Case Study

In chapter 10 of Moreno's Educational Psychology book, there was an interesting case study. It was called "How Does This Middle School Classroom Use Motivation Principles" (Moreno, 404). The study was about a teacher who was beginning her second year of teaching. She noticed that her students were motivated throughout her first year however, she wanted to improve. After she attend some summer workshops, on her first day of class she used some of the activities she learned. She realized that her students enjoyed the activities, so she kept going with them. The different activities the teacher had the students do were having them come up with rules for the classroom and creating goals from themselves. During the activities the teacher became aware that she had diversity in her classroom, for she had two students who were English Language Learners. Throughout the study the teacher kept mentioning how she wants her class to be accepting of one another and for them to feel comfortable with each other. The only flaw with this study was that after reading it, it made me believe that the teacher was going to keep doing group work all the time. I’m just guessing that maybe she thinks in order for the class to participate they always have to be in groups, however I would disagree. Group work is fun and a great way to help students learn, but if it is done every day, little learning will take place.