In 1981, legendary writer Stephen King published a short story titled ‘The Jaunt’. It explores a futuristic world where humans have mastered immediate teleportation known as 'jaunting.'
In one scene, the night before a big family trip, a father(Mark Oates) struggles in vain to convince his young, stubborn son, Ricky, to prepare for their journey. The boy sat rooted in place, jaw set, resolutely ignoring his father’s alternating threats and desperate pleas. Despite the promised prize of an ice cream sundae upon arrival, the child refused to budge – resisting every tactic with indefatigable defiance.
This scene resonates deeply with every teacher who has contended with stubborn students. We’ve all encountered those unreachable children who cling to resistance with almost superhuman stamina. They ignore instructions, shun encouragement, and rebut consequences with indifference.
As an edtech consultant, I see a clear parallel between the futuristic father in King’s story and the countless educators exhausted by stubborn student behaviour. The reasons why such conduct impedes learning have been thoroughly documented. Some teachers refer to extreme defiance as “the cancer of the classroom” due to its rapid spread and potential to corrupt the learning environment. In fact, a notable 44% of teachers identify it as the most negative aspect of teaching, according to this study.
However, rather than dwelling on the well-known negative consequences, this article aims to shed light on the intricate dynamics at play in the minds of these stubborn students and, more importantly, offer practical solutions using technology.
Understanding the nuances of stubborn behaviour is the first step toward effective intervention. It's not merely defiance; it's a complex interplay of motivations, and often, underlying challenges.
This article provides an explanatory counternarrative – rejecting the assumption that stubborn students are inherently “unteachable”. Supported by pedagogical research, I will demonstrate how targeted edtech tools can transform resistance into cooperation when teachers meet students where they’re at emotionally and developmentally.
Decoding stubborn behaviour
Understanding the intricate landscape of a stubborn student's mind requires a deep dive into behavioural psychology. It's a complex interplay of various factors that contribute to their resistance and defiance in the classroom. Let's dissect the layers of their psychology:
1. Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman's theory of learned helplessness suggests that individuals who perceive a lack of control over their circumstances may develop a passive response to challenges. Stubborn behaviour can be a manifestation of learned helplessness, where students resist tasks due to a belief that their efforts won't lead to success. This severely hampers both motivation and a sense of personal agency. Students with learned helplessness mindsets see academic results as almost random - depending more on chance or external factors like teacher bias or luck rather than the fruits of their own labour.
Over time, the belief that their choices and work ethic fail to impact success or failure becomes entrenched. This serves as fertile ground for stubborn attitudes to take root and thrive. After all, why try if you are convinced your participation is futile or meaningless? Their stubborn refusal to engage becomes a self-protective defence mechanism in response to a learning environment they perceive as uncontrollable. In the classroom, this can manifest as stubborn resistance to new tasks, reluctance to engage, and an overall avoidance of challenges.
2. Self-Determination Theory
Human psychology has certain core needs for optimum functioning according to the highly influential self-determination theory first postulated by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. One of these key fundamentals is the hunger for autonomy - the urge to take charge of our own choices and experiences. Rules, structures and restrictions inherent in schooling often collide with this hardwired craving for self-direction among adolescents.
The result is students instinctively pushing back against authority through stubborn means, as an attempt to claw back some personal jurisdiction in an environment where they wield little power or independence. This phenomenon helps explain why domineering or authoritarian approaches frequently backfire with stubborn kids. When autonomy feels forcefully robbed, rigid resistance often follows.
3. Fear of Failure and Perfectionism
Behind most stubborn underachievers lies an intense fear of failure and accompanying perfectionist tendencies. School environments centered around continuous evaluation through testing and grading often intensify this distressing dread of disappointment or humiliation after putting forth sincere effort.
For students paralyzed by this anxiety, the shame of being judged “less than perfect” feels unbearable, feeding thoughts of inherent inadequacy. As a self-protective defence mechanism, these children learn to dodge assignments and expectations through stubborn refusals or distracting defiance – because submitting subpar work feels worse than the consequences of not trying at all. Students exhibiting stubborn behaviour may be striving for an unattainable standard, afraid that any misstep will tarnish their self-image or elicit judgment from others.
Traditional classroom settings, with their emphasis on grades and assessments, can exacerbate this fear.
4. Reactance Theory
Developed in 1966 by Jack W. Brehm, reactance theory proposes that when freedoms feel threatened by external rules or restrictions, it triggers an instinctive psychological response - a reactive urge to resist perceived encroachments and reestablish autonomy. For students, the school environment brings endless rules, demands and imposed structures that can spur this reactance reflex. What educators view as defiant rule-breaking or stubborn contrarianism is often an unconscious protective response among kids seeking to cling to personal jurisdictions of choice central to their identity and self-concept.
The ideal approach based on reactance theory involves maximizing perceived student choice, control and input wherever pragmatically possible within the school ecosystem. Careful questioning can uncover where students feel most constrained, opening doors to incorporate heightened autonomy without undermining learning essentials.
5. Cognitive Dissonance
Pioneering psychologist Leon Festinger first coined the term "cognitive dissonance" to describe the extreme psychological discomfort that arises when someone's beliefs and actions conflict internally. This tension between incongruent ideas, values or behaviours triggers mental anguish. To ease this dissonance, people instinctively avoid situations likely to deepen the contradictions. It's much simpler to double down on existing patterns than to self-reflect or change.
In students, cognitive dissonance often subtly fuels stubborn conduct. A student who justifies skipping class by thinking "school is useless" yet harbours aspirations for career success risks heightening internal discord. Rather than wrestle with these mixed signals, it's easier to cling to defiance, rationalizing away hypocrisy to reduce unease. Harsh authoritarian tactics only worsen this denial, eroding avenues for incremental growth.
Understanding the complex psychological forces behind stubborn student conduct allows teachers to shift from accusation to compassion. Self-sabotaging behaviours reveal vulnerable needs unmet.
Blame gives way to informed support strategies leveraging ‒ rather than fighting ‒ key drives. The goal becomes co-designing personalized learning experiences grounded in emotional development and well-being ‒ experiences that restore student autonomy, competence and connections.
This requires patience. This requires meeting them where they are. But how exactly can we do that with edtech?
Meeting them here they are, with edtech
Drawing on psychological research, I suggest three student-centered edtech strategies that address unmet needs underlying stubborn conduct. I also explain their application and psychology behind their effectiveness to not just give the what but also the how and why.
1. Anonymized Classroom Polling
What is it?: This technology enables teachers to gather real-time student perspectives, questions, and feedback without requiring students to publicly reveal their identities.
How does it work?: Platforms like Poll Everywhere, Swivl, and Flipgrid facilitate posing questions or discussion prompts digitally, with students submitting responses anonymously from any device.
The anonymized responses are then instantly aggregated and displayed back to the entire class for review. This protects vulnerable students from any social repercussions of sharing honestly while fostering an open, responsive forum focused on collective growth and understanding. The teacher gains critical insights into individual student struggles or barriers to learning that often go undetected, without calling out any one child publicly.
Why does it work?: The psychological research behind why this approach works is compelling. Granting students a safe space to authentically express uncertainties or misconceptions without fear of embarrassment speaks to core psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness that drive engagement when adequately nurtured. Anonymity reduces evaluation anxiety related to perfectionism and shame avoidance that traditionally breeds silence or distraction among struggling learners.
Constructing lessons informed directly by candid student input also strengthens teacher-class alignment and responsive instruction. Kids provide the missing context clues educators need to tailor support. Explicitly welcoming all voices through anonymity activates survey-taking rewards circuitry, satisfying our intrinsic desire to evaluate situations and share perspectives. Reciprocating these digital transparency gestures with adaptivity around trouble spots communicated surfaces barriers that teachers can proactively remedy.
Anonymity liberates honesty, honesty builds self-awareness, and self-awareness enables growth. A virtuous cycle fueled by psychological safety.
2. Stealth Learning
What is it?: It leverages the immersive quality of digital games to spark student curiosity, determination, and self-direction applied towards academic goals.
How does it work?: Rather than explicit top-down instruction, teachers design or use existing games that embed curricular concepts and skills within engaging quest-based challenges.
For example, the popular game Minecraft encourages exploration, collaboration, planning, and complex problem-solving. Teachers can adapt these existing mechanics towards lessons on sustainability by having students collaboratively design eco-friendly cities. The fantasy violence game Fortnite Creative mode allows building worlds and designing obstacle courses that exercise spatial reasoning and calculus-based physics calculations. These stealth learning games immerse students in replicating real-life situations, driven by their intrinsic desire to progress.
Why does it work?: The psychology behind why this gaming-based learning paradigm works is rooted in Self-Determination Theory. Games fulfil basic psychological needs for autonomy by letting students direct the experience while satisfying our human hunger for mastery through incremental skill development across rising levels of difficulty. Gamified systems also add elements of mystery and anticipation, triggering situational interest and curiosity – two drivers of cognitive flexibility. This hands-on application prevents disengagement by erasing the sting of failure, enabling low-stakes practice. And as algorithmic adaptation keeps players in that sweet spot between boredom and frustration, games perpetually activate the dopamine-fueled rewards circuitry incentivizing persistence.
The approach ultimately builds confidence with key subjects through repeated experiment-driven comprehension.
3. Adaptive Learning
What is it?: Adaptive learning platforms like Khan Academy, Dreambox and Cerego tap into sophisticated algorithms to provide a personalized instructional experience for each student tailored to their current competency level. I wrote about this in detail in one of my viral articles.
How does it work?: As students progress through standards-aligned materials, the system adapts in real-time based on demonstrated strengths and weaknesses.
For example, after correctly answering multiplication questions, the platform assigns progressively more challenging problems while intermittent positive feedback keeps motivation high. Struggling students receive more scaffolding – like additional examples and prompts – rising incrementally to prevent disengagement. Teachers assign customized lesson playlists and then monitor analytics to identify problem areas and calibrate supports.
Why does it work?: The psychology validating the effectiveness of adaptive platforms centers around Flow Theory – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s renowned model detailing the balance of challenges to the skill level needed for immersive states of optimal motivation. Adaptive programs perpetually set this sweet spot between boredom and frustration by analyzing performance continuously and adjusting tasks accordingly. The sense of control over flexible content sequencing also meets autonomy desires, minimizing reactance. Finally, immediate feedback praising demonstrated successes releases dopamine associated with reward response circuitry, wiring in productive habits through positive reinforcement.
So whether they’re ahead of the curve or just treading water, all students remain motivated in the growth zone while transparent data exposure helps teachers remedy gaps with precision supporting each unique learner. It’s differentiated instruction perfected algorithmically.
In a nutshell
I’m a huge fan of human behavioural psychology. I’m fascinated by the subtle details of human psychology that shape our behaviours - often subconsciously. I always seek to understand the little details that subconsciously drive our behaviour as well as the psychological tricks that companies use to keep us hooked on their products from the choice of colours, to shape, etc. Those things that often go over our heads.
Like why do major companies have blue on their logo? (Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, PayPal, Visa, Gillette, HP, Zoom etc) Well, as it turns out, Blue is used in corporate logos as it creates a sense of security while showing loyalty and professionalism. In one study done in Japan, suicides fell by 74% at stations where blue lights were installed as a result of the calming effect of blue. Tiny change, massive output.
Teachers who pay attention to the silent drivers of engagement can work similar magic in transforming classroom culture.
Thank you so much for reading The Value Junction.
I was ill so I took a week-long break from Substack. It’s good to be back.
Few things to note before you go:
I’ll be in Ghana from next week for a 3-week YALI leadership program. So if you’re in Ghana and would like us to have a chat over a cup of coffee, just let me know.
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Lastly, share any strategies that have helped you succeed with ‘stubborn’ students in the comment section. They’re one of the nightmares in the teaching profession and your advice could someone.
Thank you so much and have a productive week.
With love and peace,
Bechem Ayuk - The Value Junction
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Love this. My school had an 'anonymous' suggestion box which was put up to receive feedback from students. If you walked close to it, you'd be suspected of sharing your views. The concern with anonymous polling would be the same. Students need to trust that they won't be punished fof their views.
Bechem, very insightful article. Unfortunately, the “stubbornness” discussed doesn’t end upon graduation. In fact, it becomes ingrained in a large percentage of the younger people entering the workforce. Your problem description and remediation steps sadly overlay perfectly on many of the workforce’s new entrants—particularly college grads, but also in the trades.