Motivating students to behave in socially competent ways

Theory Into Practice, Autumn, 2003 by Kathryn R. Wentzel

In the following sections, goals for education and ways teachers might promote students' pursuit of these goals are discussed.

Goals for Education

What are the goals for education that are pursued by teachers and their students? Goals for classroom life reflect a wide range of social as well as intellectual outcomes. At the policy level, educational objectives have included the development of social competencies as well as scholastic achievements. Specifically, social behavior in the form of moral character, conformity to social rules and norms, cooperation, and positive styles of social interaction has been consistently articulated in federal mandates as a goal for students to achieve (Wentzel, 1991b).

Parents are rarely asked about their goals for school. However, in a study of several hundred parents of high school-aged students, Krumboltz, Ford, Nichols, and Wentzel (1987) reported that social competence in the form of cooperation, respect for others, and positive interpersonal relationships was nominated by almost all parents as a critical outcome for students to achieve, over and above academic accomplishments. Teachers also have expressed their ideas concerning what well-adjusted and successful students should be like. When describing "ideal" students, middle school teachers have mentioned three types of desirable outcomes: (a) socially integrative characteristics such as sharing, being helpful to others, and being responsive to rules; (b) motivational qualities such as being persistent, hard working, inquisitive, and intrinsically interested; and (c) performance outcomes such as getting good grades and completing assignments (Wentzel, 2000).

Some researchers report that students try to achieve the same positive outcomes valued by teachers (Allen, 1986; Wentzel, 1989). With respect to social goals, most students report frequent efforts to be prosocial (e.g., sharing and helping others solve problems) and socially responsible (e.g., doing what the teacher says), and often pursue these social goals as part of a coordinated effort to achieve multiple classroom goals that also include academic accomplishments. Of particular interest for understanding classroom management issues, Wentzel (1989) found that in contrast to high-achieving students, the lowest achieving students tend to report frequent pursuit of other types of social goals such as to have fun and to make and keep friendships, and a general unwillingness to try to conform to the social and normative standards of the classroom.

In sum, the literature on classroom goals clearly indicates that students as well as teachers value goals for behavior reflecting prosocial as well as socially responsible outcomes. Of additional interest is that students who pursue such goals also tend to display prosocial and responsible classroom behavior, as well as enjoy high levels of social acceptance by teachers and peers. Thus, pursuit of these positive social goals ultimately leads to the support and approval of teachers as well as peers, an important criteria for judging healthy adjustment to school. Moreover, there is ample evidence that students who pursue goals to be prosocial and socially responsible also achieve intellectually, as reflected in classroom grades and IQ (Wentzel, 1991a, 1994). Therefore, pursuit of these social goals appears to set the stage for other aspects of healthy adjustment at school, by supporting displays of socially integrative behavior, the development of positive interpersonal relationships, and enhancing personal attributes such as intellectual development.