
Those who do the work do the learning. If this maxim is true, then how can we structure our classrooms so that students have the power to make important choices about their learning without creating unnecessary chaos? How can they do more of the work while still relying on us for guidance?
When students are given the opportunity to make decisions about their learning process, they are more likely to form deep connections and practice higher level thinking skills. According to Deci and Ryan, students need “autonomy, competence, and relatedness…in social contexts” in order for them to learn and achieve self-determination. Students must actively construct their learning within intentional, social contexts (qtd. in Stefanou, et al 98). Students who feel like they have some freedom over their learning are more likely to set “realistic goals, [determine] appropriate actions that accomplish goals, and [assess] progress toward the goals” whereas students who feel powerless to make their own decisions “lack volitional strategies and behaviors” (qtd. in Stefanou, et al 98).
It’s important to note that choice alone does not guarantee student motivation. Students need to have the freedom to make choices that relate to their own lives and clearly connect to their immediate goals. In their article, The Effectiveness and Relative Importance of Choice in the Classroom, motivation theorists Patall et al. explain:
…choice may only be effective when it successfully satisfies fundamental needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. As such, having choice or the act of selecting alone is not enough to support motivation. Rather, choices need to be relevant to students’ interests and goals, provide a moderate number of options of an intermediate level of complexity, and be congruent with other family and cultural values in order to effectively support motivation (898).
Because the types of choices students are presented with significantly affect their level of motivation, consider how students might contribute to the menu of choices provided in your class. Perhaps you provide 2-3 choices with an option for students to create their own proof of learning with your approval, for example.
When examining the structure of your course, how might you incorporate one or more of the following approaches in order to promote student autonomy and greater motivation? Your answer will likely be affected by your goals for the class and how you want students to transfer knowledge from your course into other contexts. Don’t feel like you need to redesign your whole course or use all of these ideas. Try out one or two to see what feels best and then make adjustments accordingly.
What is a flipped classroom? Flipped Learning moves content delivery such as lectures, readings, and other forms of information to students’ individual learning spaces so that classroom time is spent engaging with the material in more active, applied ways. Students come to class with at least an introduction to the concepts that will be used in creative ways with their peers and instructor there to support learning. This interactive class time may take the form of group work, experimentation, debate, project work, scenario analysis, in-class presentations, service-learning, problem solving, etc.
According to the Flipped Learning Network, The Four Pillars of FLIP are as follows:
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