Chapter 4: How Children Learn (b)

More interesting topics which grabbed my attention were Dweck, Elliot, and Leggett’s two main classes of beliefs about children: entity theories and incremental theories.

I have met more incremental theorists than entity theorists. However, there are many “in betweens” who have existed throughout my years in education. Chapter 4 states that “Although most children probably fall on the continuum between the two theories and may simultaneously be incremental theorists in mathematics and entity theorists in art, the motivational factors affect their persistence, learning goals, sense of failure, and striving for success (102).” I agree with this statement and it becomes apparent to me the students who have positive motivational factors those who don’t. After reading about the entity and incremental theorists, I began to reminisce about all my students who fit such categories. I realize that incremental theorists may make me a better teacher because they are, as Chapter 4 states, the ones who seek challenges. They are the students who keep me looking for more and new ways to deliver lessons which will keep them engaged in the topic at hand. For the entity theorists that I have met, they were probably the students who I asked to encourage and assist those “incremental theorists”. Also, they were probably the ones who I comforted when they received a low “A” on a test.

I particularly find the last statement of this section so important, “Teachers can guide children to a more healthy conceptualization of their learning potential if they understand the beliefs that children bring to school (102).”

This statement reminded me of the latest movie “Freedom Writers”. If you have not already watched it, I encourage you to. (I know time is rare.) In this movie, a new teacher struggles to get her students to want to write. After witnessing several shocking events on campus and in her classroom, she realizes that she needs to approach her students differently. She later realizes that she must get to know who they are and where they come from in order to gain their trust and most especially their interest. After “understanding the beliefs” which her students brought to school, she began to reach out to them in ways that no other teacher has.

We are more motivational to our students than we think. As an English Composition teacher, journals have revealed so much about how students feel about their teachers. Their thoughts are more positive than we realize. The meanest and most demanding teacher was (as my student wrote) a favorite among one of my students. They may not tell us right after they graduate or after ten years out of high school, however, when we see how they are positively contributing to our society, I would take that as a big “thank you”. If it wasn’t for us, being those “motivational factors”, students may not be as successful as they are today.

Hats off to you! For you have one of the toughest, but most rewarding jobs in this world!