We can use behavioural psychology to nudge students in the right direction by making the desired action EAST: Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely. This post reviews ways we can make an action easy and offers a workshop applying these principles in the classroom.
Making it easy: a review
We can make actions easier by:
- Breaking tasks and learning into smaller steps: such as dividing an answer or a procedure into manageable components
- Helping students take the first step by making it the smallest: choosing a first question every student can answer, for example
- Changing the default so it’s the most beneficial: like asking all students to review the most common error unless they can justify a different choice
- Practising the desired actions: rehearsing new classroom routines or techniques we want students to use
- Encouraging new behaviours, rather than extinguishing undesirable ones: giving students something to do, not just something not to do
In doing so we must seek a Goldilocks balance, making desired behaviours easy, but not too easy: we can ease participation in the lesson without undermining the inherent challenges in learning.
Making it easy: a workshop
The situation below is a real classroom dilemma, slightly adapted to preserve anonymity. What should Mark do?
The situation
One of Mark’s new classes seems unwilling to work. Mark pitches activities carefully, but students neither begin tasks nor pretend to show willing. Mark does not believe it’s a problem with his teaching as such: he has taught these topics before successfully. Nor are students disruptive: it is more that they are unwilling to begin tasks, preferring not to try than to fail. So far, Mark has tried praising those who are working, sanctioning those who are not and running competitions: all without success.
The change
Mark wants students to complete the tasks he gives them independently without having to nag or remind them.
The solution
Please share your advice for Mark in the comments below. The focus is on making the desired behaviour – beginning and completing tasks – easy. If there are other nudges you’d suggest – making desired behaviours attractive, social or timely – feel free to mention those too.
My next post will draw together the best ideas into an overall suggestion for Mark: please comment by Saturday, 29th September.
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Sorry if I’m stating the obvious and this has already been tried but if the problem is reticence or lack of confidence (as I think has been implied here) is he making it *really* easy for students to at least get going?
So in the past, I’ve made the first question in a set a very short, simple cloze task. This means everyone can at least copy something down, even if they can’t do anything else.
Or for longer written questions, I might just read out a few first sentences from people who *have* started. This is positive reinforcement of desirable behaviour, but also gives others a prompt and a prod and a starting point, if they just can’t get that first sentence down on paper.
Or for calculations, I might just go through the first step on the board (“for those that need it”), while inviting people to ignore me if they want to (as long as they don’t talk), so they can at least start…
Finally, I would sometimes insist on silence for a certain period of time (eg. 5 minutes). I realise talk can be a helpful thing sometimes, but if I think people just need some thinking time/ space, I’d go for this approach. Make it clear they’ll be able to talk at other times (and talk quietly once the silent time has finished). Make it clear why you’re doing it…
Apologies if these are all fairly obvious, but I’m just trying to think what I’d do (and what I have done!) in this situation.
A fairly typical situation for teachers and it is interesting that Mark has tried lots of different strategies; praising, sanctions and competitions and yet to no avail.
I would first think about the bigger picture. Maybe Mark is having to unpick negative associations with his subject from last year. Students trudging to the lesson because perhaps they had a supply teacher or a poor experience with the teacher last year. This is a behaviour that might take weeks to alter and perhaps if he persists with his current teaching it will pay dividends for him in the long term.
I also think that students need to experience success in the classroom and the teacher needs to make these successes visible. This is not about praising the students for their effort but the students seeing that they are doing well and getting it right. Probably easier in some subjects than others but as a science teacher some things are right and a wrong answer from a student might be interesting the teacher must be able to correct the answer. Often I hear teachers say interesting to a response that is wrong because they are so pleased the pupil has participated (in reality they need to normalise failure).
This means a well organised approach with Mark modelling and scaffolding the work then giving the students opportunity to practise. He must also get to know his class and if there are gaps in knowledge them look at teaching these. Low stakes tests can reinforce the learning but also signal success and make it immediate.
I think we need to value feedback in lessons much more than we currently do. Written feedback seems to be king (probably due to accountability) but with only writing comments and not grades I think some students are unsure about whether they have done well or not. I am not saying we do comments and marks again but Mark must make the feedback in a lesson more often, more valued and not just focus on effort.
This is a situation every teacher faces at some point, at different levels of seriousness and difficulty in terms of the profile of the pupils and the challenge of finding resolutions and ways through. I often spend a lot of time scaffolding tasks carefully with the whole class and with student involvement, so that there is a sense that “we can do this” and a good starting point for all abilities. It does no harm to direct students to specific ways of working and examples to use so that they can use my modelled answers to get a foothold on how to do the work. the main aim of this is that pupils understand the answer and not necessarily that they can initially come up with an answer (this is where questioning helps).
The second thing that occurs to me is to celebrate written answers from different members of the class as much as possible by showing the “work in progress” to the class, reading answers, getting some discussion going about what was good and how we can build on what is done further. In my experience the pupils are really chuffed when you do this, even when you are pointing out areas for improvement and not just praising a successful start to the answer.
Two things I have used in the past that might be successful against those that refuse to do even the simplest things, like cloze procedures, is to ask “why not try?” And also “if you did know the answer what would you write?” I know they both sound strange but they work
Mark mentions pitching things carefully, but in the interests of making things easier I’m curious about the literacy levels of the pupils. If they can’t read text used in class then material may need to be presented differently, perhaps with more visuals. If writing is a problem then the pupils may need to be given more time to talk to lay the foundations for their responses. They may also need scaffolds such as writing frames to help them produce written answers. Use of strategies like Think Pair Share or Talk Partners provide opportunities for pupils to test answers relatively safely before speaking to the whole class or writing. Showing the pupils what a good answer or piece of work looks like, whether using a worked example or by showing a piece of work by another pupil, may help some to get started. These ideas lower or remove barriers to involvement with the learning and increase the chances of success for pupils.
I sent something out to staff along these lines last week. The situation was different – more along the lines of pupils not always having the correct learning behaviours … as well as being inhibited by possible failure.
Despite planning a well-structured approach to maths lessons, one teacher had shown me how little work a number of pupils had done after her input. In addition, those who had produced, seemed to be struggling with any sort of coherent reasoning. In response, we planned a section of input that chunked learning into a number of short, timed ‘Do Now’ style tasks. The first was modelled in such a precise way that pupils simply had to replicate it – but with different numbers. The answers were then used to discuss specific teaching points and reason the mathematics involved before doing a different version of the same activity … and then again – but with small ‘twists’ each time that developed specific teaching points. These guided tasks kept the pace lively and engaging, with pupils having no real reason to refuse to work; they also gave the teacher extra ‘control’ regarding her expectations of learning behaviours.
The guided tasks were then followed by independent work – tasks that either sought to consolidate the processes undertaken or move pupils to higher order reasoning/problem solving tasks that linked with the explanations developed within the initial activities.
This approach also meant that pupils’ working memory was not overloaded, with the chunked guidance helping them to integrate new learning and ‘lead’ them towards ‘successful outcomes’; this should help build independence and self-belief over time.
Short, specific extension activities could be integrated for those pupils who could finish such tasks quickly.
I’d try caching student work as a ‘first draft’ and getting them to have a crack when they know they can refine later on. A material way to facilitate this is to use mini-whiteboards. I’ve found students are more willing to have a go if they know they can wipe out and/or alter their work with the stroke of a sleeve.
Another approach would be to use an ABCD corners type of multiple choice question. Get students up and moving and then ask them to vocalise why they chose a certain answer prior to getting them to formalise it in writing (another ‘draft’ attempt somewhat).
Finally, starting with questions that are obviously opinion questions, or even a bit quirky, as an in can work well (they don’t feel like they’re going to get something wrong). I’m thinking here, for example, if you’re trying to teach coordinate systems he could graph fruit and make the x-axis ‘tasty’ and the y-axis ‘squishy’, and get them to place fruit on these axes and give reasoning.
O.
Are there other things that make this class tick that might differ from other classes?
Dynamics in the room you need to find out more about?
Are there key individuals you can ask colleagues about elsewhere?
Key pieces of info that would help you influence the behaviour in the room?
Make the first task so easy that it is almost impossible to claim it is not understood. Very, very gradual steps. E.g. 5 key words with only vowels missing.
Make tasks involve students all keeping pace with guided info on the board. E.g. annotating a copy of an important diagram, before completing DARTs type activity.
Use a timer and tour around room telling the whole class when half are at a certain point etc, giving some a greater awareness that they are behind the majority.
Lots of modelled examples to ensure nobody is ‘stuck’.
Would they respond to incentives such as first 3 to show me ‘X’ get merit/possibly first out at end/ lollipop etc (I know these all have drawbacks too!)
Would they respond to behaviour policy consistently implemented ‘C2 for insufficient work done’. Are they getting away with being quiet but lazy elsewhere? What works for other colleagues who teach individuals in your school?
Let them know at the start of the lesson what must be achieved by the end…with regular time notifications and reminders of progress through tasks. Needing to complete set amount of work in time given or ‘lesson will have to continue into break in order for us to keep pace.’ (Clearly this depends on the timetable for the lessons).
Maybe write ‘I love crossing out’ on the board. Explain to students that it’s your absolute favourite thing. Get them to write a really rubbish sentence, then cross it out. Suddenly no blank pages, and they’re off!
I think paired writing (both pupils write a copy of the agreed same thing) works pretty well too?
I agree with the previous comments: Mark should focus on figuring out why they won’t start. Here are some tricks I’ve used:
1. Give students one minute (or some other short, announced time period) to do just the first step of the task. Then stop and discuss/review that step and make sure students have got it right. Then give another short but slightly longer time to do the next step. Review it together. Continue as needed until the first problem or question is done. Students are often reluctant to invest effort when they’re not sure they are right.
2. Walk around and give individual help/correction to as many students as possible during the first few minutes of the task. If he’s telling them to get started and then sitting behind his desk, they may not be taking him seriously. Alternatively, they may really not know how to do the task and be too shy to ask for help by raising their hands.
3. Start with peer-to-peer discussion. I often say to my students, “Turn to your partner and discuss for 30 seconds (beginning step of task)” or just “Come up with a plan. What could your first step be?” This is often enough to break the jam.
4. Allow students to work on dry-erase surfaces with whiteboards instead of pencil/paper where possible. They love it and can’t wait to get started!
5. An opening question like “What could a possible first step be?” instead of “What is the first step?” suggests that it’s okay to be uncertain, okay to make mistakes, and lessens the intimidation factor of getting started.
Hope this helps!