What are some ways you can help your students to become motivated and excited about your course?
To help movitvate students in my class, I have created ways in making the material real to the students, in addition giving them the opportunity to discover meaning and value in the material. One real motivating factor for the students was knowing that they would be injecting anesthesia on each other in lab. This created a real environment in knowing the correct location of needle placement.
Rae Lynne,
Right you are. The students need to see the ROI of what is being presented to them so they will associate value to their college experience.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I have found the best way to motivate my students to become motivated and excited about the course is bring the course to life by exemplifying how the course materials influence their daily lives both personally and professionally.
Bonnie,
Well said. This is the human factor that is critical for student connection and rapport.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Frederick,
When you have this kind of approach you are setting the stage for maximum student engagement. This greatly enhances the learning process.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Showing your personal excitment for what you are teaching for the day will help your students become motivated. Your additude is the biggest key on how the students will react towards the subject.
I try to display a positive and enthusiastic attiude during the class, and relate exciting experiences relevant to the discussion which will capture the students' attention.
Handsom activities helps motivate learners in new ways. I use visual aids to show students the information in a new light. I always try to provide the students with real world quidance and situations which they can not find from a text book.
I've seen the same thing happen in my class. While lecturing through a textbook, if I apply something from my life that's related to the subject-matter it often engages the class more and keeps them interested. Plus more of them are willing to talk about something they can easily connect with. Sometimes its a little too much discussion and we have to bring it back to the subject at hand (ie the textbook) but I think that's a good problem to have!
Encourage them, find their interest, and incorporate their ideas within the lecture. Also group work and activities is other key factor to keep students engage with the class material.
Dennis,
Good strategies for students to use to keep their interest in the topics and facilitate growth in their knowledge of the field.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I've found that the best way to motivate students is to reveal a love of learning and dedication to the subject of the class. This can be done by demonstrating, for example, how to interpret a poem, including one's own personal relation to the subject of the poem. Student are also motivated by engaging in tasks that allow them to reveal their talents and inclinations and perceptions. Group activity often is a great way to engage the students who are not so inclined to larger group discussions. In small-groups, the more shy students are more inclined to talk with a few fellow students. Education is all about motivation, so this dimension of instruction is paramount.
By demonstrating your interest and zeal in the topic and the course you can energize your students. Students are in the program to learn because they are interested in the profession--by continuing to create the spark and keeping them intrigued, half the job is done.
An instructor is the champion, the cheerleader and the guide for the students. By keeping yourself excited about your career and profession, it is easy to engage the students.
By showing my great experiences in the profession of the class.
I enjoy taking my students into their career environment so they can see first hand what to look forward too. I also like to see them interact with the dentist and dental assistants. I usually find that really motivates them to stay excited about the course.
All,
I attempt to help my students become motivated in many different ways. First, I tell them being in college is a choice you made, you are paying money to be here and if you are not motivated to learn that you might be throwing your money away. I try to tell students that you have choices in this classroom that are 100% up to you and if you want this the motiviation will be second nature. You will want to participate, you will want to read the text, you will want to practice your skills.
I also try to get my student motivated by introducing them to an engaging anticipitory set to start each lesson. Those are many things to get their brain firing properly.
I am very motivated myself (which is displayed in the classroom) and I believe that my happiness and excitement in class rubs off on many of my students. If I see students uninterested in the subject I will do something that will grab their attention again such as a question, a quick game that involves what we call as Career Cash that can be spent to buy items. They learn the material and have a direct reward (the career cash). This keeps them on their toes, engaged, and motivated to have answers.
Try to encourage them to how this will help them when they get out of school.
Sometimes if a student is failing, or work is bad: I ask them first what do they think when wrong or even better what is an area of improvement. They then can share with me where they need help, plus it them aware of an area they may need more effort. I always try and be encouraging as I have seen students do a complete turn around.
Learn who your students are and understand what their needs are. Make sure that you prepare for your class so that they are busy learning the minute they come to class.
My positive attitude and enthusiasm convinces my students that I am interested in what I am teaching and that I know what I'm talking about. I use current examples showing how they will use the information they learn in my classroom, and this motivates them to experiment themselves with what they have learned about in my classroom. I challenge them to be as creative as they would like to be, and this is a motivator as they see unbelievable creativity come from their classmates.
