To Discipline or to Motivate?

I enjoyed edWeb's presentation "Motivating the Gifted but Reluctant Learner," finding that it had information we hadn't encountered yet in our study group and that it provided a practical analysis of the issue of student motivation.

The webinar began by characterizing what we see as discipline issues and motivation issues: this registered with me.  Those interruptions that interfere with teaching and learning, that create an unsafe environment (physically, emotionally) or that result in the destruction of property are not motivation problems; instead, they are discipline issues and must be handled with different interventions.  I also appreciated Diane Heacox's definition of key terms like underachievement, non-producer, selective producer, and underachiever.

Within Heacox's definition of underachievement is an apt observation: underachievement is a severe and persistent discrepancy between potential and performance that is not attributable to a learning difficulty.  So, firstly, teachers must be able to clearly and effectively identify a student's capabilities; only then can underachievement be recognized.  Secondly, the discrepancy must be repeated and must be severe enough to affect the student's work.  Finally, underachievement is not the result of a learning difficulty: expectations have to be tempered for those students with disabilities.  Since each student's potential is different, the point at which they can be considered underachieving is different, as well.

There were many great pearls of motivating wisdom in this presentation.  Personally, a lot of the issues I have in class can be put into the discipline category as I struggle most with classroom management.  There are situations, however, when I'm confronted with "This is too hard," "I can't do this," or "Why are we doing this?"  These statements expose issues with confidence, anxiety, and purpose that signify a motivation problem.  It seems to me that the classroom is a constant cycle of separating discipline and motivation, evaluating potential and results, and creating and implementing the most effective interventions.