The Motivated School

The learning stances portray how pupils interact with the classroom. The positive stances are the ways pupils engage positively and the defensive stances describe how they disengage. The stances are classroom expressions of pupils’ personalities and emotions. They reflect an orientation towards a specific context or activity rather than an enduring disposition. They are founded upon the 3A needs matrix.

The stances are learned attitudes that reflect both how pupils feel about themselves and their current intentions about learning. They are shaped by the beliefs they hold about themselves as learners. From the teacher’s angle, they are a reflection of how the teacher feels about the pupils. Most people will see pupils in the engaged stances similarly, but there will be less agreement between teachers on those pupils who are seen as taking up defensive reactions.