Students need not be pawns

Abstract

Richard deCharms Graduate Institute of Education Washington University St. Louis, Missouri T he trend of the times seems to be a pendulum swing back to basics, and away from the open end of the spectrum in classroom management and curriculum. My purpose is to suggest that pendulums swing in only one plane and the resulting analogy is oversimplified and hence misleading. The question is not whether students should be taught or should be allowed freedom to learn (or not learn) what they want. The question is how can student interest in learning be enhanced so that they will come to want to learn what they need to learn. This is a motivational problem. From the motivational point of view the paradox seems to be that the more the teacher pushes the more the student feels that she or he is a Pawn; the less the teacher pushes the more comfortable the student feels but the learning of basics seems to suffer. I shall propose that students who are trained to make responsible choices are not Pawns and yet readily take responsibility for their own learning of important academic skills. Further, I shall try to suggest concrete ways that teachers can develop responsibility in students. Let me start with an actual observation from an inner-city sixth grade classroom. On October 30, Ms. Edwards' class was having a science lesson. After reading a rather boring lesson on the oxygen/carbon dioxide breathing cycle, the children had formed a circle and Ms. Edwards was trying to elicit responses to questions indicating that they had understood what they had read. Raise your hand if you think you know the answer, said Ms. Edwards after the first question had resulted in simultaneous yet animated responses from several students. The lively participation soon slowed to hesitant and not very satisfactory answers to specific questions. The teacher looked dissatisfied. How could you demonstrate the importance of the oxygen cycle using what you have learned? she asked. Troy raised his hand and said, We could draw a picture. Tracey suggested writing an essay and Kimberley wanted to organize a group to act it out as in a TV talk show or news broad-