Tamara Maurey

= Division III =

''This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. By Molly Smith, Staff Writer.''

Tamara Maurey’s Division III project, entitled The Role of Self-Regulation in the Elementary Classroom, focuses on determining strategies teachers can use to help Kindergarten–3rd Grade students learn to be responsible for their own education. According to Maurey, most self-regulation research has been done in secondary school, and most of the related research that is done in elementary settings focuses on children’s ability to sit still, be quiet in line, etc.

At the secondary level, teachers already expect students to have a high level of responsibility in figuring out how to be independent learners. “I wanted to see what strategies teachers can incorporate in their instruction at the earlier grade level in order to prepare their students to take responsibility for their learning,” said Maurey. Given her interest in independent learning, it’s no surprise that she chose to attend Hampshire. The learning approach here makes it particularly necessary to be in control of one’s own education. “Students need to be self-regulated, especially in Division III.” Maurey’s project, through her personal observations and research, looks closely at how this drive for independence can be fostered in the earlier years of school.

She has done several in-class observations of children at an elementary school in Amherst. Among the more successful strategies she has observed are those that encourage students to set goals for their learning and that help them to analyze their current learning approach. Teachers can help students to stream-line their own educations by giving them individualized suggestions and helping them to set personal learning goals.

Hoping to be a teacher in the near future herself, these classroom observations have been beneficial not solely to Maurey’s Div III, but also to her personal teaching approach. “Being in the classroom has helped me to identify specific strategies I hope to incorporate into my practice next year when I have a classroom of my own.”