Transforming Students\u27 Sense of Entitlement Through Engaging Curriculum

This research is important because entitlement is prevalent in college classrooms and in the workplace, and this belief begins to develop in middle school as students become more self-aware. This sense of entitlement can both limit the potential for learning to occur for these students and be a source of frustration for teachers who are not accustomed to teaching students with a sense of entitlement. Understanding how to transform entitlement into something useful in the classroom could lead to a better learning experience for everyone involved. This research use case study methods to understand teacher’s perception of student entitlement within their classroom. Through use of surveys, interviews, and classroom observations, implications are drawn about the effects of student entitlement on classroom learning. In response to this, four lessons were developed to address student entitlement within the classroom. Results of this will be presented at the Association for Middle Level Educators National Conference this November 4-7 in Philadelphia. Attendees will gain a research based foundation about the growing sense of entitlement that middle school students bring with them into the classroom. Attendees will then be given four different lessons, each aligned to Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science that are designed to address the issue of entitlement within the core curriculum, by emphasizing characteristics that help reduce students’ sense of entitlement. Using the sample lessons as a model, attendees will learn how to modify their own curriculum to help address the sense of entitlement that their students may possess. Attendees will be shown a website of our presentation, that will include a relevant review of the literature about student entitlement in schools, images and videos that showcase entitlement in schools and how to combat it, and 4 different sample lesson plans aligned to Math, Science, Social Studies, and ELA. Attendees will participate in a lesson plan activity where they work in groups to deconstruct the sample lesson plan and attempt to apply what they have learned to their own content area