members:
  • Demonstrate caring and interest in students not just as students, but as people.
  • Behave as if good relationships are not only possible but ready to develop or already developing.
  • Speak of "we" and "us" rather than "you students."
  • Present cooperative activities and assignments without apology, as if they are in the best interests of "us all" in the classroom, yourself included.

⚖️ Limitations and cautions

⚖️ Lingering questions about self-determination theory

• Does providing choices improve learning or just satisfaction?
  • There is evidence supporting both possibilities.
  • Classroom experience likely supports both as well.
• Can you overdo attention to students' needs?
  • Too many choices can make anyone (not just students) frustrated and dissatisfied with the choice actually made.
  • Differentiating activities to students' competence levels may be impractical if students are functioning at extremely diverse levels within a single class.
  • Differentiating may be inappropriate if it holds a teacher back from covering key curriculum objectives which students need and which at least some students are able to learn.

⚖️ Practical reality of the classroom

• Why teachers cannot meet all students' needs perfectly at all times:
  • Sheer number of students makes it impossible to attend to every student perfectly.
  • Teachers' responsibility for a curriculum can require creating expectations that sometimes conflict with students' autonomy or make them feel (temporarily) less than fully competent.
  • Students' personal histories (divorce, poverty, etc.) may create needs beyond the power of teachers to remedy.
• Result: students usually experience only a partial perception of self-determination, and therefore a simultaneous mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
• Recommendation: These concerns are serious but not serious enough to give up offering choices or to stop differentiating instruction altogether.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Motivation arises from the multiplicative combination of students' expectation of success and the value they assign to a task, meaning both must be present for motivation to occur.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• The expectancy-value formula: motivation = expectancy × value; both factors must be at least modestly positive, or motivation drops to zero.
• What creates expectancy: student goals and self-efficacy determine whether students expect to succeed.
• What creates value: personal interests and feelings of self-determination make students care about a task.
• Common confusion: expectancy and value are multiplicative, not additive—high expectancy alone or high value alone cannot produce motivation if the other is zero.
• How teachers respond: raise low expectations by adjusting task difficulty; raise low value by linking tasks to students' interests, future goals, and respected others.

🔢 The expectancy-value model

🔢 The multiplicative relationship

Expectancy × value = motivation

• The relationship is multiplicative, not additive.
• Both expectancy (expectation of success) and value (how much the student cares) must be present.
• If either factor is zero, motivation becomes zero—no matter how high the other factor is.

🚫 Why zero kills motivation

• High expectancy, zero value: you believe you can succeed, but you don't care about the task at all → no motivation.
  • Example: A student is confident they can complete a worksheet but sees it as pointless busywork.
• High value, zero expectancy: you care deeply about the task, but you have no hope of succeeding → no motivation.
  • Example: A student wants to master a skill but believes it is completely beyond their ability.

🔍 Don't confuse additive vs multiplicative

• An additive model would allow one factor to compensate for the other (e.g., very high value could make up for low expectancy).
• The multiplicative model in the excerpt means both must be at least modestly present; compensation is not possible if one is zero.

🎯 What builds expectancy

🎯 Goals and self-efficacy

• Expectancy is the result of various factors, but especially:
  • The goals a student holds.
  • The student's self-efficacy (belief in their own ability).
• Example: A student with mastery goals (focused on learning) and strong self-efficacy for a task will hold high expectations for success—"almost by definition."

📏 How teachers raise low expectations

• Adjust task difficulty so success becomes a reasonable prospect.
• Tasks must be neither too hard nor too easy.
• Strategies include:
  • Selecting reasonable objectives.
  • Adjusting objectives based on experience.
  • Finding supportive materials.
  • Providing help when needed.

💎 What builds value

💎 Interests and self-determination

• Value is the result of various factors, but especially:
  • Students' interests (lasting personal interest in a task or topic).
  • Feelings of self-determination (being allowed to choose freely).
• Example: A student who has a lasting personal interest in a topic and is allowed to choose it freely is especially likely to value the task—and therefore feel motivated.

🔗 How teachers raise low value

• Link the task to students' personal interests and prior knowledge.
• Show the utility of the task to students' future goals.
• Show that the task is valuable to other people whom students respect.
• These strategies differ from those for raising expectations; they focus on meaning and relevance rather than difficulty.

🎓 The TARGET model

🎓 Overview of TARGET

• Developed by Carole Ames (1990, 1992).
• Integrates many ideas about motivation into six elements.
• Acronym stands for: Task, Authority, Recognition, Grouping, Evaluating, Time.
• Each element contributes to students' motivation either directly or indirectly.

📋 Task

• Students experience tasks in terms of:
  • Value: importance, interest, usefulness/utility, and cost (effort and time).
  • Expectation of success: perception of difficulty.
  • Authenticity: how much the task relates to real-life experiences.
• Optimal difficulty: middling level is best.
  • Too easy → seems trivial (not valuable or meaningful).
  • Too hard → seems unlikely to succeed (useless).
• Authenticity builds on students' interests and goals, making tasks more meaningful and motivating.

🗝️ Autonomy (Authority)

• Motivation is enhanced if students feel a degree of autonomy or responsibility.
• Autonomy strengthens self-efficacy and self-determination.
• Teachers can enhance autonomy by:
  • Offering students choices about assignments.
  • Encouraging them to take initiative about their own learning.

🏆 Recognition

• Teachers can support motivation by recognizing achievements appropriately.
• How recognition is done matters: the excerpt notes that praise sometimes undermines performance.
• General, lacking-in-detail praise is not especially effective.

⚠️ Limitations and concerns

⚠️ Questions about self-determination theory

• The excerpt mentions lingering questions about self-determination theory (which emphasizes autonomy, competence, and relatedness).
• Does providing choices improve learning or just satisfaction?
  • Evidence supports both possibilities.
• Can you overdo attention to students' needs?
  • Too many choices can frustrate anyone and lead to dissatisfaction with the choice actually made.
  • Differentiating activities to competence levels may be impractical if students function at extremely diverse levels.
  • Differentiating may be inappropriate if it prevents covering key curriculum objectives that students need and some can learn.

🤔 Balancing concerns

• These are serious concerns, but the excerpt's authors believe they are "not serious enough to give up offering choices to students or to stop differentiating instruction altogether."
• Practical, workable ways for offering choices and recognizing diversity are described elsewhere (Chapter 7, "Classroom management and the learning environment").

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

The TARGET model integrates six key elements—Task, Authority, Recognition, Grouping, Evaluating, and Time—that together shape student motivation by addressing both expectations of success and the value students assign to learning tasks.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Motivation requires both expectancy and value: students must both expect success and value the task; if either is zero, motivation disappears (multiplicative, not additive).
• TARGET provides six levers: Task design, Autonomy, Recognition, Grouping structures, Evaluation methods, and Time flexibility all influence motivation directly or indirectly.
• Common confusion—cooperative vs. competitive grouping: cooperative learning supports belonging and motivation, but competitive structures shift focus from learning to external judgment ("What will the teacher think?").
• Optimal task difficulty is middling: too easy feels trivial (low value), too hard feels impossible (low expectancy); both extremes undermine motivation.
• Flexibility in time matters: students vary in how long they need to learn, and accommodating these differences sustains motivation despite the constraints of school schedules.

🔢 The multiplicative nature of motivation

🔢 Expectancy × Value, not Expectancy + Value

Motivation is not additive: a person must have at least a modest expectation of success and assign a task at least some positive value.

• If you assign a task zero value, even high expectancy of success yields zero motivation.
• If you assign zero expectancy of success, even high value yields zero motivation.
• This multiplicative relationship means both factors must be present for motivation to exist.

Example: A student confident they can complete a worksheet (high expectancy) but who sees it as pointless busywork (zero value) will not feel motivated. Likewise, a student who values learning a musical instrument (high value) but believes they have no talent (zero expectancy) will also lack motivation.

🎯 What shapes expectancy

• Goals held by the student: mastery goals (focus on learning itself) tend to raise expectations.
• Self-efficacy: belief in one's capability to carry out or master a task—discussed earlier in the chapter—strongly influences expectancy.
• A student with mastery goals and strong self-efficacy is "almost by definition" likely to hold high expectations for success.

💎 What shapes value

• Personal interests: lasting interest in a task or topic increases its value.
• Self-determination: being allowed to choose freely makes the task more valuable.
• A student with personal interest and freedom to choose is especially likely to value the task and feel motivated.

🛠️ Teacher responses to low expectancy or low value

• Raising low expectations: adjust task difficulty so success becomes reasonable—neither too hard nor too easy; requires thoughtful planning, reasonable objectives, supportive materials, and timely help.
• Raising low value: link the task to students' personal interests and prior knowledge; show its utility for future goals; demonstrate that others the student respects value the task.

🎯 The TARGET model framework

🎯 What TARGET stands for

Developed by Carole Ames (1990, 1992), TARGET is an acronym for six elements that contribute to effective motivation:

Element	Focus
Task	Design and characteristics of learning activities
Authority (Autonomy)	Student control and responsibility
Recognition	How achievements are acknowledged
Grouping	How students are organized for work
Evaluating	How student efforts are assessed
Time	Flexibility in time allocation

Each element contributes to students' motivation either directly or indirectly.

📋 Task design and authenticity

📋 Three dimensions of task experience

Students experience tasks in terms of:

1. Value (importance, interest, usefulness/utility, and cost in effort and time)
2. Expectation of success (perception of difficulty)
3. Authenticity (relation to real-life experiences)

🎚️ Optimal difficulty level

• Middling difficulty is best: not too easy, not too hard.
• Too easy → the task seems trivial, not valuable or meaningful.
• Too hard → the task seems unlikely to succeed, therefore useless.
• This directly affects expectancy of success.

🌍 Authenticity builds motivation

Authenticity: how much a task relates to real-life experiences of students.

• The more a task connects to real life, the more it can build on students' interests and goals.
• Greater authenticity makes the task more meaningful and motivating.

Example: A math problem about calculating grocery discounts (authentic) is more motivating than abstract number exercises with no context.

🎛️ Autonomy and recognition

🎛️ Autonomy strengthens motivation

• Autonomy = students feeling a degree of control or responsibility for a learning task.
• Strengthens self-efficacy and self-determination (both discussed earlier in the chapter).
• Teachers can enhance autonomy by:
  • Offering choices about assignments
  • Encouraging students to take initiative in their own learning

🏆 Recognition must be done carefully

Teachers can support motivation by recognizing achievements, but how this is done matters greatly.

Praise is not especially effective when:

• It is very general and lacks detailed reasons
• It is for qualities students cannot influence (e.g., intelligence instead of effort)
• It is offered so widely that it loses meaning or signals substandard performance

Don't confuse: general praise with specific, effort-focused recognition. The excerpt notes that "praise sometimes undermines performance"—paradoxical effects explained by self-determination and self-efficacy theory.

👥 Grouping structures and their effects

👥 Three types of grouping

Type	Description	Grading approach
Cooperative	Students work together toward a common goal	Often receive a common grade or part of a grade
Competitive	Students work individually; performance is ranked	Grades reflect comparisons among students ("graded on a curve")
Individualistic	Students work alone	Grades are unrelated to classmates' performance

Example of cooperative learning: A group producing a presentation together for the class.

🤝 Cooperative learning tends to be most effective

• Research comparing the three forms tends to favor cooperative learning groups.
• Cooperative structures support students' need for belonging—a key idea in self-determination theory (discussed earlier).

⚖️ Trade-offs in cooperative learning

Cooperative learning has double-edged effects:

• ✅ Students are encouraged to help their group mates
• ⚠️ Students may rely excessively on others' efforts
• ⚠️ Students may ignore each other's contributions and overspecialize their own

Practical implication: Some compromise between cooperative and individualistic structures seems to create optimal motivation for learning.

📊 Evaluation methods and time flexibility

📊 How evaluation focus affects motivation

• Competitive structures (comparing students) can distract from learning itself.
• The question shifts from "What am I learning?" to "What will the teacher think about my performance?"
• Students focus on how they appear to external authorities rather than on the material.

Don't confuse: evaluation of learning (focus on the material) with evaluation for external judgment (focus on appearance/ranking).

⏱️ Time: accommodating individual differences

Students vary in the amount of time needed to learn almost any material or task.

Why time flexibility matters:

• Accommodating differences is challenging but important for maximizing motivation.
• School days are filled with interruptions and fixed intervals for non-academic activities, making flexibility difficult.

Strategies for flexibility:

• Create larger blocks of time for important activities (e.g., writing an essay)
• Arrange enrichment activities for some students while others receive extra attention on core tasks

Practical note: The excerpt acknowledges constraints but emphasizes that "a degree of flexibility is usually possible."

🧩 Integrating multiple perspectives on motivation

🧩 No single source of motivation

The excerpt emphasizes that academic motivation has no single source—teachers motivate students best when they assume motivation is complex.

🎨 An eclectic approach is recommended

• Different situations call for different motivational perspectives.
• Sometimes focusing on behavior is necessary and sufficient.
• Other times, encouraging beliefs about task accomplishment is important.
• Still other times, providing for underlying needs (competence, social connection) is key.

Advice to teachers:

• You may find one perspective more personally compatible, but keep other approaches in reserve.
• Experiment with less-favored approaches.
• An eclectic approach will enrich teaching and students' motivation and learning the most.

🔑 The single lesson from motivation concepts

If there is a single lesson from the concepts about motivation outlined in this chapter, it is this: academic motivation has no single source, and teachers motivate students the best when they assume motivation is complex.

The chapter concludes by noting that the next chapters will explore how to realize this "broad-mindedness" in practice—first in preparing activities and classes, then in actually teaching them.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Classroom management is essential because it orchestrates entire learning activities for all students to learn productively, not merely correcting individual misbehaviors, and teachers face ongoing challenges from simultaneous diverse needs, unpredictability, varied student perceptions, and the non-voluntary nature of schooling.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What management really means: orchestrating entire sets of learning activities so everyone learns productively, not just disciplining individuals.
• Why it's challenging: many things happen simultaneously, events are unpredictable, students perceive teacher actions differently than intended, and schooling is compulsory (not all students want to be there).
• Common confusion: "classroom management" vs "positive learning environment"—the former often refers to individual behavior/learning, the latter to the overall class "feel."
• Prevention is key: the easiest problems to solve are ones that never happen—arrange space, establish procedures, and communicate learning's importance before issues arise.
• Why it matters for all teachers: even experienced teachers face management as a major, ongoing responsibility because of classroom complexity.

🎯 What classroom management actually is

🎯 Beyond discipline

Classroom management: orchestrating or coordinating entire sets or sequences of learning activities so that everyone, misbehaving or not, learns as easily and productively as possible.

• It is not just correcting misbehaviors of individuals.
• It is not just discipline.
• It is about the totality of activities and people in a classroom, plus their goals and expectations about learning.
• Example: Even if no one is misbehaving, a teacher still needs to manage who gets what help, when, and how to keep everyone learning.

🌱 Positive learning environment

Positive learning environment: the creation of conditions that call attention to the totality of activities and people in a classroom, as well as to their goals and expectations about learning.

• Educators use this term to emphasize the whole-class perspective.
• The excerpt notes the terms are used "almost interchangeably," but with a subtle distinction:
  • "Management" → more often refers to individual students' behavior and learning.
  • "Learning environment" → more often means the overall "feel" of the class as a whole.
• Don't confuse: these are overlapping concepts, not opposites; the difference is emphasis (individual vs. whole-class).

🔥 Why management is challenging for all teachers

🔥 Simultaneous diversity

• A lot goes on at once, even when students seem to do one common task.
• Example: Twenty-five students work on math problems, but:
  • Several are stuck on different problems for different reasons.
  • A few have done only one or two problems and are now chatting.
  • Others have finished and wonder what to do next.
• At any moment, each student needs something different—different information, hints, or encouragement.
• Diversity increases even more if the teacher assigns multiple activities to different groups or individuals.

⚡ Unpredictability

• A teacher cannot predict everything that will happen in class.
• Possible surprises:
  • A well-planned lesson falls flat or takes less time than expected → improvising to fill time.
  • An unplanned moment becomes a wonderful exchange → dropping previous plans to follow the flow.
  • Interruptions: fire drills, drop-in visits, intercom calls from the office.
  • An activity turns out well but differently than intended → deciding how to adjust the next day's lesson.

👁️ Varied student perceptions

• Students form opinions and perceptions about teaching that are inconsistent with the teacher's own.
• Example scenarios from the excerpt:
  • Teacher intends encouragement for a shy student → the student perceives it as "forced participation."
  • An eager classmate watching the same interaction → perceives the teacher as overlooking or ignoring other students who already want to participate.
• The variety of perceptions can lead to surprises in students' responses—most often small, but occasionally major.

🏫 Compulsory schooling context

• Public schooling is not voluntary.
• Students' presence in a classroom is not a sign, in and of itself, that they wish to learn.
• Instead, presence is just a sign that an opportunity exists for teachers to motivate students to learn.
• Student attitudes vary:
  • Some enjoy learning and being in school almost regardless of what teachers do.
  • Others enjoy school only because teachers have worked hard to make classroom life pleasant and interesting.
  • Those students become motivated because the teacher has successfully created a positive learning environment and sustained it through skillful management.

🛡️ Preventing problems by focusing on learning

🛡️ Prevention principle

• The easiest management problems to solve are ones that do not happen in the first place.
• Before the school year begins, minimize behavior problems by arranging classroom furniture and materials to encourage a focus on learning.
• Once school begins, establish procedures and rules that support a focus on learning even more.

🪑 Arranging classroom space

• Classrooms may seem similar, but important alternative arrangements exist because of:
  • Grade level
  • Subjects taught
  • Teacher's philosophy of education
  • Size of the room and available furniture
• Core principle: Whatever arrangement you choose should help students focus on learning tasks as much as possible and minimize chances of distractions.
• Beyond this, the "best" arrangement depends on what your students need and the kind of teaching you prefer and feel able to provide.

🖼️ Displays and wall space

Aspect	Consideration	Recommendation
Too many displays	Can make a room seem "busy" or distracting, physically smaller, and more work to maintain	Decorate some wall/bulletin board space, but not all immediately
Too few displays	Room may lack interest and miss opportunities to reinforce curriculum goals and recognize students' work	Use displays to make room interesting and support learning
Starting a new year	Flexibility is valuable as ideas and curriculum needs emerge	Leave some space open; don't fill everything on day one
High-maintenance displays	Aquariums, pets, plants serve wonderfully as learning aids but add to workload	Don't have to be in place on the first day; both students and teacher may already have enough to cope with

💻 Computers in the classroom

• The excerpt notes that the majority of teachers have only one computer in the room, or at most just a few.
• Placement may be pre-determined by the location of power (the excerpt cuts off here, so no further details are provided).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teachers can prevent most classroom management problems by proactively arranging space, establishing clear procedures and rules, and pacing lessons to keep students focused on learning rather than reacting to disruptions after they occur.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Prevention over reaction: The easiest management problems to solve are ones that never happen; focus on creating conditions that sustain student engagement before issues arise.
• Space matters: Classroom furniture and wall arrangements should minimize distractions, allow visibility of all students, and support the type of instruction you plan to use.
• Procedures vs. rules: Procedures are practical conventions for coordinating tasks (like taking attendance), while rules express behavioral standards requiring personal responsibility (like treating others politely).
• Common confusion: Don't confuse procedures with rules—procedures are about efficiency and can be done multiple ways with similar outcomes; rules are about ethical responsibility and respect.
• Appropriate difficulty: Tasks should be moderately challenging (neither boring nor frustrating) and sequenced from easier to harder to maintain student engagement.

🏫 Why management challenges exist

🏫 The fundamental challenge

• Public schooling is not voluntary—students' physical presence does not automatically mean they want to learn.
• Student presence only signals that an opportunity exists for teachers to motivate learning.
• Some students enjoy learning regardless of what teachers do; others enjoy school only because teachers work hard to make it pleasant and interesting.

🎯 The teacher's role

• Motivation must be earned through creating a positive learning environment.
• Success comes from skillful management that sustains student commitment over time.
• The excerpt emphasizes that teachers can earn this commitment from many students through specific methods.

🪑 Arranging classroom space

🪑 Core principle

Classroom arrangement should help students focus on learning tasks as much as possible and minimize chances of distractions.

• The "best" arrangement depends on what students need and the kind of teaching you prefer and can provide.
• Classrooms may seem similar but have important variations based on grade level, subjects taught, teacher philosophy, room size, and available furniture.

🖼️ Displays and wall space

Balance is key:

• Ample displays make a room interesting, reinforce curriculum goals, and publicly recognize student work.
• Too many displays make a room seem "busy," distracting, and physically smaller; they also require more maintenance.

Strategy for new school years:

• Decorate some wall/bulletin board space initially, but leave some open.
• Open space provides flexibility to respond to ideas and needs that emerge after the year starts.
• High-maintenance displays (aquariums, pets, plants) can be wonderful learning aids but don't need to be in place on day one—both students and teacher may already have enough to cope with.

💻 Computer placement

• Most teachers have only one computer or just a few in their room.
• Placement may be pre-determined by power and cable outlet locations.
• Think about computer placement early in the setup process.
• Once computers are positioned, other moveable items (desks, shelves) can be placed more sensibly to minimize distractions and traffic congestion.

👀 Visibility and interaction

• Furniture and space should allow you to see all students and interact with them from a comfortable distance.
• The main central part of the room (where desks/tables are) needs to be as open and spacious as possible.
• Challenge: This can be difficult in small or unusually shaped rooms.
• Trade-off in kindergarten: Open spaces allow/invite physical movement, which may be constructive or annoying depending on your goals and the actual activity level.

🎓 Grade-level and subject-specific arrangements

Factor	Consideration	Example
Elementary	Where students keep daily belongings	Coats, lunches (may or may not be outside classroom)
Small-group subjects	Tables vs. rows	ESL, art, shop courses benefit from tables
Whole-group instruction	Rows vs. tables	Rows make listening to teacher more likely; tables make peer work easier

Key decision point:

• The amount of small-group interaction you want vs. the amount of whole-group instruction.
• Tables make working with peers easier; rows make listening to the teacher more likely and group work slightly more awkward physically.

🚶 "Floating" teachers

Some teachers don't have their own classroom and must move among other teachers' rooms daily.

Who floats:

• Specialized teachers (e.g., music teachers in elementary schools)
• Teachers in schools with classroom shortages

Advantages:

• No responsibility for how other teachers' rooms are arranged

Key strategies:

• Use a permanent cart to move crucial supplies
• Ensure every room has an overhead projector (don't count on chalkboards or computers)
• Talk to other teachers about having at least one shelf or corner designated for your exclusive use

📋 Establishing procedures and routines

📋 What procedures are

Procedures or routines are specific ways of doing common, repeated classroom tasks or activities.

Examples:

• Checking daily attendance
• Dealing with late-arriving students
• Granting permission to leave the classroom
• Turning in homework (e.g., putting it on a designated shelf at a particular time)
• Gaining teacher's attention during quiet work (e.g., raising hand and waiting)
• Starting "free choice" activities after completing assignments

🔧 Purpose and nature

• Purpose: Make activities and tasks flow smoothly—valuable in classrooms where many people's actions must be coordinated within limited time and space.
• Nature: More like social conventions than moral expectations; only indirectly about what is ethically right or desirable.
• Flexibility: Most procedures can be accomplished in more than one way with only minor differences in outcomes.

Example: Taking attendance can be done by teacher calling the role, delegating a student to call it, or noting presence on a seating chart—each accomplishes essentially the same task.

🗣️ Two approaches to establishing procedures

Approach	Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Teacher announces	Simply announce and explain key procedures without much student discussion	Saves time; ensures consistency across multiple classes	More responsibility on teacher to choose reasonable, practical procedures
Student input	Invite students to help create procedures	Helps students become aware of and committed to procedures	Requires more time; risks creating confusion if different classes adopt different procedures

Don't confuse: The choice of approach is less important than the fact that the class coordinates its actions somehow by committing to some choice.

🏛️ School-wide constraints

• Whatever approach you choose must take into account procedures or rules imposed by the school or district.
• Example: A school may have a uniform policy about recording daily attendance that determines how you take attendance with your particular students.

📜 Establishing classroom rules

📜 What rules are

Rules express standards of behavior for which individual students need to take responsibility.

How rules differ from procedures:

• Rules are about encouraging students to be responsible for learning and showing respect for each other.
• While they sometimes help ensure efficiency (like procedures), they're really about personal responsibility.

✅ Characteristics of effective rules

Sample set of classroom rules:

• Treat others with courtesy and politeness
• Make sure to bring required materials to class and activities
• Be on time for class and other activities
• Listen to the teacher and to others when they are speaking
• Follow all school rules

Three important features:

1. Not numerous: Keep the number minimal to make them easier to remember (the sample lists only five).

2. Stated positively: Use "Do X…" rather than "Do not do Y…" to emphasize and clarify what students should do rather than what to avoid.

3. General coverage: Each rule covers a collection of more specific behaviors.

   • Example: "Bring all materials to class" covers pencils, paper, textbooks, homework papers, permission slips—depending on the situation.

🤔 Ambiguity and interpretation

• Because of their generality, rules often have a degree of ambiguity requiring interpretation.
• Infractions may be marginal or "in a grey area" rather than clear-cut.
• Example: A student brings a pen, but it doesn't work properly—is this really a failure to follow the rule, or just an unfortunate fault of the pen manufacturer?

🗳️ Who plans the rules

Arguments similar to procedures:

• Rules "laid on" by teacher may be more efficient and consistent (more fair in this sense).
• Rules influenced by students may be supported more fully by students.

Key difference:

• Because rules focus strongly on personal responsibility, there's a stronger case for involving students in making them than in making procedures.

Mixed approach is possible:

• Impose certain rules (e.g., "Always be polite to each other")
• Let students determine consequences for violations (e.g., "If discourteous, must apologize in writing")
• Some mixture is probably inevitable—must account for teacher's moral commitments and school-imposed rules (e.g., "No smoking," "Always walk in hallways")

🎯 Pacing and structuring lessons

🎯 Prevention through smooth flow

One of the best ways to prevent management problems is by pacing and structuring lessons or activities as smoothly and continuously as possible.

Three major strategies:

1. Selecting tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty
2. Providing moderate structure/clarity about what students should do, especially during transitions
3. Keeping alert to the flow and interplay of behaviors for the class as a whole and for individuals

📊 Choosing appropriate difficulty

The sweet spot:

• Students are most likely to engage when tasks are of moderate difficulty—neither too easy nor too hard.
• Too easy = boring; too hard = frustrating.
• Research confirms what experienced teachers know.

Challenges:

• Little experience teaching a particular grade level or curriculum
• Students are new and their abilities unknown
• Class members have diverse skills and readiness

🪜 Sequencing strategy

Common approach:

1. Begin units/lessons/projects with tasks that are relatively easy and familiar
2. Introduce more difficult material or tasks gradually
3. Continue until students seem challenged but not overwhelmed

Benefits:

• Gives teacher a chance to observe and diagnose learning needs before adjusting content
• Gives students a chance to orient themselves to teacher's expectations, teaching style, and topic without premature frustration
• Later in a unit, students seem better able to deal with more difficult tasks

Applies to authentic learning:

• Works even with real-world activities (driving, cooking) that present complex tasks simultaneously
• Isolate and focus on simplest subtasks first (e.g., "put key in ignition")
• Move to harder tasks later (e.g., parallel parking)

🎨 Differentiation challenge

• Sequencing is only a partial solution—doesn't deal with enduring individual differences among students.
• Fundamental challenge: Individualize or differentiate instruction fully—tailor it not only to the class as a group but to lasting differences among members.

One approach:

• Plan different content or activities for different students or groups
• Example: One group works on relatively easy math problems while another works on harder ones
• This complicates a teacher's job but can be done and makes teaching more interesting
• The excerpt notes that the next chapter describes classroom management strategies that help with such multi-tasking

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Responding to student misbehavior requires balancing immediate action to prevent the ripple effect with choosing appropriate strategies—from ignoring minor issues to using natural consequences and conflict resolution—that focus on repairing relationships rather than imposing punishment.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• The ripple effect: misbehaviors left unaddressed can spread from one student to several, making prompt responses important.
• Range of responses: strategies vary from ignoring minor, infrequent issues to using nonverbal cues, natural/logical consequences, and conflict resolution for persistent problems.
• Natural vs logical consequences: natural consequences happen automatically; logical consequences are imposed by others but have a clear connection to the misbehavior.
• Common confusion: consequences vs punishments—consequences focus on future solutions and repairing relationships, while punishments focus on past mistakes and blame.
• When strategies fail: effectiveness depends on the student's motives (e.g., seeking attention vs seeking power) and whether the behavior is serious enough to warrant more active intervention.

🌊 The ripple effect and timing

🌊 Why immediate response matters

The ripple effect: the tendency for misbehaviors left alone to spread to other students.

• Chatting between two students can gradually spread to six students; rudeness by one can become rudeness by several.
• Delaying a response makes getting students back on track harder than responding immediately.
• The challenge shifts from long-term planning to making appropriate but prompt responses.

⏱️ When to act vs when to wait

• Not all misbehaviors deserve a response; the decision depends on importance, frequency, and whether others are disrupted.
• Responding too quickly can cause more disruption than the original behavior.
• The excerpt emphasizes balancing the risk of contagion against the cost of interrupting activities.

🤫 Low-intensity responses

🤫 Ignoring misbehaviors

When ignoring works:

• The behavior is not important or frequent enough to deserve a response.
• The behavior is likely to disappear (extinguish) if left alone.
• The behavior does not bother others or disrupt the class.

Example: A usually quiet student whispers to a neighbor once in a while—responding may be more disruptive than ignoring.

Example: A student frequently sharpens her pencil during quiet seat-work times, but no one else notices—it may not be a real problem.

The challenge of ambiguity:

• Students may whisper more than "rarely" but less than "often"—when is it too frequent?
• A behavior may bother a few students but not most—how many bothered classmates are "too many"?
• In these cases, more active responses may be needed.

👁️ Gesturing nonverbally

When nonverbal cues are appropriate:

• The misbehavior is a bit too serious or frequent to ignore.
• But not serious enough to merit taking time to speak to the student.

How it works:

• Use gestures, eye contact, or body language with little or no speaking.
• Example: If two students are chatting off-task, a glance, frown, or moving closer may remind them to get back on task.
• Even if not fully effective, nonverbal cues can help prevent the behavior from spreading.

Risks and limitations:

• Students may not notice the cues if they are engrossed in their activity.
• Students may not interpret the cue correctly.
• More likely to fail with young children (still learning adults' nonverbal language), students with limited English, or students from different cultural backgrounds (who may have learned different nonverbal gestures).

⚖️ Natural and logical consequences

⚖️ What consequences are

Consequences: the outcomes or results of an action.

Natural consequences: outcomes that happen "naturally," without deliberate intention by anyone.

Logical consequences: outcomes that happen because of the responses or decisions by others, but that have an obvious or "logical" relationship to the original action.

Examples:

• Natural: If a student is late for class, they miss information needed to do an assignment.
• Logical: If one student steals another's lunch, the thief reimburses the victim for the cost.
• Often woven together: If one student picks a fight, natural consequences include injury to both parties; logical consequences include losing friends.

✅ When consequences work

Key features for effectiveness:

1. The consequences are appropriate to the misbehavior.
2. The student understands the connection between the consequences and the original behavior.

Examples of success:

• A student who runs impulsively down hallways has "traffic accidents" and sees that running is not safe, reducing the frequency.
• A student who talks during class instead of working must make up the assignment later (possibly as homework), seeing the drawback of talking and reducing it on subsequent occasions.

❌ Limitations of consequences

Three main problems:

1. Severity mismatch: Some misbehaviors are so serious that no natural or logical consequence seems sufficient.

   • Example: One student deliberately breaks another's eyeglasses—there is a natural consequence for the victim (cannot see easily) but not for the aggressor; the aggressor cannot repair the glasses or may not be able to pay for new ones.

2. Student motives matter: Success depends on what the student is trying to achieve.

   • If seeking attention or acceptance: consequences often work well (e.g., bullying to impress others will lose friends, so it is self-limiting).
   • If seeking power over others: consequences may not reduce the behavior (e.g., bullying to control others achieves its own goal; losing friends is irrelevant).
   • Students may act from a combination of motives, so consequences may only partially limit behavior.

3. Confusion with punishment: Consequences can easily be confused with deliberate punishment, but the difference is important.

🔄 Consequences vs punishments

Don't confuse these two approaches:

Aspect	Consequences	Punishments
Time focus	Focused on future solutions	Focused on past mistakes
Target	Focused on individual's actions	Focused on character of student
Goal	Focused on repairing mistakes	Focused on establishing blame
Relationships	Focused on restoring positive relationships	Focused on isolating wrong-doer
Emotional impact	Tend to reduce emotional pain and conflict	Tend to impose emotional pain or conflict

Classroom examples:

• Student fails to listen to instructions:
  • Consequence: Student misses important information.
  • Punishment: Teacher criticizes or reprimands the student.
• Student speaks rudely to teacher:
  • Consequence: Teacher does not respond to the comment, or simply reminds the student to speak courteously.
  • Punishment: Teacher scolds the student in the presence of others or imposes a detention ("Stay after school for 15 minutes").

Key distinction:

• Consequences are solution-focused and aim to repair damage and restore relationships (future-oriented).
• Punishments highlight mistakes or wrongdoing and often shame or humiliate the wrongdoer (past-oriented).

🤝 Conflict resolution for persistent problems

🤝 When to use conflict resolution

• Needed when a student misbehaves persistently and disruptively.
• Requires strategies that are more active and assertive than ignoring, nonverbal cues, or simple consequences.
• Focuses on reducing disagreements that persist over time.

🛠️ Two-part structure

Conflict resolution strategies used by educators typically have two parts:

1. Identifying the problem: Ways of clarifying what "the" problem is precisely.
2. Reminding of expectations: Reminding the student of classroom expectations and rules with simple clarity and assertiveness, but without apology or harshness.

Benefits when used together:

• Reduce conflicts between teacher and individual student.
• Provide a model for other students to follow when they have disagreements of their own.

🔍 Step 1: Clarifying and focusing

• The excerpt mentions "problem ownership" as part of clarifying and focusing.
• This step involves identifying what the problem is precisely.
• (The excerpt ends before fully explaining this step.)

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Classroom management is not an end in itself but a means to create an environment where learning happens and students are motivated, and teachers must keep this purpose firmly in mind even when handling problem behaviors.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core purpose: Management serves learning, not the other way around—telling a student to be quiet is only desirable when it enables learning.
• Context matters: What counts as appropriate behavior changes with the activity (e.g., silence is not always appropriate during free choice or group work).
• Two main messages: Management issues are important and complex, but strategies exist to reduce or eliminate problems.
• Common confusion: Losing sight of the ultimate goal—amidst the stress of handling misbehavior, teachers risk treating compliance as the goal rather than as a tool for learning.
• Forward link: The next chapter moves from setting the stage for learning to planning directly for students' learning.

🎯 The ultimate purpose of management

🎯 Management as a means, not an end

Classroom management should serve students' learning, and not the other way around.

• The excerpt emphasizes this as an "underlying assumption" that must be kept "firmly in mind."
• Management is about creating a classroom "where learning happens and students are motivated."
• It is never about control for its own sake.

🚫 Don't confuse compliance with the goal

• Example: Telling a student to be quiet is never a goal in itself.
• It is desirable only because (or when) it allows:
  • All students to hear the teacher's instructions or classmates' comments
  • Students to concentrate on their work
• Risk: "Amidst the stresses of handling a problem behavior, there is a risk of losing sight of this idea."
• The excerpt warns that teachers can mistakenly treat the behavior correction as the objective rather than the learning it enables.

🔄 Context-dependent appropriateness

🔄 When silence is not appropriate

• The excerpt explicitly notes that keeping quiet is not always appropriate.
• Examples of when silence is inappropriate:
  • During "free choice" time in an elementary classroom
  • During group work tasks in a middle school classroom
• Key insight: The same behavior (talking vs. silence) can be appropriate or inappropriate depending on the activity structure.
• Teachers must judge management actions based on whether they support the learning activity at hand.

📚 Two primary messages

📚 Complexity and seriousness

• Management issues are:
  • Important
  • Complex
  • Deserving of serious attention
• This acknowledges the real challenges teachers face.

🛠️ Strategies exist

• The chapter has explained strategies that "can reduce, if not eliminate, management problems when and if they occur."
• These include:
  • Strategies intended to prevent problems
  • Strategies intended to remedy problems
• The excerpt reassures teachers that effective approaches are available.

🔗 Connection to learning

🔗 Setting the stage vs. direct planning

• This chapter has focused on "set[ting] the stage for learning."
• The next chapter will discuss "ways to plan directly for students' learning."
• This distinction shows management as the foundation that makes instructional planning effective.

🧭 Keeping perspective

• The excerpt urges teachers to maintain perspective: "As teachers, we need to keep this perspective firmly in mind."
• The perspective is that all management decisions should be evaluated by whether they serve learning.
• This principle should guide choices even in stressful moments when a quick behavioral response feels urgent.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Classroom communication is uniquely complex because it simultaneously serves three purposes—content, procedures, and behavior control—often in overlapping, fast-paced interactions involving many people at once.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What makes classrooms different: communication serves a unique combination of three purposes at once (content, procedures, and behavior control), unlike most other group situations.
• The complexity challenge: classroom events often happen as overlapping interactions and disruptions rather than orderly one-on-one exchanges, even when things are going well.
• Three functions of talk: content talk (what is being learned), procedural talk (administrative rules and routines), and control talk (preventing or correcting misbehavior).
• Common confusion: the same remark can combine two or more functions—a content question may also be an attempt to control behavior—which can lead to misunderstandings between students and teachers.
• Teacher roles: teachers must play multiple roles simultaneously (Master of Ceremonies, referee, source of knowledge) and sort them out appropriately.

🎭 The complexity of classroom communication

🎭 Why classrooms are uniquely challenging

Classroom communication differs from other familiar situations because:

• Events do not happen at an even pace or in logical order.
• Interactions are not simply teacher-to-one-student while others wait patiently.
• Instead, communication resembles "a kaleidoscope of overlapping interactions, disruptions, and decisions"—even when activities are generally going well.

🔄 A typical scenario

The excerpt describes a realistic classroom moment to illustrate the complexity:

• One student finishes a task while another is only halfway done.
• A third student appears to be reading but may be daydreaming.
• The teacher begins addressing the daydreaming student but is interrupted by a fourth student with a question.
• While answering, a fifth student arrives with a message from the office requiring a response.
• Meanwhile, the first student (who finished early) begins telling a joke to a sixth student.
• A seventh student raises a hand with a question.
• The teacher must decide: "Should I speak to the bored reader, the joke-teller, or move on with the lesson?"

This illustrates that teachers face continual talk supplemented by nonverbal communication (gestures, facial expressions, body language), often involving many people at once who must take turns or sometimes ignore conversations that don't concern them.

🎯 Managing the complexity

The excerpt suggests understanding and becoming comfortable with key features of classroom communication:

• The functions or purposes of communication (content, procedures, behavior control).
• The nature of nonverbal communication (how it supplements or contradicts verbal communication).
• Unwritten expectations about how to participate in particular class activities (structure of participation).

💬 Three functions of classroom talk

📚 Content talk

Content talk focuses on what is being learned; it happens when a teacher or student states or asks about an idea or concept, or when someone explains or elaborates on some bit of new knowledge.

• Usually relates to the curriculum or current learning objectives.
• Example: A high school history teacher says, "As the text explains, there were several major causes of the American Civil War."
• Can also digress from current objectives.
• Example: A first-grade student unexpectedly brings a caterpillar to school and asks about how it transforms into a butterfly.

📋 Procedural talk

Procedural talk is about administrative rules or routines needed to accomplish tasks in a classroom.

• Provides information students need to coordinate activities in a crowded space under tight time schedules.
• Keeps activities organized and flowing smoothly.
• Example: "When you are done with your spelling books, put them in the bins at the side of the room."
• Example: A student asks, "Do you want us to print our names at the top of the page?"
• Not primarily about correcting unwanted behavior, though procedures might sometimes annoy students or be forgotten.
• Instead, it provides guidance for coordination among students and with the teacher.

🛑 Control talk

Control talk is about preventing or correcting misbehaviors when they occur, particularly when the misbehaviors are not because of ignorance of procedures.

• Example: "Jill, you were talking when you should have been listening."
• Example: "Jason, you need to work on your math instead of doodling."
• Most control talk originates with the teacher, but students sometimes use it with each other.
• Example: One student may say "Shhh!" to a whispering classmate.
• Example: A student responds to teasing by saying "Stop it!"
• May not always be fully effective, but its purpose is to influence or control inappropriate behavior.
• Don't confuse with procedural talk: procedural talk is about coordination and guidance, not correcting misbehavior.

🔀 When functions overlap

🔀 Double functions create ambiguity

What makes classroom discourse confusing is that content and procedures often become combined with control talk in the same remark or interaction.

Example	Apparent function	Hidden function	Result
"Jeremy, what did you think of the film we just saw?"	Content (asking about the film)	Control (ending Jeremy's daydreaming, getting him back on task)	Ambiguous intent
"When one person is talking, others need to be listening."	Procedural (coordinating classroom dialogue)	Control (addressing inattentive behavior)	Mixed message

⚠️ Potential for misunderstanding

• Students may hear only the content or procedural function of a teacher's comment.
• They may miss an implied request or command to change inappropriate behavior.
• This ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings between certain students and teachers.

✅ Benefits of double functions

Despite the potential for confusion, double functions can help lessons flow smoothly by:

• Minimizing the disruption of attending to a minor behavior problem.
• Allowing more continuous attention to content or procedures.

🎪 Teacher roles in classroom communication

🎪 Multiple simultaneous roles

As a teacher, you play an assortment of roles when communicating in classrooms:

• Master of Ceremonies: orchestrating the flow of activities.
• Referee: managing interactions and resolving conflicts.
• Source of new knowledge: delivering content and explanations.

🎯 The challenge

Your challenge is to sort these roles out so that you are playing the right ones in the right combinations at the right times.

🌟 Moving toward effective communication

As you learn to manage these roles, the excerpt suggests your communication will acquire qualities recommended by Franklin Roosevelt (quoted at the chapter opening):

• Sincere: genuine and authentic.
• Brief: concise and to the point.
• Minimizing power differences: reducing hierarchical barriers between you and students (Roosevelt's advice to "be seated" is interpreted as suggesting that conversation and dialogue improve by reducing power differences).

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Effective classroom communication requires combining verbal and nonverbal behaviors appropriately, matching students' expectations about eye contact, wait time, and social distance to avoid misunderstandings and support learning.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three functions of classroom talk: content (subject matter), procedures (how to do tasks), and control (managing behavior)—often combined in the same remark.
• Verbal vs nonverbal: words convey explicit messages, but gestures and behaviors (eye contact, wait time, social distance) also communicate and can support or contradict verbal messages.
• Unintended communication: students may hear messages the teacher did not intend to send, especially when content/procedural talk is mixed with control talk.
• Common confusion: different cultural groups use opposite patterns of eye contact and wait time; what feels respectful to one person may seem rude or hesitant to another.
• Why it matters: matching students' nonverbal preferences increases participation, comfort, and understanding; mismatches lead to misinterpretation of motivations and rapport problems.

💬 Three functions of classroom talk

💬 Content talk

Content talk: communication about subject matter or academic ideas.

• Happens when a teacher explains a concept, asks a question about the lesson, or writes information on the board.
• Students also engage in content talk during inquiry learning (formulating and investigating problems) and cooperative learning (explaining ideas to peers).
• Example: A teacher says, "Today we'll learn about fractions," or a student asks, "Why does the denominator stay the same when we add?"

📋 Procedural talk

Procedural talk: communication about how to complete tasks or coordinate classroom activities.

• Includes creating routines for daily tasks, announcing transitions between activities, and providing clear instructions.
• Example: "When one person is talking, others need to be listening" (a rule that coordinates dialogue).
• Helps lessons flow smoothly by clarifying how activities should proceed.

🛑 Control talk

Control talk: communication intended to influence or manage inappropriate behavior.

• Originates mostly from the teacher but sometimes from students to each other.
• Example: A teacher says, "Jill, you were talking when you should have been listening," or a student whispers "Shhh!" to a classmate.
• May not always be fully effective, but its purpose is to redirect behavior.

🔀 Double functions and ambiguity

• The problem: content, procedural, and control talk often combine in the same remark.
• Example: A teacher asks, "Jeremy, what did you think of the film we just saw?" The question appears to be about content, but may also be control talk to end Jeremy's daydreaming.
• Risk: students may hear only the content or procedural function and miss the implied request to change behavior, leading to misunderstandings.
• Benefit: double functions can minimize disruption by addressing minor behavior problems without stopping the lesson.

🗣️ Verbal, nonverbal, and unintended communication

🗣️ Verbal communication

Verbal communication: a message or information expressed in words, either orally or in writing.

• Classrooms rely heavily on explicit, verbal communication because diversity increases the chance of misinterpretation.
• Accounts for the characteristically businesslike style of teacher talk.
• Example: A teacher explains a math concept aloud or writes instructions on the board.

🤝 Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communications: gestures or behaviors that convey information, often simultaneously with spoken words.

• Happens when a teacher looks directly at students to emphasize a point, raises eyebrows to show disapproval, or uses a twinkle in the eye to confirm enthusiasm.
• Nonverbal behaviors are just as plentiful as verbal messages.
• Can support or contradict: A teacher says, "This math lesson will be fun," and a twinkle confirms it—but a simultaneous sigh or slouch sends the opposite message.

⚠️ Unintended communication

Unintended communications: the excess meanings of utterances; messages received by students without the teacher's awareness or desire.

• Example: A teacher says, "This section of the text won't be on the test, but read it anyway for background." A student may instead hear, "Do not read this section."
• What is heard is not what the teacher intended.
• Why it happens: differences in background affect how people structure and interpret conversation.

👁️ Eye contact patterns

👁️ How eye contact works

Eye contact: the extent and timing of when a speaker looks directly at the eyes of the listener.

• Between friends of equal status (native English speakers): listeners look directly at the speaker; speakers avert their gaze. Re-engaging eye contact signals the speaker is about to finish and invites a response.
• Between authority and subordinate (e.g., teacher and student): the person in authority gazes directly at the listener almost continuously, whether listening or speaking.
• Research suggests eye contact may help anyone remember what they are seeing and hearing.

🔄 Cultural differences in eye contact

• Some non-white ethnic groups use the opposite pattern: they look more intently when talking and avert gaze when listening.
• The problem: if two partners use opposite patterns, one may interpret a direct gaze as an invitation to start talking when it really means "stop talking," leading to interruptions or awkward gaps.
• Example: A teacher may wrongly conclude a student is socially inept (interrupts too much) or very shy (long gaps), when the real issue is mismatched expectations.
• Don't confuse: continuous eye contact is not universally "better"—it depends on both parties' expectations.

🪑 How to observe preferred patterns

• Note students' gaze patterns when they are free to look wherever they please.
• Sitting in rows makes students more likely to look only at the teacher or at nothing; other arrangements (clusters, circles) encourage freer eye contact and more comfortable communication.

⏱️ Wait time

⏱️ What wait time is

Wait time: the pause between conversational turns; marks when a turn begins or ends.

• If a teacher asks a question, wait time allows and prompts students to formulate a response.
• Studies show most classroom wait times are less than one second—too short for most students to think beyond simple, automatic facts.

📈 Effects of longer wait time

• Increasing wait time to several seconds has desirable effects:
  • Students give longer, more elaborate responses.
  • They express more complex ideas.
  • A wider range of students participate in discussion.
• Learning to wait longer takes conscious effort and may feel uncomfortable at first (a trick: count silently to five before calling on anyone).

🌍 Individual and cultural differences

• Girls tend to prefer longer wait times than boys—may contribute to impressions that girls are shy or boys are impulsive.
• Some ethnic and cultural groups prefer much longer wait times, especially when English is a second language; what feels like a respectful pause to the student may seem like hesitation or resistance to the teacher.
• Other groups prefer overlapping comments (negative wait time)—beginning at the same instant or before the previous speaker finishes, signaling lively interest. A teacher used to a one-second gap may regard this as rude interruption.
• Don't confuse: longer wait times are often preferable, but not always—match wait time to students' preferences, whether slower or faster than the teacher's norm.

📏 Social distance

📏 What social distance indicates

Social distance: the physical space or distance between two people when they interact; often indicates how intimate or personal their relationship is.

• Also affects how people describe others: someone who is more distant physically is described in more general, abstract terms than someone who approaches closely.

📐 Typical distances in white American society

Relationship type	Preferred distance	Example
Personal friend (face-to-face)	~0.5–1 meter	Closer if turned sideways (e.g., elevator); closest reserved for intimate friendships
Businesslike (e.g., teacher with one student or small group)	~1–3 meters	Teacher talking with a student
Formal (e.g., teacher addressing entire class)	More than 3 meters	Teacher speaks to whole class

🔄 Mismatched distance preferences

• The problem: if two people expect different distances for the same kind of relationship, one can seem pushy or overly familiar, while the other seems aloof or "distant."
• Example: A student who prefers shorter social distance than the teacher may be perceived as intrusive; the teacher may be perceived as unfriendly.
• Advice: be aware that individuals differ; adjust distance to match students' comfort levels when possible.

📊 Strategies for effective communication

📚 Effective content talk by teachers

Strategy	Definition	How it helps communication
Using advance organizers	Statements or ideas that give a concise overview of new material	Orients students' attention; assists understanding and remembering
Relating new material to prior knowledge	Explicit connections of new ideas to existing knowledge	Makes new material more meaningful; facilitates discussion
Elaborating and extending new information	Explanations in full, complete terms	Avoids ambiguities and misunderstandings
Organizing new information	Providing and following a clear structure	Assists understanding and remembering

👥 Effective content talk by students

Strategy	Definition	How it helps communication
Inquiry learning	Students pursue problems they help formulate	To investigate a problem, students must express clearly what they wish to find out
Cooperative learning	Students work in small groups to solve a common problem or task	To work together, students must explain ideas and questions clearly to peers

🛠️ Effective procedural and control talk

Procedural talk strategy	Control talk strategy
Creating and discussing procedures for daily routines	Creating and discussing classroom rules of appropriate behavior
Announcing transitions between activities	Clarifying problem ownership
Providing clear instructions and guidance for activities	Listening actively and empathetically
Reminding students periodically of procedures	Using I-messages

• Note: the difference between procedural and content talk is somewhat arbitrary; in many situations one kind serves the needs of the other.
• These strategies are also described as methods of classroom management and creating a positive learning environment.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Nonverbal behaviors like eye contact, wait time, and social distance powerfully shape classroom communication, and mismatches between teacher and student expectations in these areas can lead to misunderstandings that harm rapport and participation.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Why nonverbal matters: gestures and behaviors convey information automatically, often supporting words but sometimes contradicting them.
• Three key nonverbal channels: eye contact (when and how long people look at each other), wait time (pauses between conversational turns), and social distance (physical space between people).
• Cultural and individual variation: different groups and individuals have different expectations for eye contact patterns, wait time length, and preferred distance.
• Common confusion: what feels like appropriate eye contact, wait time, or distance to one person may feel intrusive, rude, or distant to another—the problem is mismatched expectations, not the behavior itself.
• Teacher strategy: observe students' naturally occurring preferences in informal settings and match them as closely as possible to improve communication comfort and participation.

👁️ Eye contact patterns

👁️ What eye contact signals

Eye contact: the extent and timing of when a speaker looks directly at the eyes of the listener.

• Eye contact is not just "looking at someone"; it is about when you look (while speaking vs. while listening) and how long.
• The excerpt emphasizes that eye contact follows different rules depending on the relationship and cultural background.
• Research suggests eye contact may help people remember what they are seeing and hearing.

🔄 Two main patterns

Equal-status pattern (typical among white English speakers):

• Look directly at the speaker when listening.
• Avert gaze when speaking.
• Re-engaging eye contact signals the speaker is about to finish and invites a response.

Authority pattern (teacher-student):

• The person in authority gazes directly at the listener almost continuously, whether listening or speaking.
• This signals greater status.

🌍 Cultural variations

• Some non-white ethnic groups reverse the conventional pattern: they look more intently when talking and avert gaze when listening.
• The alternative pattern works perfectly well as long as both parties expect and use it.
• Don't confuse: the problem is not which pattern is "correct"—it is when two people use opposite patterns.

⚠️ What happens when patterns mismatch

Mismatch scenario	What the teacher may wrongly conclude	What actually happened
Student looks away when teacher expects eye contact	Student is shy or lacks language skill	Student is following a different cultural pattern (looking away = listening)
Student looks intently and interrupts often	Student is socially inept or rude	Student interprets direct gaze as invitation to talk (their pattern: gaze = talking turn)
Student talks too long at each turn	Student is self-centered	Student misreads teacher's looking away as "keep listening" instead of "start talking"

Example: A teacher using the authority pattern gazes continuously at a student. The student, following a reversed cultural pattern, interprets the teacher's direct gaze while the student is speaking as "the teacher wants me to stop talking," so the student stops abruptly. The teacher thinks the student is hesitant or uncertain.

🪑 How to observe natural preferences

• Traditional seats-in-a-row arrangements do not work well; research confirms sitting in rows makes students more likely to look only at the teacher or at nothing in particular.
• Almost any other seating arrangement (clusters, circles) encourages freer patterns of eye contact.
• More comfortable eye contact makes verbal communication more comfortable and productive.

⏱️ Wait time dynamics

⏱️ What wait time is

Wait time: the pause between conversational turns.

• Wait time marks when a conversational turn begins or ends.
• It both allows and prompts students to formulate an appropriate response.
• The excerpt treats wait time as a nonverbal behavior because it is about silence and timing, not words.

📏 Typical wait times and their problems

• Studies show wait times in most classes are remarkably short—less than one second.
• Wait times this short actually interfere with most students' thinking.
• In one second, most students either cannot decide what to say or can only recall a simple, automatic fact.

✅ Benefits of longer wait times

Increasing wait times to several seconds has several desirable effects:

• Students give longer, more elaborate responses.
• Students express more complex ideas.
• A wider range of students participate in discussion.

Challenge for teachers:

• Learning to increase wait time takes conscious effort and may feel uncomfortable at first.
• A trick: count silently to five before calling on anyone.
• After a few weeks of practice, discomfort usually subsides and academic benefits become more evident.

🌐 Individual and group differences

Group	Typical preference	Possible misinterpretation
Girls (general trend, many exceptions)	Longer wait times than boys	Girls seem unnecessarily shy; boys seem self-centered or impulsive
Some ethnic/cultural groups, especially ESL students	Much longer wait time than typically available	What feels like respectful pause to student seems like hesitation or resistance to teacher
Other cultural groups	Overlapping comments (negative wait time)	Teacher regards overlaps as rude interruptions; teacher has trouble getting chances to speak

• Negative wait time: one conversational partner begins at exactly the same instant as the previous speaker, or even before the speaker has finished.
• This is meant to signal lively interest in the conversation, not rudeness.

🎯 Best practice

• Match wait time to students' preferences as closely as possible, regardless of whether these are slower or faster than what the teacher normally prefers.
• To the extent that teacher and students can match each other's pace, they will communicate more comfortably and fully.
• A larger proportion of students will participate in discussions and activities.
• Observe students' preferred wait times in situations that give students freedom about when and how to participate (open-ended discussions, informal conversations).

📏 Social distance and intimacy

📏 What social distance indicates

Social distance: the physical space or distance between people when they interact.

• Social distance often indicates how intimate or personal the relationship is.
• Social distance also affects how people describe others and their actions: someone who is habitually more distant physically is apt to be described in more general, abstract terms than someone who often approaches more closely.

📐 Typical distances in white American society

Distance range	Typical relationship	Notes
Approximately 0.5 to 1 meter	Personal friend, face-to-face	Closer end more common if individuals turn sideways (e.g., elevator); closest distances reserved for truly intimate friendships (e.g., spouses)
Approximately 1 to 3 meters	Businesslike relationship	Common for teacher talking with a student or small group
More than 3 meters	Formal interactions	Typical when teacher speaks to entire class

⚠️ Problems from mismatched expectations

• A student who prefers a shorter social distance than her partner can seem pushy or overly familiar to the partner.
• The partner, in turn, can seem aloof or unfriendly—literally "distant."
• The sources of these effects are easy to overlook since by definition the partners never discuss social distance verbally, but they are real.

🎯 Teacher remedy

• Observe students' naturally occurring preferences as closely as possible.
• Respect them as much as possible:
  • Students who need to be closer should be allowed to be closer, at least within reasonable limits.
  • Those who need to be more distant should be allowed to be more distant.

🔑 Overarching principle

🔑 Why observation matters

All three nonverbal channels (eye contact, wait time, social distance) share a common challenge:

• Individuals and cultural groups differ in their expectations.
• The differences are rarely discussed verbally.
• Mismatches lead to misunderstandings that can deteriorate rapport and reduce participation.

🔑 The solution

• Observe students' naturally occurring preferences in informal, free-choice settings.
• Match those preferences as closely as possible.
• Don't assume your own cultural or personal norms are universal or "correct."
• When teacher and students can align their nonverbal expectations, communication becomes more comfortable, productive, and inclusive.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Different classroom participation structures—lecture, question-and-answer, discussion, and group work—each shape how teachers and students communicate, creating trade-offs between teacher control, student engagement, and coverage of material.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What participation structures are: patterns of rights and responsibilities that guide who speaks, when, and how during classroom activities, often learned implicitly by watching others.
• Four common structures: lecture (teacher talks, students listen), question-and-answer (teacher asks, students give brief correct answers), discussion (teacher poses topic, students comment and respond to each other), and group work (small teams implement assigned tasks).
• Each structure has trade-offs: lectures cover material efficiently but limit student voice; discussions increase engagement but reduce teacher control over content; group work fosters collaboration but creates uneven participation and noise.
• Common confusion: more student freedom to speak does not automatically mean better communication—discussion and group work can lead to dominance by some students, others not listening, or failure to cover key concepts.
• The medium contradicts the message: a lecture praising active learning delivered passively, or a discussion that silences hesitant students, sends unintended messages about what learning really means.

🎭 What participation structures are

🎭 Definition and how they work

Participation structure: a set of rights and responsibilities expected from students and teacher during an activity.

• These patterns guide communication in ways class members learn to expect, often without reminders.
• Sometimes teachers announce the rules explicitly; often they are just implied by actions, and students learn by watching others.
• Example: In a lecture, students are responsible for listening and raising hands to speak briefly; the teacher has the right to talk at length but must keep talk relevant and comprehensible.

🔍 Implicit learning

• Students do not need to be told the rules every time—they pick them up from observing how the activity unfolds.
• The structure itself becomes a kind of message about how, when, and with whom to interact.
• Don't confuse: participation structures are not just "classroom management rules"; they shape the very nature of communication and thinking.

📚 The four common structures

📖 Lecture

Feature	Description
Teacher role	Talks at length; responsible for relevance and clarity
Student role	Listen; maybe take notes; raise hand for brief, relevant comments if called on
Communication flow	One-way: teacher to students

• In principle, many structures are possible, but a handful account for most class activities.
• Lecture is efficient for covering material quickly.

❓ Question-and-answer (recitation)

Feature	Description
Teacher role	Asks a series of questions; calls on students one at a time
Student role	Raise hands to be recognized; give brief, "correct" answers
Communication flow	Two-way exchanges between teacher and one student at a time

• Formerly called "recitation."
• Students are expected to respond accurately and concisely.

💬 Discussion

Feature	Description
Teacher role	Briefly describes a topic or problem; invites comments
Student role	Say something relevant; respond to previous speakers if possible
Communication flow	Multi-directional, but teacher initiates and frames the topic

• Students have more freedom to speak than in question-and-answer.
• The focus can shift away from the teacher's original intent.

👥 Group work

Feature	Description
Teacher role	Assigns a general task; may check progress but not necessarily
Student role	Work out implementation details in small teams
Communication flow	Peer-to-peer within groups; teacher as facilitator

• Also called "collaborative group work."
• Students carry out projects, make observations, report results, and write common reports.

🔄 Trade-offs across structures: a 20-year teaching case

🎓 The context

• One instructor (Kelvin) taught the same topic—children's play—in a university course for future teachers over twenty years.
• His goals remained constant: to stimulate students' thinking about the nature and purposes of play.
• He tried all four participation structures in sequence, and students' communication changed each time.

📖 Lecture: efficiency vs. passivity

What worked:

• Covered material efficiently (about 20 minutes).
• Defined and explained all key terms clearly.
• Related the topic to other course material and students' interests.
• Students were mostly quiet and courteous.

What didn't work:

• Only about one-third took notes; the rest had to rely on memory.
• Few students lingered after class to ask questions.
• Few chose the topic for term papers.
• On exams, few could relate concepts to their own teaching experiences.
• The contradiction: The lecture praised action, intrinsic motivation, and self-choice, but the format required passive sitting and following the teacher's intellectual path.
• Physical layout (desks facing forward) reinforced the message that learning means looking only at the lecturer.
• To some students, the format might have implied learning is like daydreaming—both require sitting quietly with little expression.

Example: A lecture about active play delivered to silent, motionless students sends the unintended message that learning itself is passive.

❓ Question-and-answer: assessment vs. control

What worked:

• Gave indications of whether students were listening and understanding.
• Served both to motivate listening and to assess knowledge.
• This form of communication is very popular with many teachers.

What didn't work:

• Took longer to cover the topic, forcing the instructor to leave out some points.
• Students often did not listen to each other's responses—only to the teacher.
• Interactions became two-way exchanges (teacher asks, one student responds, teacher acknowledges) that could have happened without classmates present.
• Students still had little control over the course of discussion.
• The deeper problem: By asking most questions and allowing only brief responses, the teacher might have been trying to control students' thought processes—to ensure they thought about the topic in the "right" way, his way.

Don't confuse: Asking questions does not automatically mean students are thinking freely; it can be a way of tightly controlling the direction of thought.

💬 Discussion: engagement vs. coverage

What worked:

• Easier to see whether students cared about the topic.
• More students seemed motivated to think and learn; quite a few selected the topic for term projects.
• Students spoke more freely than before.

What didn't work:

• Certain students spoke more than their share, preventing hesitant students from speaking.
• Some students did not listen to others—just waited for their turn to speak, hands permanently in the air.
• Others hoped not to speak and spent time doodling or staring out the window.
• Loss of control over content: Discussions often did not cover all the ideas the instructor considered important.
  • Example: The instructor meant to discuss whether play is always intrinsically motivated, but students instead talked about whether play can teach every subject area. The shift was not bad in itself, but raised questions about adequate coverage.

Common confusion: More freedom to speak does not guarantee better listening or more equitable participation.

👥 Group work: collaboration vs. uneven participation

The approach:

• Small teams carried out projects on aspects of children's play that interested them.
• Made observations of children at play.
• Reported results to the class and wrote a common report.
• The instructor hoped a common focus would improve communication: students would deal with tasks at hand, listen to each other, and no one could dominate or fall silent.

What worked:

• With encouragement, students listened to each other more than before.
• They diversified tasks and responsibilities within groups.
• They seemed to learn from each other while preparing projects.
• Participation reached an all-time high in twenty years of teaching.

What didn't work:

• Some groups were much more productive than others, related to ease of communication within groups.
• Dominance: In some groups, one or two people dominated conversations, seemed to forget others' input, and implemented only their own ideas.
• Independence: In other groups, members worked hard but did not share ideas or news about progress—essentially worked independently despite belonging to a group.
• Practical problem: When all groups planned at the same time, the volume of sound got so high that even simple conversation became difficult, let alone expressing subtle or complex ideas.

Don't confuse: Assigning group work does not guarantee collaboration; students can dominate, work in parallel, or simply not hear each other.

🗣️ Communication styles: registers

🗣️ What a register is

Register: a pattern of vocabulary, grammar, and expressions or comments that people associate with a social role.

• Teachers and students have identifiable styles of talking to each other that linguists call a register.
• Example: "baby-talk" register used to speak to an infant—simple repeated words and nonsense syllables.
• The excerpt introduces the concept but does not elaborate further on classroom registers.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teachers and students use identifiable speech patterns called registers that simultaneously mark their roles, guide classroom activities, and influence learning effectiveness.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• What a register is: a pattern of vocabulary, grammar, and expressions associated with a social role (like teacher or student).
• Teacher talk strategies: nominating speakers, marking importance, signaling boundaries, asking test questions, and using formal language to control discourse and focus attention.
• Student talk strategies: agenda enforcement, digression attempts, side talk, calling out, silence, and non-verbal cues to indirectly influence classroom activities.
• Common confusion: classroom registers vs. outside-school communication—the same people speak very differently in and out of the classroom setting.
• Why it matters: understanding how classroom talk operates helps improve communication effectiveness and, consequently, student learning and thinking.

🎭 What classroom registers are

🎭 Definition and function

A register is a pattern of vocabulary, grammar, and expressions or comments that people associate with a social role.

• Not just "how people talk," but specifically how language marks who plays which role (teacher vs. student).
• The register helps indicate social positions: who has authority, who responds, who controls the flow.
• Example: "baby-talk" register uses simple repeated words and exaggerated pitch to mark the speaker as adult and listener as infant; classroom register works the same way.

🔍 How to recognize the classroom register

• Most people in society can identify classroom talk when they hear it, even without seeing the speakers.
• Example from the excerpt: Person A uses procedural talk ("I want your eyes up here"), introduces curriculum ("long division"), and controls who speaks ("I only call on people who raise their hands") → clearly the teacher. Persons B, C, D, E only respond to questions and say little individually → clearly students.
• The register is used more in some situations than others, but common enough to be widely recognizable.

🗣️ How teachers talk

🎯 Controlling discourse flow

Teachers use several strategies that simultaneously influence discussion, focus attention, and ensure appropriate behavior:

Strategy	What it does	Example from excerpt
Nominating/terminating/interrupting speakers	Teacher chooses who speaks and when to end turns	"Jose, what do you think about X?" / "Thanks; we need to move on now."
Marking importance or irrelevance	Highlights key ideas or dismisses less relevant ones	"That's a good idea, Lyla." / "Your right, but that's not quite the answer I was looking for."
Signaling boundaries	Declares when activities start and end	"We need to move on. Put away your spelling and find your math books."
Asking test questions and evaluating	Asks questions with known answers, then judges responses	Teacher: "How much is 6 x 7?" Student: "42." Teacher: "That's right."

💡 Why marking importance matters beyond content

• Marking importance reinforces key content, but also serves social functions.
• The excerpt notes that deliberately highlighting ideas from quiet or shy students can build their confidence and status among classmates.
• Don't confuse: marking importance is not just about curriculum—it's also a relationship-building tool.

🎵 Making speech more comprehensible

Teachers use additional features that make their talk clearer when addressing groups, while also marking them as teachers:

• Exaggerated pitch changes: "Sing-song" style reminiscent of adult-to-infant speech; especially characteristic of teachers of young students but happens at all grade levels.
• Careful enunciation: Speaking more slowly, clearly, and carefully than in casual conversation; creates a somewhat formal sound.
• Formal vocabulary and grammar: More polite and correct language with fewer slang expressions (e.g., "Please get out your materials" instead of "Get out your stuff"); creates businesslike distance and reinforces authority.

💬 How students talk

🔄 Direct influence strategies

Students have their own register with language strategies that guide content and procedures, but often pursue goals more indirectly than teachers:

• Agenda enforcement: Interrupting to remind others (especially the teacher) of agreed-on plans.

  • Example: If the teacher tells students to open to an incorrect page, a student may raise her hand to correct the teacher.
  • Limited power: does not create new activities, only returns class to previously agreed activities.

• Calling out: Speaking out of turn without being recognized.

  • May or may not be relevant to the ongoing task.
  • Can change discussion direction by influencing fellow students' thinking or triggering teacher's procedural/control talk ("Jason, it's not your turn; I only call on students who raise their hands.").

🔀 Indirect influence strategies

Students use several subtle tactics to shift classroom activities:

Strategy	What it does	Effect
Digression attempts	Asking irrelevant questions during discussion	Example: During story discussion, student asks "Mr X, when does recess begin?"
Side talk	Talking to another student for social or task purposes	Can be sociable ("Did you see that movie?") or task-related ("What page are we on?"); sometimes controls peers' behavior ("Shhh! I'm trying to listen")
Answering question with question	Responding with clarification or stalling question	Shifts discussion to safer, more familiar content ("Do you mean X?")
Silence	Saying nothing in response	Makes speaker less likely to continue current topic, more likely to seek new one

👀 Non-verbal communication

• Eye contact and gaze aversion: Looking directly at teacher vs. deliberately avoiding gaze.
• Posture: Sitting up straight vs. slouching.
• Listening is conventionally indicated by looking directly at teacher and sitting up straight or leaning slightly forward.
• Don't confuse: these behaviors depend partly on cultural expectations students bring to school, but may also represent deliberate choices—messages to teacher and classmates.
• Although these behaviors can be faked, they tend to indicate and be taken as shows of interest and acceptance.

🏫 Context: group work challenges

🤝 Benefits and problems of group work

The excerpt opens with a case study (Kelvin's university class) showing that even well-designed group work faces communication challenges:

Benefits that occurred:

• Students listened to each other more with encouragement.
• They diversified tasks and responsibilities within groups.
• They learned from each other while preparing projects.
• Participation reached an all-time high in twenty years.

Problems that persisted:

• Some groups were much more productive than others, related to ease of communication.
• In some groups, one or two people dominated conversations unduly; they seemed to forget others' input and implemented only their own ideas.
• In other groups, members worked hard but independently, not sharing ideas or progress updates despite belonging to the group.
• When all groups planned simultaneously, sound volume got so high that even simple conversation became difficult, let alone expressing subtle or complex ideas.

🔬 Broader observation

• Kelvin's experience corroborated more systematic observations of communication within classroom work groups.
• The excerpt emphasizes that differences in group productivity were related to ease of communication within groups, not just task design.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Teachers can use classroom communication strategies—such as probing understanding, extending wait time, and promoting risk-taking—to stimulate deeper student thinking and build a caring learning community.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Classroom talk as a tool: The classroom communication register constrains how teaching happens but also provides a "language" for discussing teaching and learning effectively.
• Probing understanding: Mixing instruction with conversation—combining "test" questions (teacher knows answer) with "real" questions (teacher doesn't know)—scaffolds learning and creates a zone of proximal development.
• Wait time matters: Extending wait time beyond one second gives students more time to formulate complete, precise ideas without directly telling them to say more.
• Common confusion: Risk-taking vs. evaluation anxiety—students may avoid attempting problems due to fear of negative evaluation, so focusing on process rather than outcome helps counteract hesitation.
• Building community: Promoting mutual respect, sustaining relationships, and inviting student input creates a caring classroom where diversity is expected and members assist each other.

🔍 Probing for Learner Understanding

🔍 Why probing is necessary

• Looking at the teacher and appearing to concentrate is not foolproof evidence of understanding.
• We all have experienced staring at a speaker while daydreaming, only to realize later we heard nothing.
• Active probing reveals how much students actually understand during lessons.

🗣️ Mixing instruction with conversation

The strategy involves combining two types of questions:

Question Type	Definition	Example
Test question	Teacher already knows the answer	"Which of these objects will sink and which will float?"
Real question	Teacher does not know the answer; asks about student experience	"What other things have you seen that float? Or that sink?"

• This mix scaffolds learning and creates a zone of proximal development (from Vygotsky's theory).
• It has two important features: stimulates thinking (by asking questions) and creates supportive atmosphere (by honoring personal experiences).
• The resulting warmth and challenge can be especially motivating.

📞 "Cold calling" when done respectfully

• Teachers often fear randomly calling on students without volunteers will be stressful or punitive.
• Research found students did not find it especially stressful, and spontaneous participation actually improved.
• The benefit happens when combined with gestures of respect:
  • Warning individuals ahead of class they might be called on
  • Allowing students to formulate ideas in small groups first
• Don't confuse: cold calling without respect vs. cold calling with supportive context—the latter can enhance discussion.

💬 Helping Students Articulate Ideas

💬 Checking teacher's own understanding

• The teacher repeatedly checks their understanding of students' contributions as discussion unfolds.
• Example: Student says "we all need to learn more climate change." Teacher responds: "What do you mean by 'learn more'? It's a big topic; what parts are you thinking about?"
• This invites the student to elaborate and clarify their thinking.

⏱️ Increasing wait time

Wait time: the interval between when the teacher asks a question and when the teacher expects a student to answer.

• Average wait time is only one second—longer wait times give students more time to formulate ideas.
• Benefits:
  • Students express themselves more completely and precisely
  • Indirection advantage: instead of telling a student to say more, the teacher simply waits for them to say more
• This strategy allows and invites further comment without explicit demands.

🎯 Conversational moves that promote articulation

Any communication strategy helps students become more articulate if it both allows and invites further elaboration. These moves resemble class discussion but can be used singly anytime:

• Ask the student to explain their initial idea more completely
• Rephrase a comment made by a student
• Compare the student's idea to another related idea and ask for comment
• Ask for evidence supporting the student's idea
• Ask how confident the student is in their idea
• Ask another student to comment on the first student's idea

🎲 Promoting Academic Risk-Taking and Problem-Solving

🎲 Why students avoid risks

• Problem-solving techniques (problem analysis, working backwards, analogical thinking) don't work if students won't attempt solutions in the first place.
• Students may avoid risks if they have failed at tasks in the past and are concerned about negative evaluations again.
• The solution: focus attention on the process of doing an activity rather than on its outcome or evaluation.

🌟 Strategies to encourage risk-taking

🌟 Call attention to intrinsic interest

• Where possible, remind students of the inherent satisfaction of an activity.
• Example: Writing a Japanese haiku (seventeen-syllable poem) can be satisfying in itself, regardless of evaluation.
• Casually reminding individuals of this fact helps them feel at ease and indirectly encourages better work.

🌟 Minimize grade importance

• Supports the strategy above by giving students less to worry about.
• Example message: "Don't worry too much about your grade; just do the best you can and you will come out well enough in the end."
• This frees students to experience intrinsic satisfactions.

🌟 Ensure ample time

• If students need to rush—or merely think they do—they are more likely to choose the safest, most familiar responses.
• Example: For writing an amusing childhood story, middle years students need time to consider story possibilities, then experiment with ways of expressing it.
• Example message: "Writing a good story will take time, and you may have to return to it repeatedly. So we will start working on it today, but do not expect to finish today. We'll be coming back to it several times in the next couple of weeks."

🌟 Value unusual ideas and elegant solutions

• When a student does something out of the ordinary, show enthusiasm for it.
• Examples: visually appealing drawing, well-crafted essay, different solution to a math problem than expected.
• Expressing interest and respect does more than support the specific achievement—it sends a message that in your classroom, it is safe and rewarding to find and share the unusual and elegant.

🎨 Connection to creativity and divergent thinking

• These strategies support problem-solving and creativity (discussed in Chapter 8).
• Divergent (open-ended) thinking may seem risky to some students unless explicitly encouraged.
• The strategies communicate: process matters more than product, there will be time enough to work, and the teacher values their efforts.

🤝 Promoting a Caring Community

🤝 What is a caring community

Caring community: one in which all members have a respected place, in which diversity among individuals is expected, and in which individuals assist each other with their work or activities wherever appropriate.

• Classrooms and even entire schools can be caring communities.
• Moving in this direction takes work on the part of teachers and other school staff.
• The key work involves arranging for students to work together on tasks while communicating the teacher's commitment to mutual respect.

🛠️ Strategies to encourage community

🛠️ Explicitly value mutual respect

• Tell students you value mutual respect.
• Describe some ways students can show respect for each other and school staff.
• Better yet: invite students themselves to describe how they might show respect.

🛠️ Sustain relationships over time

• Look for ways to maintain relationships among students and teachers for extended periods.
• Easier in elementary school (teacher and class together for entire year) than in middle/secondary school (many teachers, many students).
• Example: Participating in extra-curricular activities (sports teams, drama club) can provide settings where relationships develop for more than a single school year.

🛠️ Ask for student input

• Ask what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and what evaluation they consider fair.
• Although it may feel like giving up teacher responsibility, asking for input indicates respect.
• Many suggestions may need clarification or revision to become workable, especially with curriculum requirements.
• But even just asking shows respect and contributes to community.

🛠️ Encourage respectful conflict resolution

• If conflicts arise between students or between student and teacher, encourage respectful communication explicitly.
• Helpful communication strategies (from Chapter 7):
  • Identifying true problem ownership
  • Listening actively
  • Assertive (not aggressive) I-messages
  • Negotiation

🛠️ Create shared community experiences

• Find times and ways for the class to experience itself as a community.
• Any action builds community if:
  • Carried out by the group as a whole
  • Done regularly and repeatedly
  • Truly includes every member of the class
• Though this may look vague, in practice it is quite concrete.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Classroom communication serves multiple overlapping purposes—content, procedures, and behavior—through verbal, nonverbal, and unintended channels, making it more complex than communication in most other settings.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three simultaneous purposes: classroom talk serves content delivery, procedural coordination, and behavior management all at once.
• Multiple communication modes: teachers communicate not only through words but also through nonverbal cues and unintended messages.
• Participation structures shape interaction: lectures, Q&A, discussions, and group work each facilitate different speaking and listening patterns.
• Common confusion: communication is not just about interaction among class members—teaching also includes solo preparation, reflection, and professional development that don't involve classroom dialogue.
• Why it matters: understanding these complexities helps teachers use communication more effectively across all teaching tasks.

💬 Three overlapping purposes of classroom talk

💬 Content talk

• Focuses on the subject matter being taught.
• Requires strategies like advance organizers, connecting new information to prior knowledge, and organizing information for students.
• Example: A teacher explaining a concept and relating it to what students learned last week.

📋 Procedural talk

• Coordinates classroom routines and activities.
• Helps students understand what to do, when, and how.
• Example: A teacher explaining how to transition between activities or how to submit assignments.

🚦 Behavior control talk

• Manages student conduct and classroom expectations.
• Addresses inappropriate behaviors and reinforces positive ones.
• Uses management techniques to maintain a productive learning environment.

🎭 Communication modes beyond words

🎭 Verbal communication

• The spoken words teachers and students use.
• Organized into different formats: lectures, questions, discussions, group projects.
• Uses distinct language registers called "teacher talk" and "student talk."

👁️ Nonverbal communication

Key elements include:

• Eye contact: affects engagement and relationship-building.
• Wait time: the pause between speaking turns; ample wait time supports deeper thinking.
• Social distance: physical proximity affects how students respond.

🤷 Unintended communication

• Messages sent without deliberate intention.
• Students may interpret teacher actions, tone, or body language in ways the teacher did not plan.
• Don't confuse: not all communication is conscious or planned—teachers send signals even when they don't mean to.

🏗️ Participation structures

🏗️ What participation structures are

Participation structures: patterns that facilitate particular ways of speaking and listening while making other patterns less convenient or disapproved.

• They shape who speaks, when, and how.
• Different structures serve different teaching goals.

📚 Four common structures

Structure	What it facilitates	Key characteristic
Lecture	Teacher delivers content	One-way information flow
Questions-and-answers	Teacher asks, students respond	Controlled turn-taking
Classroom discussions	Multiple voices exchange ideas	More open dialogue
Group work	Students collaborate	Peer-to-peer interaction

🔄 How structures evolve

The excerpt shows how one teacher (Kelvin) evolved his approach over twenty years:

• Year one: lecture notes with bullet points.
• Year three: added questions to prompt student input during lecture.
• Year eight: shifted to discussion format with time allocations.
• Year twenty: created guidelines for collaborative group work emphasizing listening, respect, and diverse skills.

🎯 Communication beyond classroom interaction

🎯 The boundary of classroom communication

• The excerpt emphasizes that teaching involves more than just interaction among class members.
• Communication in the sense discussed applies specifically to classroom dialogue and exchange.

🔧 Other parts of teaching

Activities that don't involve classroom communication:

• Lesson preparation: planning activities without talking to students or others.
• Professional development: reading, reflecting, attending workshops or seminars.
• Skill development: may involve communication, but not the classroom-specific type discussed.

Don't confuse: classroom communication is intrinsic to interactive teaching, but teaching encompasses solo work and professional growth that happen outside classroom dialogue.