GLASSER AND DREIKURS

CRITICALLY REFLECT ON THE THEORIES OF AT LEAST TWO PSYCHOLOGISTS AND APPLY THEIR THEORIES TO TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING STUDENT MOTIVATION

Glasser and Dreikurs provide a welcome alternative to the strict and stifling authoritarian approaches where teachers adopt a superior stance and feed students information and keep them them under control. Like their predecessor Maslow, they consider basic physical and psychological human needs and the importance of recognising student drivers which informs a more wholistic and therefore effective approach to teaching,motivating and managing students.

There is a wonderful emphasis on positivity: being a positive role model, encouraging students in their efforts recognising positive behaviours,looking for positive attributes which helps build positive relationships, allowing for freedom and choice and staying in the present.

Glasser and Dreikurs both acknowledge a student's need and desire to belong. It's the teacher's role to help each student feel as though they belong by providing a safe, comfortable environment for fun and effective learning and providing social, collaborative learning situations. Presenting interesting and challenging group projects in an optimum learning environment are basic motivational strategies.

Glasser's findings culminated in Choice Theory: if a student is given a choice on what and how to learn he will be motivated to follow his instincts and complete work that he perceives to be worth doing.

Respect and responsibility, values advocated by both Glasser and Dreikurs, definitely need to be present in a classroom for effective learning to occur.

Dreikurs considers family constellation as important background knowledge for a teacher and Glasser stresses the importance of quality relationships. Getting to know a student personally gives one more ways into the student's culture and world,.This information can be combined with different learning styles and strategies to make learning material relevant and interesting to the student which serves as a motivational force.

Awareness of a student's life beyond the classroom and subject can also help gain insight into reasons for inappropriate behaviour. Glasser and Dreikurs both say to treat incidents in the present only. Dreikurs advocates identifying where the behavour comes from (attention seeking, power, revenge or helplessness). This is not neccesarily an easy task, nor is it always appropriate to not give attention to attention seekers as they can be very disruptive. But having the intention to only give positive attention is a great maxim, as is not to engaging in power struggles.

Giving explicit instructions, having all the class decide on the rules and logical consequences (not punishments), encouraging self responsibility, independence and self evaluation are all part of Dreikur's theory. These comprise not only preventative discipline strategies but are motivational strategies as well. Dreikurs also says to avoid rewarding (intrinsic motivation should be encouraged over extrinsic) and to be a positive role model for students to follow.

Encouraging effort rather than praising an outcome, a Dreikurs method, can help motivate a student to persevere independently with enjoyment and takes the focus off competeing. Glasser goes a step further and encourages quality work.

The findings of these two psychologists provide good ideas with which to work but are not flawless and sometimes too dry for acknowledging the richness of humanity. We can give each other much more than just information (inspiration...) and we are creative beings who do much more than simply "behave".