In his new book Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind (ASCD, 2013), Eric Jensen describes dozens of strategies for engaging students for different purposes, for example, to build cognitive capacity, to create a positive classroom culture, or to sustain energy and focus. To engage students, especially those experiencing poverty, one of Jensen's recommendations aimed at stimulating motivation and effort is to "make it their idea." He explains this recommendation as follows:
Many kids feel like the world "happens" to them. In psychology, this mindset is referred to as a low locus of control. When a person is confronted with an adverse situation or person and feels limited control to manage it, his or her brain feels stress. Thus, it makes sense that students who are accustomed to poverty or other adverse circumstances have developed certain coping skills to strengthen their locus of control: if they sense their world getting out of control, they may show anger, helplessness, or both.
Conversely, when perception of control is elevated, stress goes down and learning increases. Black and Deci (2000) found that teacher support of student autonomy correlates positively with academic performance for students initially low in self-regulation. When it comes to student achievement, having a sense of control has, on average, a moderate effect size of 0.30 (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008; Patall, Cooper, & Wynn, 2010). The effect increases with students living in poverty, because they start from a higher baseline of stress (Evans & Kim, 2012).
Here's the upshot: to increase your students' locus of control and, by extension, their engagement and learning, let them make more choices. You don't need to cede control of your class, or even offer students particularly significant choices. The feeling of having some control is at least as important as actually having control. For this reason, it's essential to "sell" a choice so that students are aware of the power they're being given. For example, it's less effective to say, "On our next assignment, you can either work alone or with a partner." To drive home the fact that you're handing students the reins, say, "I bet you'd like to decide whether to work alone or with a partner on our next assignment. So I'm letting you have it your way: you get to choose!"
Here are specific strategies you can use to give students a sense of control.
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Source: Adapted from Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, by Eric Jensen, 2013, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Copyright 2013 by ASCD.