Hi Kate,
You have a great attitude and your excitement for your field will carry over to the classroom. Your instructional skills will continue to grow as you gain experience while you are making a difference in the lives of your students. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Some additional ways that I help to motivate my students are give them "real life" examples to work on, have them use their current situation, or use family situations. I teach investment classes, so it's more motivating for the students if they work on their own budget and see how they can help themselves! This has be a phenomenal way of taking what the students are learning in class and apply to real situations. Students seem motivated to learn additional material once they see how exciting the information can be.
Teaching has been a very eye opening experience for me. As mentioned in previous posts many students in careere colleges come from tough backgrounds or do not have it easy. I believe to motivate learners for one they have to see that we are excited about what we're doing. If as instructors we are not excited then how can we expect our students to be. We have encourage them and let them know that we believe in them and that they are able to succeed, most times all some of them want is to know that some one believes in them.
I am a new instructor and have a great deal to learn but I am passionate about the field of physical therapy and look forward to passing that on to my students and I am hopeful that passion will become contagious.
Hi Kristin,
Thank you for sharing this excellent list of strategies with us. Often times online instructors feel that they don't know how to engage and involve their students. You have shared a number of ideas that they can use to encourage, support and involved their students. I know these are going to be helpful to many instructors.
Gary
Bring a guest speaker in to talk about the field that they are about to enter, or visit a site so the student may see the career of choice in action. I think when former students come in as guest speakers this can get the students excited as they hear positive feedback about their career choice. Share your own real life expericences and how the field changed your life personally. When students come in from all socioeconomic backgrouds this can be helpful if they have been through similar experiences.
There are as many ways to motivate learners as there are learners. Some work best in an actual classroom setting, not an online one; however, since I am an online college instructor now, after having spent 15+ years in a middle school classroom, I will focus on what I've found to be motivational for online students.
Comment on improvement, in an email with an attached quiz or test or homework assignment or in an in-class exercise when a student finally gets a concept. In fact, if the class is fairly cohesive, let other students "applaud" and make smiley faces. Camaraderie is important.
Create a safe classroom. Be clear that students learn from mistakes just as much as from correct answers. Mistakes can lead to important information and clarification because the likelihood is, if one person missed the answer, someone else did too.
Acknowledge students. Say hello, ask how they are, empathize when they're sick or exhausted, and ask if they're feeling better the next week. Treat them like people with lives and responsibilities.
Provide real-world examples of the content in action so the material doesn't feel isolated or worthless. Show them how it impacts their career of choice.
Recognize when material is hard. Put the class into perspective. Sometimes "A" students really get down on themselves when they earn a "B." I remind students to be kind to themselves, to take into account the particular material and its difficulty, and to realize that sometimes it's a process. I also remind them that the course is 30 hours over 10 weeks; it's the tip of the iceberg because material is often a process that just begins in the class but continues throughout the student's professional life. Students have to be realistic and remember their long-term goals. This has helped a lot in my classes, which are heavy-duty technical grammar and punctuation classes.
These are just a few motivational strategies that have worked in my online classes.
I believe if you show the students that this subject matter is relevant to their goals the students will buy into the learning process.
I like the idea of being the facilitator and letting the students play an active role in the learning process. Make them accountable and give them the ability to make decisions in their education. Give them choices.
Hi Tiffany,
Well said concerning how to approach the classroom in terms of making learning personal and supportive. You mention two key items, realistic assignments and relating your personal experiences from the field. As you know students really like both approaches because this way they are helped with connecting the dots between their studies and their career goals.
Gary
I discovered - whether pedagogy or andragogy - that the "one size cannot fit all." Students are diverse and multicultural today. Some come from differenct socio-economic backgrounds, some are unprepared, unrested, unfed, while others are driven academically.
Sometimes I tell a story of my personal experience when I was their age; one they can relate to. Being careful, I praise all students, so I do not demotivate even when they do not do a good job. The "Buddy system" and teaming on large project works, where I put weak and strong together to feed off each other. But this can be a challenge.
If curriculum is tied to real world assignments involving research, they will develop problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Tiffany
Hi Theresa,
I teach a required course as well. My students have to take and pass the course or they cannot receive state certification. This presents some challenges because of student attitudes but I enjoy teaching the course anyway. I get to be creative, use a variety of activities like you have mentioned and it is fun to see how they start to become engaged in the course and realize that what I am teaching can actually be helpful. Imagine that in a required course!
Gary
Most of the students I see are required to take the courses, since I am the main pharmacy instructor on the campus. I use current event within each classroom, to help connect the student which what is going on in the outside world. We take field trips and attend guest lectures.
I like to use examples of how the material relates to the job they will be doing.
Hi Diana,
You are so right about the need for adult learners to feel that they can be successful. They need help with increasing their self confidence in relation to being successful students. Instructors play an essential role in helping them to see how they can accomplish their goals and pass the course.
Gary
I agree with what Kim said. Motivating my students is one of my biggest challenges. In my short time of teaching adult students; I have found instilling in them a "can do" attitude is the biggest motivation. So many of them believe they can not possibly accomplish the goal they have set before them. Many times an adult who believes in them makes all the difference.
Thanks for your insite on the topic. students don't always know why they are learning something. giving them the real life situation helps them to see that.
Thanks for the reinforcement of ideas.
Hi Joanna,
I understand where you are coming from with the keyboarding class. This is a tough one because it is a program based course. When I have taught such courses I rely heavily on the before and after class talks I have with students. I work hard at establishing rapport with each student so I can encourage him or her since within the actual course content there isn't anything I can do. I am available to answer questions during the class time to help reduce their frustration levels but at times even that doesn't help.
Gary
To be honest it is hard to get your student motivated depending on the course. I have no problems getting students excited and motivated about my accounting courses, but the keyboarding courses where they are run by a program and not me; I just don't know.
How can you get a student excited about something when they are facing 18 chapters of a textbook, learning a new program, and have only 11 weeks to get it all done? By the end of the course the students have to fill a 2-inch binder full of work. Motivation is the hardest in this types of courses.
I tend to remind students that I was able to complete the work when I was a student and still complete the work each time we get a new textbook.
Hi Dawn,
Great way to bring relevance and application of math into the lives of your students. With your approach I am sure you reduce much of the anxiety that students have about math, plus they find they can actually "use math" in their lives. What a surprise. Keep up the good work.
Gary
