Case and Commentary

Professional Knowledge: How can knowing student motivators improve

work input and output?
Practice Described
During my six week block at Mt Ridley College, my students were required to
explore motivation looking more personally at themselves. It might be intrinsic or
extrinsic motivation that drives them, but it is dependent on the environment
theyve grown up in. I was to develop a unit of work around this centralised idea
of if we know what motivates the students then I could plan more effectively with
how to teach them.
Practice Explained
This unit of work looks to explore different motivators for students as they
investigate the essential question What motivates me? The aim of the unit is to
equip students with the tools they require to become independent and selfdriven, two crucial characteristics called upon through secondary school. I chose
to integrate outdoor education and physical education with psychology, as its
combining subjects that Im confident in with interesting activities. At first it was
challenging to think of a fun and engaging way to introduce psychology to early
secondary school students. These lessons give a basic understanding of
psychology as they are performing a small portion of a psychological experiment
in a safe environment.
Practice Theorised
When comparing our unit of work with Wilson and Murdochs (2004) stages of
inquiry, we see that our lessons follow the model almost identically and I
believeit incorporated every stage. Its not apparent in the first lesson, but this is
required for the planned experiment and I hope that the shock adds value to
students learning. But the first stage of the model is tuning in, to engage and
discover students prior knowledge. The second lesson is focused on student lead
discussion with brainstorming activities focused on their prior knowledge of
motivation. This is of course teacher lead and facilitated with stimulating open
ended questions. .
Reflection is planned through the fourth lesson plan as well, as the class goes
through the results as a whole and talk about different factors affecting the
study. Its important that these conclusions are met by the students, as
thoughtful discussion generated by children without the presence of a teacher
results in a higher retention of information (Blaines, et al., 2009).
Practice Changed
Understanding how students learned after the unit gave me some insight on how
to plan for success. It highlighted that a student centred approach allows for
further personal development. My pupils shared the idea that having detailed
and clear instructions allowed them a deeper understanding, in turn pushing

them to have a stronger interest. I now plan for success through facilitating
students in the easiest way I know