Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts and compare their ideal learning environment to your own. Explain how the differences would affect your learning. Be sure to respond to any queries or comments posted by your instructor. 130 word each

Tiffany Bradley

Summarize the movie you selected to watch and discuss ways in which the teacher motivated his/her students. Using Chapter 8 of our text, describe the motivational theory employed for each of the strategies you listed.

                Freedom Writers is a 2007 drama film starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell who wrote the story based on Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in the Eastside neighborhood of Long Beach, California. The movie is also based on the DC program called City at Peace. The title is a play on the term “Freedom Riders”, referring to the multiracial civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961.

                Mrs.Gruwell is a very motivated teacher when it comes to her helping her students better themselves. There are several different things that caught my attention about this movie. But one imparticular was her making her class do a “Toast for Change.” This allowed all of students to open up about their struggles and what they wished to change about themselves. In her doing this Eva was able to break free of her father’s demands, and tell the truth in court. That Paco did kill the man at the store.

Mrs.Gruwell asking her students to open up about themselves made a lasting impression. She allows asked her students to write their diaries in book form. She complies the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary.

How did satisfying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs impact student learning in your selected movie?

                When it comes to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Mrs.Gruwell definitely helps her students in the movie. When she asks them to write in their diaries. She is giving them the growth need. She is allowing them to grow into the self-actualization category.

How did the teacher in your selected movie display characteristics of a humanistic teacher? Be specific by providing examples and connecting your response to the text.

                Mrs. Gruwell, is a very special teacher. Whom only wants to see the good in each of her students. She is a humanistic teacher because she cares about her student’s uniqueness, the individuality, and the humanity of each and every one of them. She felt each one them were their own “self”, and only wanted them to be able to express that.

Describe the ideal learning environment for you and explain how it will increase your motivation and ability to learn. What obstacles would hinder the creation of your ideal learning environment?

                Growing up in a small town, and everyone pretty much knowing one another. We didn’t really have the gangs, etc. So my ideal learning environment would be a small town setting like the one I lived in. And still do. Where everyone knows one another, and if you got a problem in class. All you got to do is contact a parent. However, often times I have seen where parents get a little defensive over their child. So, to increase my motivation and ability to learn. I would want parents as well as myself to be able to work together to provide the proper education for their children. The obstacles that would hinder my ideal learning environment would be the lack of cooperation from parents as well as students. It takes a student welling to learn to be taught, and parents who back the teacher to make that possible.

References:

LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

DeShundra Newsome 

The movie that I watched was Stand and Deliver. It has ultimately been one of my favorites since I was younger. It’s about this teacher Mr. Escalante who is coming to a high school and he comes up with a way to make the children or students that everyone has pretty much given up on because they showed no potential and don’t care for the hard work and don’t try to do better. He give them a chance and encourages them to do better and more with their life. She makes them so motivated to where they pass the AP Calculus test when they didn’t think they could. Mr. Escalante showed them the need of love and made them feel like they belonged. He also met the needs of helping build their self-esteem so that way they would think more of themselves. The students didn’t care about their future. Once they saw that someone actually cared for them they actually began to work harder. They started setting goals for themselves to do more with their life and began to change their mind sets. His humanistic character shows that he was catering to each and every one of his students individual needs. He cared more about them and they cared about themselves. The ideal classroom for having the right resources. As well as the instructor or the teacher would have to be very motivational and encouraging. They would also have to be willing to set time and actually help their students. Something that may hinder is having someone who really does not want to be there such as a teacher that doesn’t want to be in the place where she is and it shows because there will be no love or a passion for what she is doing.

Lefrançois, G.H. ( 2011) : Psychology of teaching. San Diego, CA. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

(this one below is mine, I don’t need feedback)

1.    Summary and theory

The movie focuses on a motivational speech delivered at Eastside high, in which the learners have been negatively branded as being incapable of learning. The teacher begins by describing the downside of the students and affirming that they are unable to learn. However, it takes a twist in which he refutes the existing claims and encourages the students by telling them that they are not inferior as they have been branded.

Some of the ways in which the teacher motivates the students are by boosting their self-esteem by affirming their superiority and their ability to study. He also dismisses claims held about the school’s positioning and bad grades. The Maslow hierarchy of needs is the motivational theory employed by the teacher in this movie. He strives to meet the love and belonging needs as well as the esteem needs of the learners (McGuire, & Maslow, 2011).

2.    Satisfying Maslow hierarchy of needs   

Maslow hierarchy of needs portrays the needs that levels of human needs. The satisfaction on one level of needs motivates an individual to achieve the needs in the subsequent level. These levels of needs include the physiological needs, safety, love, and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.  Some of the needs that the movie satisfies include esteem needs. The teacher encouraged the students by urging them that they are not inferior. Affirming to them that they are superior boosts their self-esteem hence their desire to learn. The teacher also encouraged the students not to believe what other people have said about them and concentrate on their studies.  Refuting claims that these students are inferior was one way of meeting love and belonging needs since they feel appreciated and that they belong to a wanted category in the society. They are therefore motivated to learn because they feel important in the families and society as a whole (McGuire, & Maslow, 2011).

3.    Display of humanistic characteristics

The teacher in the ‘lean on me ‘movie did not emphasize on grades. He argued that the grades of these students may have been inferior but the students are not. This is an indication that grades are irrelevant to him (Patterson, 1973). 

                                    4.  Ideal learning environment

The perfect learning environment for me would be a friendly environment in which the teachers are concerned about my needs apart from educational needs. An environment with safe learning equipment and space, a school with knowledgeable and qualified teachers as well as an environment in which the teachers use various tools to measure success. The environment will increase my motivation and ability to learn in that I will be safe and also cared for by the teachers. I will, therefore, have ample time to study without distractions such as insecurity.  Inhumanistic teachers can hinder the creation of a healthy learning environment. Lack of resources such as teachers could also be an obstacle.

References

McGuire, K. J., & Maslow, A. H. (2011). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Patterson, C. H. (1973). Humanistic education. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWW4KogocfQ