Brittany Preslock Wilkes University

1. Reluctant Teachers, Reluctant Learners“The key to helping seemingly unmotivated students may be in the teacher’s hands…. Brittany Preslock Wilkes University

2. Coming from 9th grade students… • “I don’t believe that there are kids who don’t want to learn. I do believe though, that some kids have trouble learning or don’t understand what the teacher is saying or teaching.” • “I think what motivates kids to learn is different for each individual student.” • “Well, first of all, I’d address the problem in a good way and find out the reason they don’t want to learn.”

3. Who’s really reluctant? The teacher or the student? Both? • We must not only address the reluctant learner, but also the reluctant teacher. • Teachers who are reluctant will often avoid the “reluctant learner” or the student who doesn’t look, act or talk like them. • Teachers categorize those students as being “unteachable” and tend to not place high expectations on these students anymore. • To rise above this, the reluctant teacher has to practice the attitude of reaching every student, even those who flicked the off switch to school.

4. Teachers -Motivation on the Face of Difficulty • Teaching often does not match the expectations when we entered education. • New Teachers – “The job is more difficult than I was trained for.” • Second Career Teachers – “This is the hardest job I have ever had!”

5. Two ways for teachers to stay motivated… • Create a network of peers to help “crutch” you through the tough times. • Take the small and rare expressions of gratitude from students, parents and administration. “Thank you for teaching me about how I can have an impact on my world. After you taught me about global warming, I went home and turned off all the lights we weren’t using and rode my bike to the store rather than have my brother drive me in his car.” – Student

6. Cultural Competence • Culturally Competent – Experiencing a culture that is not your own and suspending judgment of that culture. • Reluctant learners can put up walls for many reasons such as problems in their families, cultural differences, language, dialect, or economic differences. This causes them to resist school and can become behavior problems. • Teachers have to bring the students’ outside world into the classroom for them to learn about life outside their own and for the teacher too.

7. More Ways for the Reluctant Teacher to Reach the Reluctant Learner • Build relationships with students. • Show you understand they have problems outside the classroom. • Listen to your students. • Ask about their lives. • Build connections with families. • Don’t just share the bad with the parents. • Call home and share the good too! • Build connections with communities. • Get reluctant learners involved in community projects like “Adopt a Highway” with science club.

8. Student Input – “Your voice, your thoughts, your concerns are important here.” • Reluctant learners need to feel that they are heard, that their stories, their voices, their questions and their contributions. • Good teachers let the voice of the student be the center of the class. • Take their interests and do projects around them to get more reaction to learning.

9. Other factors to help the reluctant learner… • Classroom Management • Self Reflection • What We Can Do

10. Landsman, J., Moore, T., Simmons, R. (2008, March). Reluctant teachers, reluctant learners. Educational Leadership, 62-66.