Emily Watts

TE 808
Action Research

Problem Identification & Rationale

I am currently teaching third grade in Anchor Bay School District. The area that I teach

in is a predominantly white area with a middle class population. The main language spoken is

English and we have a very low number of students speaking any other language at all. This

being said, it is not a very diverse school district, and my school itself in particular is even lower.

I am in my second year of teaching my own class. Previously I student-taught a year in third

grade in a very low income area, and before that, I was always placed in Lansing area schools,

often very diverse and lower income as well, in first grade. So the demographics of my new

district are much different than I have experienced before and it is definitely a change and takes

some learning on my end as well.

When it comes to teaching third grade, there are also things to note about the role that the

Covid-19 pandemic had on these students. This year's group of third grade students went through

the pandemic at the end of their kindergarten year and into their first grade year. These are

pivotal years in school. They learn a lot both academically and socially in these grades, and

although my district stayed open much more than most others, things were still different for these

students. They were behind masks and shields, staying at least 6 feet away from other students

and their teacher, and some of them did choose to stay home for safety reasons. This has had a

huge effect on these kids and is something I am really seeing affecting them in different ways.

One of the biggest things I am seeing so far with them is “learned helplessness”.

In my own definition, this is a term used to describe when a student does not often give

their best effort or best work because they know if they don’t, someone will help them. A teacher
will help them complete a worksheet, or a parent will do something for them if they don’t want

to and they ask for help. In my classroom, it is often a student immediately raising their hand for

help after I teach a lesson. This could be for multiple reasons of course. There are children who

just do not understand what was taught and truly do need help. These are not the students that I

am referring to. I am referring to those who often don’t want to try something hard because they

A, do not feel like it, or B, believe they are unable to do it.

My goal with my action based research is to find ways to help both of these types of

students. I believe that by diving deeper into why we are seeing this so often, and finding ways to

help these students get past this learned idea, that I can help my students become more involved

in their own learning. I want them to believe in themselves. I want them to have confidence to try

something new and learn it is okay to not succeed. This year in a professional development we

talked about two ideas that I feel relate well to this.

One idea is the idea of the “yet”. For example, we want our students to change their

mindset from thinking “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this YET”. This goes into the growth

mindset that we encourage them to find so much in their education. Simply getting them to think

this way can change a lot for them. Although doing this is not always that simple. Another idea

we learned is that we are often always waiting for things to get easier. We may say, if we just get

through this step, the next step will be easier. Or if we get through this year, then next year will

be easier. What is important to realize is that things are never going to get easier. We just learn

how to do hard, better. This idea is one that can be easily researched and is discussed in many

videos. It is one that I really took to heart and I truly believe that learned helplessness is affecting

my students achieving these mindsets. I want to make a change and I want to help them succeed

as best they can.

Comprehensive Literature Review

One of the biggest problems that I am seeing a lot of and facing head on in my own

classroom, is that of student motivation and work ethic. It often seems as though students don’t

want to try anymore. They are likely to give up easily, ask for help often, or not try at all. This is

something I have not seen so much of before in education, or at least not at such a young age. I

began to research this idea to see if other teachers were dealing with this same issue and what it

may be coming from, as well as how I can go about helping them get past this.

Autonomy is understood as, acting on your own ideas and interests, and taking

responsibility for your decisions and actions. Karp (2022) discusses an article by the National

Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), which argues that children need to be able to

reason logically and think critically, especially in mathematics, which is where many teachers

see students lacking motivation the most. Karp states, “One of the major problems in students’

achievement in mathematics is the inability to perform tasks involving higher level thinking

skills which are developed through the flexibility of independent learning behaviors.” (p. 265).

The article then goes into research about how teachers' attitudes, positive or negative, can affect

the methods they use to teach. Even further then, how this then affects students learning and

independent practice.

The research found that teachers with negative attitudes towards the study often taught

ideas of memorization and rules. This meant students needed to depend on the teacher more as

they feel they are looking for one specific answer or one specific way of showing work. This is

something I commonly see in my classroom as students are used to this. In earlier mathematics

for example, students are taught one way of solving something and the problem was wrong if
they did it the ‘wrong way’. Coming into third grade where different strategies are taught and

more freedom is encouraged in using strategies in all subjects, not just math, is a big change.

This may be part of the reason students are then stepping away from autonomy. They tend to

always want and ‘need’ support. Their biggest fear is often getting an answer wrong therefore,

they just don’t try. They will wait for support or for someone to tell them how to do it before

even seeing what they actually know. This also means I need to check my own teaching ideas to

ensure my practice is positive and is encouraging students to move away from memorization.

This shows me that they struggle to work on their own, following directly then, with the issue of

autonomy.

I then thought of those students who often ask for help before they try. I came across the

idea of “learned helplessness”. Womack (2013) states, “Learned helplessness (LH) is defined as

‘the act of giving up trying as a result of consistent failures to be rewarded in life’ by the Collin’s

dictionary.” (p. 5). Students who have learned helplessness are not ‘choosing’ to not be capable,

but are “...unable to achieve because of perceived and learned failures” (p. 6). Womack

continues to describe what learned helplessness looks like in his article and these “signs” of LH

are very similar to signs of low motivation. However, both are thought to be resolved the same

way as Karp stated in her research, with taking control of their own learning. The biggest step

here is figuring out if a student has LH or just lacks motivation from disinterest or something

else. All of this being said, if a student is unable to work, or gives up on trying easily, they lack

autonomy. Mathematics specifically requires that students are able to show their work and

explain it, while also getting to the right answer. This cannot happen without them showing their

own ideas. They will also continue to stray away from this if they feel they cannot do it, for
whatever reason that may be. Confidence is key in autonomy. Or at least the confidence to try

and learn from mistakes.

One step to take to help either situation is to encourage a growth mindset. This is the

idea that you can learn more, rather than feeling as though you have hit your peak and cannot

continue learning. Kroeper (2022) states, “A growth mindset message is better able to take root

and thrive in classrooms where compatible messages and practices from teachers afford and

support students’ growth mindset beliefs” (para 6). Kroepers findings and discussions agree with

the ideas previously mentioned in the other research findings. Whether a student feels they

cannot learn because of previous failures or because they just do not enjoy learning, the main

piece comes from the person presenting the information. It is important that the teacher shows

this same mindset and encourages it in her students through her practice. Kroeper confirms what

I see often, especially in mathematics, that students believe that when they mess up, it means

they are unable to do the work. They feel that it is too hard and is not the subject for them. If a

teacher is there to encourage learning from one’s mistakes, and celebrate what they mean, there

is a higher chance that this student’s ideas about learning will change or at least begin to move in

the right direction.

A differing idea of where learned helplessness comes from is brought up by Guiang-

Myers (2021). They state, “These school and classroom based practices may come from good

intentions, such as over-scaffolding (not allowing students the opportunity to at least try to work

on a problem, by providing help to the point of almost doing the work for the child), that

nonetheless can lead to the condition” (para 4). Although it has similar ideas to those mentioned

previously, it brings up a whole new idea of giving ‘too much’ help to students. I then wonder, is

this what is happening with my students who immediately ask for help? Have they had this
experience in the past to where they never learned to try on their own and are used to needing

help? It seems as though either way, this idea comes from previous failure of work on their own,

and often shows up in the same way in different students facing LH. The good thing is that the

steps to change it agree with those of other researchers.

Through all of this research, the biggest thing I took away for my own research is my

level of effect on my students, both physically in assisting them in work, as well as in motivating

them emotionally and showing my own mindset. The way in which I present myself and my

attitude towards different subjects in school can have a huge impact on how my students learn

and grow. If I constantly help my students for example, rather than encourage independent

efforts first, I may be confirming their idea that they need my help. Instead, I want to use words

and phrases that encourage the opposite of this, where I am proud of them for trying without me!

These researchers all show me that it is important that I find ways in which to encourage my

students to be more in charge of their own learning. I want to frame my teaching and the

language I use to encourage this, to have them feel that I am pushing them to try on their own,

for their own purpose and benefit. Teaching them that trying and making mistakes is more

beneficial to them than not trying at all, or giving up when they ‘fail’.

I also want to remember that this idea is important even for students who are not now

struggling. Although things may be “easy” for them now, they may not be later, and I want them

to have that same growth mindset when this happens. Same as I never want them to receive less

attention because they are doing well. As stated previously, students may not be motivated to

work because they want help. This does not mean that they want help because they do not know,

but because they want the same attention the others are getting. Encouraging all students to do
their best and giving them all the same positive feedback and encouragement will hopefully

minimize the chances of this happening.

Kirk (2022) defines self efficacy as, “...the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a goal or

an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves

with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. (para 1). This is what I want my students to

find and develop in my classroom. This is what all of these researchers agree is the end goal for

our students! Leaving learned helplessness behind and moving forward to better motivational

strategies. Ayish and Deveci (2019) state that many students coming into university lack a sense

of self efficacy and autonomy. They do not want to be responsible for their own learning.

Learned helplessness develops early on, so the earlier we can turn this around as educators, the

more likely we are to see students coming into university and the workforce with high levels of

responsibility for themselves and their own learning.

Plan of Action

My goal for this research project is to answer the question, ‘how can I help my students

become more motivated and work harder on their own?’ A typical response to this would be to

assume that the students are choosing not to work, or it is something that they are doing that is

causing them to be unmotivated. McNiff and Whitehead (2012), helped me to think about this

differently. In chapter 3 of their book, Action Research for Teachers: A Practical Guide (2012),

they discuss the idea that as a teacher researcher, it is important that you are able to be critical of

yourself and of your actions. They state an example, “Perhaps, instead of asking, ‘how do I

ensure maximum attendance?’, you need to ask, ‘how do I ensure that school is the kind of place

that people will want to be in?” (p. 58). This quote helped me to begin my plan of action for this

research. I will be thinking about two different ideas. One, how I can make my classroom and
my practices positive and encouraging to others to work hard. And two, find what is causing this

lack of autonomy and motivation in students and aim to help them.

Before I was able to make an actual plan, I needed to observe my students after deciding

my research question. This was more of general observations, where I was not necessarily

writing down information to use as data. This was simply to make observations of what I saw,

what it means, and then what I can do. After thinking about what it is I see from my students, I

began researching what they mean. I came up with two findings, a struggle with autonomy, as

well as the idea of learned helplessness. I then continued my research deeper into steps I can take

in my own practice to help students with each of these overarching topics that I see. The first

step is finding out which of my students struggle with learned helplessness, versus which

struggle with autonomy, as they share similar solutions but not fully, it is important I have steps

in working to resolve both.

By definition, “Learned helplessness is defined as ‘the act of giving up trying as a result

of consistent failures to be rewarded in life’ by the Collin’s dictionary.” (p. 5, 2013). Womack

continues on to say, “LH students are not capable because they choose to be not capable, they are

unable to achieve because of perceived and learned failures.” (p. 6, 2013). To help with this, he

encourages the overall idea that students learn to take control of their own learning. This fits

perfectly with the idea of autonomy that many other students face issues with. This also goes

right back to McNiff and Whitehead's idea mentioned previously, in that the way in which we

teach and set up our classroom can be affecting the students, it is not always what they are doing

themselves. Together, these ideas and observations helped me to come up with step 1, which is

to conduct a survey or two in my classroom.

 The goal of these surveys is to again, identify which students deal with LH, and which

just need extra support in motivation and autonomy. I will likely use questions from surveys I

find asking students about their motivation to learn, as well as adding additional questions that I

feel will help add to my data. Questions I may ask include, “‘do you feel confident that you can

learn?’, ‘Are you motivated to work on your own?’, ‘Do you feel that you encourage yourself to

learn more?’, ‘If you cannot solve something, what do you do first?’, Why do you want to

learn?’” and others. I will then need to decide which student surveys I will look at more closely.

McNiff and Whitehead (2012) discuss in their chapter on monitoring and data collection, that

you do not want to have too much data. You want to choose a few participants in a range of

levels, to look at more closely. This way data is more specific, and more helpful to research.

One thing that I do anticipate as a possible drawback in this step, is that some students

will not be fully honest on a survey if they are asked to put their name. Typically, with this type

of survey (which I have tried in the past), I will make them anonymous. If I am using this data to

choose my few participants however, I am not able to do this. I also cannot give it to only these

students, as I again, have not yet chosen them. I then must decide in this step, if I will choose my

participants based on previous observations that I have of them, and allow the surveys to be

anonymous, or if I will give it to the whole class and hope they are as honest as possible.

After looking into this data, my next step will be to increase the student growth mindset

through my own teaching. What in my own performance can I change to help my students

become more motivated and confident in themself? After the surveys, I will have a better idea of

where students are at. Overall, throughout my research, I found the common idea that

encouraging a positive mindset in students will help with both LH (learned helplessness) as well

as autonomy. Karp (1991) goes into this deeper using her research to show that the attitudes of
teachers towards subjects can affect how they teach that subject. Gearty (2023) continues this

same idea in that a lot of students' attitudes towards different subjects comes from the attitude

they see important members in their life exhibiting, for example, their teacher or parents. Gearty

discusses this idea in terms of math specifically, but the idea stretches across the board.

To increase this mindset, it is important I watch my own attitude towards subjects and I

show my own excitement for learning. This leads into this step which is simply changing my

wording towards my students. Examples include saying, ‘I can tell how much effort that took’

instead of ‘You’re so good at math’. Although this is not a step that involves putting something

down on paper, it is one that I think is important in my research. I will be able to observe the

different reactions from my students as I say this more to them and see the difference between

student reactions of those struggling with motivation and those not. I do worry about the students

who are motivated and who do not often need my help. LH can happen when students feel they

are not being rewarded for their work. I need to find ways to encourage these other students so

that they too feel that they are being rewarded for their work, even though it is typical for them to

work on their own. Encouraging them as well will be important to this step.

A third step I will take, is another idea encouraged by the authors who discuss LH and

autonomy. It also goes right along with my concern just mentioned, about the students who are

already doing what I am researching, and the worry that they will revert backwards and begin to

struggle with these ideas too if I am not careful and aware. This step is not only listed for these

students, but those who are dealing with my research question, which makes it a great tool. It

also incorporates another idea into it, helping to make it an even better strategy. This step is to

challenge students with their work.

 Although it is important to challenge students in the work that you assign, it is also

important that students learn to challenge themselves. If a student wants to do this, to me, it is a

sign that they are confident in their learning and are showing signs of autonomy. Kirk (2022)

confirms this when discussing self-efficacy, a similar idea to autonomy. When discussing

students who challenge themselves, she states, “These students will put forth a high degree of

effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things which are in their

control, rather than blaming external factors.” (para 1). This is exactly what I want to see! Not

only do challenges push motivation, but they also incorporate adding choice into your classroom.

This is another common tip given by researchers to those looking to boost autonomy and

decrease learned helplessness.

To do this, I will be using a program many teachers in my building have, which is called

IXL. This program gives students work related to certain skills. Teachers have the option to

assign students work, which I do each week, but what I am going to push for is for students to

choose their own assignments. I will then be using a feature called the ‘leader board’ to help

keep track of student progress. This board will tell me who is mastering the most skills, what

skills they are and their level, and can even involve the students. I plan to make this board into a

bit of a competition, where students will work to be in the top 3 at the end of each week. I want

to be sure that I set rules for this, as I anticipate students finding loopholes to get to the top, for

example mastering skills that are too easy for them. One of the most important rules then, will be

that the skills mastered will need to be on level for that student in order for them to count on the

board. The reason I am able to easily do this is because the program updates students

recommendations each time they use the program. The better they are doing, the harder the skills

will become! If students are working hard, and pushing themselves, then their skills will continue
to become of a higher level, and they will be working on these challenging assignments more

often. To ensure that there is fairness in this as well, I do give all students the same amount of

time on the program at school. I do, however, encourage students to practice the program at

home as this is another sign that they are challenging themselves. For those students who may

not have access to wifi, I do allow extra time for them at school, but this is not an issue I have.

The last step I created as my research was developing, was small groups. Here I would be

pulling students in small, leveled, groups. We would then be working on math and also some

reading activities together in different phases. First, students would work completely with me.

After some time, they would move to independent and then “teaching” me. After this we would

have them do independent work, check with a partner, and a share out. The last step is my end

goal then, which is to not need me at all. Students could work in peer groups and the class could

be led in student discussion. They will hopefully learn strategies to probe questions and work

through misconceptions. All of this happening slowly, with me moving out of the ‘equation’, and

giving them a chance to better develop that autonomy.

For each step of my plan, there is a phase of evaluation afterwards. With the survey, I

will be looking at each survey and noting my findings in some form of journal. I will then be

taking time to look this over and make observations based on what I see and further narrow

down my participants for future steps. This will then assist in step 2, where I will be using

different wording and phrasing with students to see the difference in reactions as well as the

difference in their work when I use this mindset wording. As I look over this data, I will identify

what seems to be working and what does not. I can change my wording, or use different terms

with other students, based on what I find. I will be making note of this data in the journal as well.

Step 3 is then using all of this and encouraging the challenge. This is a big step in my research as
the results will show me if my students and I are making progress. If I am not seeing this

motivation to challenge oneself in my students, I will know that I need to go back and adjust my

plan accordingly. For the small groups, it will come from the grades they receive on work,

observations I have while working with them individually, as well as what I see when they are

working with groups and as a class. If they are successfully moving through each phase, I will

know we are headed in the right direction.

Methods & Data Analysis

Participants: third grade students in my class, 6 focus students selected from survey were
focused on.

Setting of research: My research took place fully in my third grade classroom. The district is
predominantly white, with very few, if any, ESL students.

Research question: How can I help grow my students' autonomy, specifically in mathematics, in
my classroom?

My original plan of action started with four steps: observation of the classroom and

students, surveys to identify focus students and get overall idea of classroom feelings, change my

own attitudes and wording while teaching, and to give students more challenge/choice. Although

my research did consist of all of these steps, I did make changes as time went on, as will be seen

in data collection, and added another step of small groups.

I did begin my research with observations of my students. This is where I was able to

identify the issue that I was seeing, which was students lacking effort and often relying on help. I

then went on to complete the survey with all students. After this, I went through and chose 6

‘focus’ students whom I picked from both my previous observations as well as what I saw on

surveys that I wanted to focus on. As I went through the surveys, I found that I needed more

information. I had questions for these students. So, I pulled a few of them for an informal
interview as well, to dive further into some of the questions asked (all can be seen in data

collection). After these discussions and my analysis of the survey answers and its meaning, I did

my best to change my wording and attitude while teaching, based on what I found in research. I

wanted to encourage a growth mindset, where students felt I wanted them to do well for them,

not just for me. I felt that many students only gave effort when it meant I was there to see it and

give attention to it. Autonomy is when they are in charge of their own learning, and want to

encourage themselves, which is why I needed to steer them away from this idea. I needed to

show this attitude in my own teaching and use phrases that pushed this, rather than limited it.

Along with this, I did still continue to use my next step, of giving students more choice,

and hoping this would lead to them challenging themselves. I did change this a bit however, in

that I added pulling small groups to my research, with this station of “choice” being one that

students went to when not working with me. At this station, they would use the program IXL,

where they could choose recommended ‘skills’ for language arts and math, from me, their

teacher, to work on, or they can choose skills recommended from the program based on their

progress in it so far. I also set a ‘leader board’ where students could see who was ‘mastering’ the

most skills, meaning they were getting an 80% or above on the skills that were recommended by

the teacher or the computer for their level. This encouraged students to keep track of their own

efforts, and allowed them some type of choice where they could work on things they felt

comfortable doing, but also had to push themselves at some point if they wanted to grow on the

board. This was how I threw in the challenge. The hope was that this idea would give them more

confidence in what they could do and further push them to want to try even more difficult things.

I am also able to look at their scores and their progress, and monitor this on my own as well. I

can assign skills I think that they need, whether that is lower or higher than what we are doing,
and I can use positive feedback and language regarding how they are doing to stay involved and

encourage growth mindset and therefore more autonomy, as well.

The other station that I added, which ended up being a major piece of research, was the

station with me. Here, we worked in small steps in small groups. Students first would do work

completely with me, for example a worksheet that I would work through each problem with them

on. As I monitored and noticed more participation and comfort, I was able to move to the next

step where I let them do some on their own, and also had them explain their work to me. They

were, in a way, teaching me. This required that they gave effort on the work because they knew

it would be shared out, and I was able to be there to work them through it and push them to push

themselves. After some time with this, I had them do work independently for a short time, before

they then compared and discussed with a partner. This took away my involvement, while still

allowing them to voice their questions and explanations to someone. I was then able to be there

to observe their interactions and hear their explanations when shared aloud to me at the end. The

hope is to one day have them working independently and able to share out to the class on their

own. Further pushing myself out of the work. I do have some students at this stage, but very few.

Data Collection Summary #1

The main goal of my research was to figure out how to help my students with autonomy,

or taking responsibility for their learning. I noticed even more so recently, how many of my

students do not want to do work unless they have to and some do not want to do work even

then. Many of them have no motivation to try. My first step in my action plan was to do a survey

of my students to see where they were at with this. I ended up doing two surveys with them, one

on their own analysis of their learning so far, and one on their feelings of math. This is one big

change that I added to my research question, in that I am focusing mainly on autonomy in

mathematics as this is where I see the biggest struggle. A problem that I felt may come up, was
the honesty I would get from students if they put their name on their paper, and the issue of not

knowing who it was that needed support if they did not. For this, I decided to let students have

this choice. I was sure to let them know that if they would be more honest not putting their

name, then I would prefer that is what they did. If they would be honest and still put their name,

then they may do this. I had all but one student put their name and I do feel I saw honestly from

those who did put their name, which is great! I then went through and picked 6 students, of

varying autonomy level, to focus on. I also chose a few questions from each survey that I

thought would assist me the most as well. This data results are here:

Yes in total class Yes in focus group

I try to complete 17/22 3/6

my work
independently

I try my hardest 17/22 4/6

all of the time

I’m good at 15/22 3/6

maths

I try my hardest 19/22 4/6

during maths

- “When I don’t know how to do a math problem I…” - many students said that they try and

then they ask for help. Or they just ask for help.

- Out of my 6, the answers were similar except for 2. One said that she waits for

me to notice and come help her, and the other said the same but that she feels

she will not learn anything.

- From this, I added another plan as well, which is to have an informal interview

with both of these students to hear more about this.

 I have also done more research in these few weeks of data collection. One article in

particular, had me questioning why exactly my students who don’t ask for help, don’t ask for

help. To me, this goes into autonomy completely. If a student is not able to ask for help when

they need it, they are not able to better their own learning, therefore they are not taking control

of it. This is an important step. Good and Shaw (2022) state, “Our research suggests that as

early as age seven, children begin to connect asking for help with looking incompetent in front of

others. At some point, every child struggles in the classroom. But if they are afraid to ask for

help because their classmates are watching, learning will suffer.” (para 3). This made me want

to readjust my plan as well, and further encouraged me to informally interview these students.

I also have in my plan, to change my wording with students, to encourage a growth

mindset, which research has found can benefit autonomy. One thing I will now try to show is

that asking for help does not show weakness. I want to show that even those kids they think are

“smart” still need help. Even a teacher needs help. Hopefully encouraging this and making it a

whole class discussion, will encourage them to ask for help. If I do not see this change, I will

have to see if any ideas in the “interviews” with students come up to where I can talk with them

about how best we can get them help without me having to ask them. As I have started

changing my wording with a few of my students who say they do not give their all, I have seen a

change. Even simply discussing with them why we should try and the negative impact not trying

can have on their learning, has helped. One student in particular went from getting a 0 on a

worksheet, to getting a 95% with minimal help. When I asked her in the beginning, “What is the

worst that happens if you try this without me?”, she was able to tell me that the worst is she

doesn’t do well but I take time to help her afterwards. Previously, she was not able to answer

this question, and would have rather sat quietly and taken the zero than accept help. Then when

she saw her grade, instead of thinking down on herself for getting some wrong, she said, “At

least I got all of those others right!”, which again, is huge. This shows me a few things. It first

shows me that she is no longer afraid I will be ‘mad’ when she gets things wrong, and our
relationship is growing stronger and assisting her confidence and autonomy. It also shows me

that getting an answer wrong is not as much of a setback to her anymore. She sees that

mistakes are okay, and are likely to happen when learning. Rather than giving up like she did in

the past, she was proud of herself for what she did well and used that to try again. All of this

together shows that she is more willing to try and to push herself on her own. She did not ask

me for help right after she got it wrong, or sit there and not try in fear that she might make a

mistake. She gave her best effort and was willing to keep trying and pushing herself, which is

the exact direction I am trying to push their autonomy in.

Data Collection Summary #2

After my last review of student surveys, I decided that switching to interviews, and then a

follow up survey would be helpful to my research. I wanted to dive deeper into the questions on

the survey and felt this would be best if I could actually talk with them and ask/answer

questions. The interviews went well and I was able to hear more information as I wanted. I

specifically interviewed the two students who I felt struggled with motivation to try things on their

own, one of which I had seen tremendous growth, and one who I had not seen much change.

My original plan was to pull the students in the morning while others were working. What

I quickly noticed however, was that this seemed to cause some nerves in itself. It seemed as

though the students did not like being obviously pulled during a time different from the math we

were discussing. They were much less willing to talk to me, and were a lot quieter. I wanted the

most accurate answers from them so I decided to wait and instead pulled them when they came

to me for math help, or during math time. ‘Accurate; to me, meaning that they are thinking about

the question and their answer, and I can tell. They often seemed to rush an answer out or were

obviously shy, which led to their answer not correlating with the question and needing reframing.

I took their questions and used it to lead into the interview. I first began with the student who I
had seen the most growth with. She went from not trying, and openly stating “I don't know how

to do it!”, while refusing to work, to me seeing this action a lot less. I wanted to talk with her

about how this happened and what she felt has changed. The discussion went like this:

Me: In the past, why did you often not do your math work? Or wait so long to begin?

Student: “They were too hard. I thought you’d get mad”

Me: What did you think I would be mad about? What is the only thing I get dissapointed

about when it comes to you and the others doing work?

Student: “You only get mad when I don’t try, or I don’t pay attention when you’re

teaching”

Me: I am never mad. I just get sad that you aren’t willing to do your best and show me

what you know. I want you to be confident and do your best but, yes, exactly! I can’t know what

exactly you don’t understand if I don’t see you try. A lot of times, you know a lot more than you

think you do, but you have to give yourself the confidence and the time to try to show it. I have

seen you doing that a lot recently! What did I do, or you/we do that helped you do this more?

Student: You pulled me to work with me by myself and had me try on my own. I liked

that it felt good to get them right and to show you I did. It made me want to try.

At this time, the other student I was looking to interview came up as well. She overheard

our conversation and I took this as a way in. I asked the other student (who she has worked with

before and we have talked about the effort of trying with) to tell her what helped her to start

trying more and to let her know why she tries more now than she did before. The girls then

chatted briefly about how it feels good to show the teacher they got something correct. This

made me wonder then, is this need for reassurance part of why they do not show as much
autonomy? Are they looking for me to give this support constantly in order for them to do their

best work? This is what I needed to dive into with the next student in our own discussion.

As I talked with this student, asking questions similar and the same as those asked to

the other, I started to see that this was definitely part of the problem. She stated, “I like it better

with help. There is no one to help me if I mess up when I work by myself”. We then discussed

the idea that no matter if she messes up alone or with me, I will still take that time to help her. I

can’t know what is hard if I can’t see what you can do without me. After some further discussion

where I asked her why she shows me what she can do when we’re together, but not when she

is doing work or taking a test, she then openly stated she was worried that if she does well, she

won’t get help anymore. This completely changed my plans with her. This shows she does not

have much autonomy. It is interesting to me that she is able to do things without assistance, if I

am near her for confidence, but not when she is working alone at her desk. She relies on

teacher support to try things which shows she is not willing to push herself, nor is she in charge

of her own learning. I needed to find a way to show her that there is more benefit and reward in

learning and showing this learning on your own, than only being able to do it with me. I made

the promise that I will still take the time to work with her separately if she is doing well, but I

need to see her show me she is really trying. She agreed this was our next step.

I then recently had these students, as well as a few others, complete a follow up survey

to my previous survey on mathematics and trying/effort. Although I was hoping to see some

changes in the positive direction, it did not yield the results I was completely hoping for. A lot of

students now see the importance of trying, and are able to explain that to me, which is a great

step. However, I still note that many of them do not want to ask for help, but instead wait for it to

come to them. This constant need for me to be with them, and notice when there is struggle

rather than be told there is, is definitely a weakness. It seems as though the more time I spend

discussing these ideas with them, the more time they are spending with me and they seem to
have figured that out. If they do not tell me what they know I am looking for, for example, that

they need to try so I can see what they know, they feel I will take them time to talk with them or

pull them for help. I need to find a way to hear these ideas honestly from them, where they are

not looking to receive more attention, but looking more to show me their progress and be proud

of it. This will likely involve observing more of their work without letting them know I am doing

so. Or listening to the things they tell other students when these ideas come up. Maybe some

sort of whole group, or partner discussion, could be worth a shot to get more accurate data.

Although I plan to rely heavily on what I see them doing in class and see their grades continue

to grow, actual physical data will benefit me as well.

Although the wording of things with students, the surveys, and the interviews, have been

helping and giving me some good data, I felt it was not necessarily making a big change.

Students seemed to regress again once I sent them to be more independent. They started

giving up a lot easier, or getting things wrong from rushing or not trying. I decided I need some

sort of intervention. One that I could do with all students, but where I could focus on specific

students and their results. To do this, I began pulling students who struggle with autonomy into

groups more often and slowly letting go of the reins, without fully acknowledging this fact. I am

not only doing this in their main focus area, math, but also in reading, as I feel this will help with

the skill and sticking it to their mindset in general rather than only on one subject. To do this, I

started simply pulling students in leveled groups (not to their knowledge) and did a worksheet or

two, fully together. Then we moved into having them work with me, but their job is to walk me

through what to do for different problems or different answers. For example, we were working

on fractions recently. I had students first go through a worksheet coloring in fractions, fully with

me. Then the next time we met, I had them work on a sheet on their own, and had them draw

and explain their answers on the board as if they were the teacher. As they started to get the

hang of this, I then pushed them to work with a partner in the group. With the fraction example,
they were given blocks, and outlines of shapes and they had to create different fractions with

their partner and label them. Each partner needed to create a certain number so neither was

doing all of the work. The partners would then share out with the class on the board. This led to

them sharing out their ideas, as well as receiving feedback and possibly needing to change their

own thoughts. I started encouraging things such as highlighting details, writing things out to

show our work, as well as making sure each partner shared out. We are now at the stage where

students are starting to do more work independently, before sharing out with a partner, making

changes to their answers, and sharing out whole group. As time goes on, and in each group, I

have been taking mental notes, as well as physical notes of different things I have seen

changing in regards to autonomy. I not only am focusing on the few students who I was focusing

on for autonomy, but others as well to get a sort of comparison going as well as see if what I am

doing is helping those other students as well.

Conclusions & Summary

Overall, I have seen great growth in the autonomy of my students, especially those in my

focus group, but also my entire class. My goal of this research was simply to see students

wanting to try on their own. Not needing me to be there for them as often and wanting to push

themselves to see their own growth, not only because I was there to give them positive

feedback. This is autonomy.

When my research began, I had many students who would raise their hand for help

before I even gave them time to start their work, or students who would sit there and not try at

all in fear that they were going to get something wrong, which I found out through surveys and

interviews in my data collection. As my research progressed, and steps were taken to work

through this, I saw things slowly starting to shift. Through our actions and my discussions with

them based on their feedback and my observations, they were starting to see that mistakes are

a part of learning. They should not worry that a mistake will make a teacher ‘mad’. This was
something I especially wanted to work through in that it must come from previous experiences,

and is not something that I want them to ever think. Changing my wording with them and

pushing them to learn for themselves rather than me, seemed to make a big difference.

I now see students giving their best and being proud of themselves for their success and

learning from their mistakes. They even open up with each other and help others understand

these new ideas that they have learned. This was something that I did not expect from my

research but is something that I see often now. I have 2 focus students in particular, who now

talk with others that they see ‘give up’ about the importance of giving your best, and what will

happen if they do and if they don’t. Students can hear me say that multiple times, but hearing it

confirmed from a classmate is an extra step that makes me so proud and excited to continue.

I plan to continue to work with my small groups and keep taking steps toward not

needing me. The more student led my classroom is, the more I will believe I am seeing

autonomy growing and developing in every one of them. My hope is that they will continue to

become more confident in themselves in my classroom, but also that they will take these ideas

with them into the next years of schooling, even when things get more difficult. This will be the

true test, and one I look forward to seeing.

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