Dealing with A Low-motivated Student: A Case Study of A 5th Grader in A Private School in Yogyakarta

There's always a challenge in teaching, no matter how experienced a teacher is. The challenge may come from the teacher him/herself or the people he/she is engaged with in his/her community. All the challenges, no matter where they come from, may interrelated forming a cause-effect relation. The example challenges coming from inside a teacher's self may be lack of confidence, lack of experience, and perhaps, negative thoughts about failure of teaching. Meanwhile, the ones coming from outside may consist of lack of learning resources, lack of time to prepare an ideal, motivating, meaningful and engaging lesson, lack of experience to cope with uncertainties, dealing with different perspectives with the principal or peer teacher, having unmotivated students, etc.

What I want to highlight in this post, which becomes the main issue, is having unmotivated student. I personally am having this problem. I thought that it's pretty normal to have this kind of student. However, the level of being unmotivated is at a point where I think I can no longer handle, then it becomes alarming. 

Here's the background of that student. Let call her Student C. This girl has just moved to the school I'm teaching in the Academic Year 2020/2021. Actually, her parents wanted her to go here two years ago, when she was still in grade 3. She had her observation in our school in 2018. However, this girl is a sort of insecure student where she feels hard to leave her close friends in the old school and meet the new ones. From the background story that her mother stated, I have come to a conclusion that she will be needing long time to adapt to the new school. Then her parents let her stayed longer in the old school for another year. This permission actually got her stuck with her old school, friends, and learning method. 

The Broken Down Situation of the Low-Motivated Student

After about one term learning with her, online, I have come to know more about her and the problems she is having. According to my observation and interview with her mother, I have found out everything related to her attitudes as follows:

1. She has maintained a strong and close relationship with her classmates/friends in the old school because she studied in there for more than three years.

2. She has accustomed to the learning style there with a bunch of homework to do.

3. Even when having that much work to do, she felt like she could achieve great learning results, because her mother, on a phone call told me that she was one of the top students in her class.

4. She enjoys learning with her first language, i.e. Bahasa Indonesia.

5. Because of achieving great learning results, she used to enjoy reputation as an intelligent student, therefore it has shaped her feeling of positiveness about herself and the school.

6. She used to get what her parents gave her, i.e. to postpone the time to move to the new school. I believe that it contributes to her attitude of being satisfied. Therefore, when she feels upset, she cannot manage her emotion. 

The Condition of the New School

The school I'm working for is of national-plus, because it applies two curricula, i.e. The K-13 National Curriculum of Indonesia and that of Cambridge Primary. The School does this because it is trying to address the challenges of globalization. Therefore, by applying both curricula, it is hoped that students will be equipped with skills and knowledge to make changes in the world and actively participate in the development of the world to address a lot of problems that it is encountering. As a consequence, it has more subjects beyond the national school and uses English as its language of instruction. 

From my experience teaching here for about five years, I have formulated what the School is all about:

1. It equips students with Cambridge Curriculum subjects, i.e. Math, Science and English whose materials/topics coverage are aligned with that of many other schools worldwide.

2. It requires students to speak English in the daily conversations, in class or at anytime during school hours.

3. It requires students to think more critically than just to take everything for granted.

4. It requires students to be more independent with and responsible for their own learning.

5. It requires students to push the boundaries, try anything new courageously.

6. It requires students to be able to work collaboratively to work on something and find solutions.

7. It requires students to read a lot of books, both Indonesian and English, so that they can resourceful with some knowledge as the reference to their points of view.

Student C Situation: Gap and Feeling

Considering this formulation, Student C has a gap between her ability and situation with the situation and ability the new school requires her to have. Her school did not require her to speak English everyday, but here she should. Then, her old school did not really require her to be more critical in thinking but instead, just to do and submit assignments. Additionally, because of this, her parents wanted her to attend a School that exposes their children to international atmosphere of education, which in fact it is a total struggle for Student C. Therefore, In general, there is a wide gap between the two schools' situation and her parents' expectation. 

Taking this complicated situation into consideration, me, as her homeroom teacher, should make efforts to address this challenge, with a wide range of methods. Here is what I have done to cope with it:

1. calling her on a phone to motivate her not to be scared of the new environment.

2. reminding her whenever she feels unconfident with this learning situation, particularly to join zoom meetings, do assignments and submit them on google classroom, and stating ideas in class discussions.

3. keeping telling her mother about the progress of her learning here, so that we know what is actually to be addressed.

4. Asking her mother to give her motivational support.

5. Asking for her mother's help to see a psychologist to help her find out the root of the problem and then find the possible ways to solve it.

6. Keeping in mind to have positive thoughts about her, her learning, and her future.

After doing this for a few weeks, I was observing but the results weren't as expected yet. Therefore, I still need to think of the most plausible ways to solve it, by involving parents and a psychologist (only once). Even I'm now still trying to approach her little by little, by calling her sometimes, by having a talk with her mother, etc. I hope that my positive thought about her will truly come. Aamiin ya rabbal'aalamiiin. 

What a teacher is expected to do is to keep in faith that his students are all amazing.