Release of Responsibility
| Teacher Responsibility | Student Responsibility |
| Explicit instruction | “I do it.” |
| Guided instruction | “We do it.” |
| Collaboration | “You do it together.” |
| Independence | “You do it alone.” |
Source: Fisher & Frey, 2008.
This is the type of instruction that should occur in every classroom every day. The gradual release of responsibility gives a student the structured autonomy for his or her own learning. Student responsibility for learning increases as teacher responsibility for instruction decreases. A teacher assumes the most responsibility when giving explicit instruction, ensuring student understanding of what they are about to learn and why (Fisher, 2008). Then, students and the teacher work together on the learning during guided instruction. This gives the teacher a chance to both model thinking and gauge student comprehension via prompting, facilitating, questioning, or leading tasks that increase comprehension (Fisher, 2008). The next shift in responsibility moves students to collaborative work with peers, where they use problem solving, discussion, and negotiation (Fisher, 2008). They have a chance to play with ideas, take risks, and teach and learn from each other. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are strong components of this step. Finally, students receive a chance to independently apply what they learn. A major misconception is that this final layer is the assessment; it is not. Students must have individual practice before a teacher does a final assessment.
Decreasing the teacher’s responsibility creates more opportunities for him or her to work with individual students and small groups, allowing for daily formative assessment and feedback. The most effective teaching strategies to improve student achievement, as researcher and professor John Hattie (2012) notes—classroom discussions, clarity, reciprocal teaching, positive formative assessment, cognitive task analysis, self-questioning, and self-reporting grades—can only occur in a gradual release of responsibility format.
It is important to note that this is not a linear shifting of responsibility, but the model’s message is clear: scaffold students toward independence through guided instruction and peer collaboration. The gradual release of responsibility is a way to conceptualize consolidating learning.
Do you see the gradual release of responsibility in your instruction? Do you intentionally build its elements into your lesson plans? If you could add one step to your class tomorrow, which would it be and how would you accomplish it?
Competence
We are creatures of habit for a reason; routines are safe and outcomes are predictable. We feel successful, which adds to the sense that we are capable, or competent. We develop prototypes and schemas for how the world works, and we work to master that system. Cognitive psychologists Jean Piaget (1926) and Eleanor Rosch (1973) conceived of the concepts of prototypes and schemas for how the world works, and Ryan and Deci (2009) claim that we work to master those prototypes and schemas. In Drive, author Daniel H. Pink (2009) labels this phenomenon mastery. Pink (2009) points out the irony—that mastery is entirely elusive. There is always a deeper level to obtain. We push through frustration in hopes of achieving the excitement of mastering a concept or skill, but it is mastery that drives us to do that. Competence enables higherlevel performance and risk taking that beget greater levels of success (Pink, 2009).
What happens when we don’t feel competent? Often, we’ll disengage. Disengagement is strongly associated with a student’s beliefs about his or her academic ability (Patrick, Skinner, & Connell, 1993, as cited in Legault, Green-Demers, & Pelletier, 2006). Students cannot begin a complex task if they believe they lack competence, even though they may have the skills to begin the work (Deed, 2008b). When the student sees the learning as a mountain, he or she would rather walk around the mountain than face the perceived insurmountable challenges of the climb. Feeling competent means students are more likely to seek further development in an area. Moreover, students’ level of perceived competence is a better predictor of performance than their actual ability (Pajares & Schunk, 2002).
Do your students feel competent in the subject that you teach? How do you enable that feeling in students, and how can you tell when they feel it?
We move to self-determination theory’s relatedness element next.
Relatedness
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said that humans are social animals. We seek connections with others. We want to feel valued. Young people, in particular, come with a strong desire to please adults (Durden, 2011), though they also seek it with peers. And this goes beyond abstract notions. Teachers who emotionally support students report higher cognitive, emotional, and social engagement in their students (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2015). Relatedness with your students is the most important job of a teacher. Author Maya Angelou’s (2002) experience demonstrates this importance. She became selectively mute for a number of years after a man she testified against was killed following his release from police custody. It was not until a teacher connected with her did she choose to use her voice.
For students to develop a sincere connection to school, they “need frequent, affectively pleasant or positive interactions with the same individuals, and they need these interactions to occur in a framework of long-term, stable caring and concern” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995, p. 520). Interpersonal methods build trust, and trust is crucial to relatedness. Psychological scientist Jeanne E. Ormrod (2003) says such teachers “are warm, caring individuals who, through a variety of statements and actions, communicate a respect for their students, an acceptance of them as they are, and a genuine concern about their well-being” (p. 482). How does a teacher build this connection? Make sure that instructional methods include daily guided instruction and collaboration activities. They slowly help students engage with each other and with you, the teacher. When students and teachers are working together, it changes the interactions and eventual relationships for all of them.
Do your students feel relatedness with you? How about with their peers in your classroom? How do you encourage trust and collaboration?
Student Perception
Based on my experience, students will approach tasks or the work you structure in your class different ways depending on their engagement level and the lesson’s complexity. The rubric in figure 1.3 reveals how students view any one lesson.
Figure 1.3: Engagement and complexity rubric.
Lessons can feel like chores, games, burdens, or missions. I developed this model using a simple construct of engagement on the left y-axis, beginning low and moving up to high, and the x-axis beginning with low complexity on the left. This rubric should help you frame classroom work as you move through the next chapters. I’ll use these terms to help explain student perceptions of classroom experiences. The aim is to develop high-complexity, high-engagement experiences, but it is important to recognize and be able to describe the experience when we are not reaching that goal.
Chore: Low Complexity, Low Engagement
Does your child—the one at home—like to take out the garbage? When he or she does take it out, does he or she align the cans neatly at the street, with all rubbish ready for an efficient pick up? When my son takes out the
