Democratic Discipline in Learning Communities by Edwards Clifford H.;

Author:Edwards, Clifford H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education

MOTIVATION IN LEARNING COMMUNITIES

It is significant that most human needs are satisfied within a social context. Human needs cannot be fulfilled without involvement with others. This helps to explain why students tend to avoid assigned schoolwork in order to socialize with their friends. Unfortunately most schools greatly limit student social interactions during learning episodes. Not only are they not encouraged, they are generally prohibited and almost never are they considered to be a strategic component of successful learning and development.

In practice, most schooling involves teacher lectures and seat work, including answering questions at the end of a chapter or filling out worksheets, rather than conducting inquiry-based investigations, engaging in simulations, participating in discussions, learning in cooperative activities, and the like (Goodlad, 1984). Also, students are independently evaluated primarily through written examinations. These activities require a relatively quiet atmosphere, with a minimum of student-to-student interaction. The result is a lot of discipline problems as students assert themselves in seeking to satisfy their needs in unacceptable ways when more legitimate means are denied them. Little wonder that talking constitutes nearly three-quarters of all classroom disruptions (Edwards, 1975).

Youth have a compelling need to interact with each other. Within a social context they are more likely to satisfy their most earnest desires. Motivation is greatly enhanced when significant learning is correlated with interpersonal interactions. Because children need frequent, meaningful interactions with each other, teachers must create many significant learning opportunities that involve social experiences. This can be meaningfully accomplished in learning communities.

In learning communities children are able to access important learning without participating in undisciplined chitchat. The need to learn and to socialize creates very motivating environment in which increased commitment can be promoted and responsible self-discipline achieved. Students find these activities motivating because community learning satisfies most all their needs in the most accommodating ways and because these kinds of experiences are authentically valued by the group. This kind of motivation is particularly potent when students are engaged in learning projects that help them to recognize and solve problems, and when these activities help them to experience a personally gratifying social life.

In order to maximize the benefit of learning communities, students should gradually assume greater responsibility for leadership. This provides added motivation. Even though students may increasingly be given greater learning autonomy, when teachers continue in a role of initiating and assessing, students easily conclude that they are not being sufficiently empowered.

In learning communities, motivation is an integral part of the experience itself. Teachers do not have to explicitly arrange learning experiences nor provide rewards. Students’ own accomplishments supply the necessary motivation. In this configuration, students tend to acquire a liking for hard work because they see the positive results they can achieve when they do the best they can, particularly when they direct their own learning.

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