motivating students
Teachers have a lot to do with their students' motivational level. A student may arrive in class with a certain degree of motivation. But the teacher's behavior and teaching style, the structure of the course, the nature of the assignments and informal interactions with students all have a large effect on student motivation. We may have heard the utterance, "my students are so unmotivated!" and the good news is that there's a lot that we can do to change that.
Deb,
This is a very important part for instructors to remember as they prepare their content and delivery. I teach from 4 until 10 pm so I have learned how to work with tired students throughout the evening. Other instructors start at 6 am and they have a different set of challenges when it comes to engaging students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I believe it is also important to understand how to motivate students taking classes at different times of the day-for instance, morning students are completely different from evening students in that many of the evening students come directly from their outside jobs.
The same material needs to be taught in different ways to motivate all students, and of course, not all students in every class need the same type of motivation.
Anthony,
Attitude goes a long way in helping student motivation. Your comments reflect how you encourage and support the learning of your students. This is what being a learning leader should be about.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
