Inspiration and motivation only occur once students are provided with a level of autonomy and agency and pursue something meaningful to them. This idea is not only supported by Marzano and Scott and their application of the hierarchy of needs but also by Deci and Ryan’s Self Determination Theory (2020). Within the self-determination theory, Deci and Ryan have identified basic psychological needs to be met to experience motivation and well-being. They have identified the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. I think there are some evident parallels between certain aspects within the hierarchy of needs and the Self Determination Theory. Self-actualization and autonomy are two closely related ideas, as well as belonging and relatedness or competence and esteem within a community.

Consequently, this should only make us more aware of the importance of those needs and their impact on our teaching as even the best lesson plan, delivered in the most engaging way, is not getting the learning across if the students are not feeling safe or if they experience a lack of belonging or relatedness to others in the classroom. I also think it is important to note here that this is not something that we should approach with discipline nor with thinking that creating even more engaging and fun lessons will holistically support students in overcoming these first 3 levels within the hierarchy but I strongly believe that we need to ensure that our classrooms are set up in a way that these needs are supported and provide everyone with the freedom to learn and reach their full potential. These basic social and emotional needs are not just a teaching tool or something to at times focus on. As they build the foundation for accomplishment, they are a non-negotiable factor within an effective classroom.

For the remainder of this post, I will focus on a few short ideas and thoughts about the first 3 levels based on literature and personal experience. Those ideas are in no way intended to be a solution for certain problems but just a few selected ideas that might spark interest and can be researched further or implemented in the classroom quickly.

Belonging & Relatedness

Feeling like they belong is paramount for students’ welfare and their learning. As Ferlazzo points out in his book “The Student Motivation Handbook” there are 5 commonly discussed aspects or interaction pathways when relatedness is discussed in education. There is the interaction between teacher & student; student & student; student & class and student & parent or guardian (Ferlazzo, 2023, p. 119).

The ones we can control the most as teachers are the first 3 of these interactions and being actively aware of their importance is already a solid foundation to assess if any work on them is needed.

Additionally, there are a few steps we can take to provide our students with more of a sense of belonging. Marzano and Scott (2016) have identified the ideas of inclusion, respect, affection and cooperation to create a sense of belonging.

When it comes to making students feel included and respected, we should be taking intentional action towards creating a classroom that is as inviting as possible. This can be achieved by many means, the classical greeting students by the door, setting up classroom rules to ensure respectful peer to peer interactions, or any other means that work for you. I am certain that you already have your strategies in place to ensure student belonging and relatedness and the point of this post is not to deliver a toolkit but rather stress the relevance and the need for intentionality when taking steps towards creating a sense of belonging among students.

One framework I can recommend looking into further if you are interested in a very intentional strategy to work on your classroom atmosphere is the “Invitational Education Framework” originally proposed by Purkey and Novak (Marzano & Scott, 2016, p. 95). It helps you assess what conscious decision you can make to help create a more inviting classroom and lets you identify which subconscious behaviors might be hindering creating the right classroom atmosphere.

As a side note, positive student-teacher relationships are not only helpful to students, but they also help teachers decrease burnout symptoms and emotional exhaustion (Ferlazzo, 2023, p. 121).

Safety

For us, living and working in Western Europe and being used to actual safety by which I mean the absence of potentially harmful or threatening situations within schools, I am focusing rather on the aspect of perceived safety within schools as this is something often and easily overlooked and furthermore, I do not feel qualified at all to “advice” or give recommendation on concerns of genuine safety.

As stated by Hargreaves and Shirley (2021) providing actual safety is the “minimum requirement” schools should strive for and that actually reaching a state of well-being takes more than that (p.14). Unfortunately, students can experience the sensation of being unsafe despite the complete absence of factual threats. Furthermore, when experiencing a perceived threat, students experience the same sensations as if they were subjected to a “factual threat”. When pondering about this specific idea, I realized that creating a classroom culture around rewards and punishments (which I at times did) can evoke that fear. It makes students less free to learn and explore but rather focus on avoiding mistakes or gaining rewards. It removes students’ intrinsic sense of accomplishment from classrooms. As stated by psychologist Barbara Greene: “[…] when their actions are largely governed by rewards and punishments, people are less likely to believe that they are in control of their lives and less likely to experience positive emotions such as enjoyment, hope, and curiosity.”(2017, p. 2). Consequently, the absence of these positive emotions and a sense of control can be and is often perceived as the absence of safety.

According to Marzano and Scott (2016), there are helpful strategies or focus points a teacher should pay attention to when creating a classroom environment that students perceive as safe. Among them are the need for order (e.g. classroom rules or expectations), fairness and consistency. If students have a set of clear expectations that are applied consistently as well as fairly, which help them improve and grow, students know what to expect when coming to school and they can safely predict the reaction their behavior will provoke. These concepts and ideas would warrant a whole post in itself, but cannot be holistically explored in this short overview, yet I believe that they serve as a starting point for new teachers to further research these ideas or as a brief reminder to reflect on our own practice as a more experienced teacher.

Physiology

After reading Marzano’s and Scott’s work, I continued to research and came across this quote from the book “Well Being in Schools” by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley. They were talking about their research around Canada’s public school system. Specifically, they focused on schools with a high rate of poverty and indigenous students and highlighted the effect of poverty and family situations on student achievement.

One of the teachers in this district asked, “You really start off the day, you are looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. How did they sleep? Are they hungry? Are they feeling OK? Are they happy? You are starting bare bones and you work your way up until [they] are ready to learn.” (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2021, p. 21)

Of course, this is a very extreme case but probably not as rare as we hope these cases are, yet the need for physiological well-being at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can also extend to children from presumably more fortunate backgrounds.

For example, when it comes to hunger, it does not only matter if students are eating, but their energy and concentration levels also depend on the type of food they consume. When students do not get enough sleep for reasons potentially out of their control, they will not be able to function and learn as effectively.

We have been very fortunate to have one of our team members participate in an international project creating resources to educate students and teachers about the importance of these different factors. The online resource focuses on teaching students about the importance of these basic levels such as physical health, nutrition and sleep which are all essential parts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Marzano & Scott, 2016). Within the online course, students will learn about the positive effects of physical activity and health as well as the consequences bad nutrition and lack of sleep have.

By following this link, you can enjoy and use this entirely free resource which was co-funded by the European Union.

https://learning.fiteens.eu/

Of course, it must be acknowledged that there are cases when simply teaching students about these aspects isn’t enough as students are seldomly in control of their own food choices or there might be other environmental and societal factors impacting any of these basic requirements. In these cases, communicating with parents or guardians or utilizing support from your school such as school counselors is the best path of action. Ultimately, we as teachers have to be aware that there is a limit to what we can do, but we are always able to show understanding and compassion and offer support where it is needed.

To me, one of the main aspects to be taken away from these ideas is that sometimes teachers should not solely focus on the most effective teaching strategy or the best way to plan a lesson but rather ensure that students are supported, welcome and have their learning environment fulfill the basic requirements for learning. At TeachingThatMatters, we like to call this idea “action to remove distraction” or the “removing obstacles” approach as it does not initially seem like the students are learning or we are getting done what we want to get done but by removing these obstacles, we allow students to successfully learn and thrive whilst they are in our classroom. Ultimately, it comes down to what we should invest our time and energy in and I strongly believe that removing these obstacles improves every lesson more than creating better resources or the most detailed plan.

References:

Ferlazzo, L. (2023). The Student Motivation Handbook (1st ed.). Taylor and Francis. https://www.perlego.com/book/3841443/the-student-motivation-handbook-50-ways-to-boost-an-intrinsic-desire-to-learn-pdf

Greene, B. (2017). Self-Efficacy and Future Goals in Education (1st ed.). Taylor and Francis. https://www.perlego.com/book/1570090/selfefficacy-and-future-goals-in-education-pdf

Hargreaves, A., Shirley, D. (2021). Well-Being in Schools ([edition unavailable]). ASCD. https://www.perlego.com/book/3292298/wellbeing-in-schools-three-forces-that-will-uplift-your-students-in-a-volatile-world-pdf

Marzano, R. & Scott, D. (2016). Motivating & Inspiring Students (1st ed.). Marzano Resources. https://www.perlego.com/book/4141841/motivating-inspiring-students-strategies-to-awaken-the-learner-helping-students-connect-to-something-greater-than-themselves-pdf

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions,

theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 61, 101860.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860