Julianne C. Turner

The Classroom Environment and Students' Reports of Avoidance Strategies in Mathematics: A Multimethod Study.

The relation between the learning environment (e.g., students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure and teachers’ instructional discourse) and students’ reported use of avoidance strategies (selfhandicapping, avoidance of help seeking) and preference to avoid novelty in mathematics was examined. Quantitative analyses indicated that students’ reports of avoidance behaviors varied significantly among classrooms. A perceived emphasis on mastery goals in the classroom was positively related to lower reports of avoidance. Qualitative analyses revealed that teachers in high-mastery/low-avoidance and low-mastery/high-avoidance classrooms used distinctively different patterns of instructional and motivational discourse. High incidence of motivational support was uniquely characteristic of high-mastery/ low-avoidance classrooms, suggesting that mastery goals may include an affective component. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are discussed.

Supporting Autonomy in the Classroom: Ways Teachers Encourage Student Decision Making and Ownership

In addition to classroom activities, teachers provide personal and instructional supports meant to facilitate the developing sense of student autonomy. In this article, we offer a way of thinking about autonomy-supportive practices that suggests that such practices can be distinguished at a featural level and that different practices may in fact have different outcomes in terms of student classroom behavior. Specifically, we propose that autonomy support can be manifested in the classroom in at least 3 distinct ways: organizational autonomy support (e.g., allowing students some decision-making role in terms of classroom management issues), procedural autonomy support (e.g., offering students choices about the use of different media to present ideas), and cognitive autonomy support (e.g., affording opportunities for students to evaluate work from a self-referent standard). We offer vignettes of teachers in their classes to illustrate our proposition that autonomy support may be carried out on several planes and may produce different outcomes. Whereas organizational autonomy support may encourage a sense of well-being and comfort with the way a classroom functions and procedural autonomy support may encourage initial engagement with learning activities, cognitive autonomy support may foster a more enduring psychological investment in deep-level thinking.

Studying and Understanding the Instructional Contexts of Classrooms: Using our Past to Forge our Future

The video survey is a promising new approach for studying classrooms and teaching across cultures. Drawing from experience in working with two cross-cultural video surveys, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its follow-up study (TIMSS-R), this article presents some of the challenges of studying classrooms across cultures and some of the ways that the video survey can deal with these challenges. The article begins by identifying some of the issues in cross-cultural research and classroom surveys that led to the creation of the video survey. Examples from the TIMSS and the TIMSS-R video studies are then used to illustrate some benefits and limitations of video surveys and to share some of the lessons that were learned about studying classrooms across cultures.

How Does Motivation Develop and Why Does It Change? Reframing Motivation Research

In this article, we argue for a change in how researchers study motivation to learn. We believe that research can provide better explanations of the origins and outcomes of behavior, and thus be more useful, if we focus on how motivation develops and why it changes. We suggest reframing motivation research in education by extending the current focus on beliefs to studying the transactions among persons engaged in specific classroom activities over time. We present one approach from developmental psychology—Rogoffs three planes—that attempts to account for this transaction. We then present examples of current motivation research to illustrate how this approach has been applied. We believe that using this framework can produce new results that are meaningful for both researchers and practitioners who want to understand and foster motivation in education.

Chapter 14 – Scaffolding Emotions in Classrooms

Publisher Summary The idea of scaffolding emotions is not new, although the focus on supporting emotions and using emotions to support other classroom goals is novel. Within instructional interactions, scaffolding is identified as temporary teacher support to achieve two interrelated goals—to provide support only as necessary, and to move from a position of shared responsibility to one in which the student takes ownership. It is this balance between teacher support and student autonomy that has linked the scaffolding metaphor to Vygotskys theoretical construct of “zone of proximal development,” defined as an interpersonal space within which a teacher provides support as needed while negotiating the gradual transfer of responsibility to students. Achieving the multiple goals of scaffolding during whole-class instruction, providing assistance only as needed, and increasing independence, means inviting students to take risks publicly. Moreover, classroom-level scaffolding requires a broad context of trust and support for every students well-being.

Motivating Mathematics Learning Changes in Teachers’ Practices and Beliefs During a Nine-Month Collaboration

The authors investigated patterns of change in three middle grade teachers’ beliefs and practices about motivation in mathematics during a yearlong professional development project with a university researcher. Four principles of motivation (and corresponding instructional strategies) were introduced in this sequence: supporting students’ competence, belongingness, autonomy, and making learning meaningful. Teachers enacted strategies in their classrooms, were observed and interviewed, and discussed and reflected on results during monthly meetings. Enactment of motivation strategies was related to changes in mathematics instruction for some teachers. Results reflect the importance of situating motivation strategies in content area instruction and providing adequate support for teacher conceptual change. The authors examine both personal and contextual explanations for changing instructional practices and the obstacles to such changes.

A Classroom Perspective on the Principle of Moderate Challenge in Mathematics.

The authors reviewed the research on challenge as a motivator, with a view toward application in mathematics classrooms. The authors conclude that traditional motivational research, with its focus on individual differences and decontextualized tasks, is not readily applicable to classrooms. They argue that a combination of challenging instruction and positive affective support is necessary for promoting motivation in mathematics classrooms. The authors describe the kinds of classroom contexts that are likely to support challenge seeking and learning in mathematics and illustrate an example of a teacher who used challenge effectively in her 7th-grade mathematics classes. Finally, the authors suggest that a focus on creating contexts that support challenge seeking offers a powerful application of this motivational tool for all learners.

Understanding Young Adolescents' Optimal Experiences in Academic Settings.

Cognitive, motivational, and affective characteristics define classroom contexts, yet flow theory (e.g., M. Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) is 1 of only a few theoretical perspectives that interrelate these characteristics. The authors adapted constructs and methods from flow theory to examine the motivational, cognitive, and affective quality of experience in elementary mathematics classrooms. Students completed experience-sampling forms following 12 class sessions, measuring all 3 aspects. Results indicated that although flow theory explains some patterns of experience, others were counter to it. In particular, individual affect was influenced by the interaction of challenge and skill. However, social affect and efficacy are more impacted by perceived skill than by challenge, and the importance of the experience is more strongly informed by the challenge.

Enhancing Students’ Engagement Report of a 3-Year Intervention With Middle School Teachers

All teachers (N = 32) at one middle school participated in a university-led intervention to improve student engagement. Teachers discussed four principles of motivation and related instructional strategies. Teachers enacted instructional strategies in their classrooms. We observed six randomly selected teachers and their students over 3 years. Analyses of the dynamic patterns of teacher-student interaction (using an application of state space grids) revealed two distinct patterns. The upward group (n = 3) showed an increase of teacher motivational support and student engagement. The stable group (n = 3) demonstrated low levels of both teacher motivational support and student engagement. Qualitative analyses of instructional differences between the two groups help explain student engagement. Implications include conceptualizing student engagement as interpersonal classroom activity and measuring change as developmental and dynamic phenomena.

Teachers' Beliefs about Student Learning and Motivation

In this chapter we focus on teachers’ beliefs about student learning and motivation and their manifestation in classroom instruction. Teachers’ beliefs appear to reflect longstanding attitudes, “common sense,” and their experiences in education rather than research-based knowledge about learning and motivation. Because teachers’ beliefs play a significant role in shaping their instructional behaviors, and thus what students learn, it is important to examine their characteristics, their content, and their expression. Specifically, we address three questions about teachers’ beliefs and student learning and motivation: (a) What are beliefs and how do they develop? (b) What beliefs do teachers appear to hold about student learning and motivation? and (c) How do teachers’ beliefs and instruction change? We illustrate some of these relationships with examples from our research on motivation and learning in mathematics classrooms. Therefore, we have chosen to focus mostly on practicing, as opposed to preservice, teachers. We conclude the chapter by emphasizing the importance of investigating the contexts of teacher beliefs, which are essential for understanding how beliefs develop, the congruencies between beliefs and practice, and the arduous process of belief change.