I believe that attendance is very important in helping motivate a student.This teaches the student to be on time. He will use his attendance everyday in the work force. One of the biggest complains We hear from employers is that people are always late to work.If you are not on time you will not have a job for very long. One of the first jobs of and instructor is to motivate the student and teach them about their attendance, you teach them by reminding them of how many tardies they have, how many hours out in class. You have to always bring the numbers to their attention.
Methods that I use to motivate my students, I use my internal energy for what I do. Show them the passion I have for what I do.I have open discussions with them of what the industry expects from them as a professional in what they plan on doing, I use motivational experiments with Diagnostics,electrical experiments I use games like Jeopordy,puzzles, word searches Etc
I know one the struggles most of our students have is the Automotive and Diesel terminology so I use simpler terms they can relate to, for keeping them motivated and feel they understand.
I talk to them about how the industry needs them to have professional skills to better them selfs as techs to be able to talk and socialize with customers to gain confidence.
i like to what i call bait the students in things that i will cover at a later time, i like to answer questions that can have more than i answer and tell them i will give them more answers later .another one of my motivators is to ask them questions about upcoming material to be covered in the course in a different section and make them want to be here to hear those is the old sayinganswers later '' keep them coming back for more''
The grade should be one of the top motivators for studants but a lot of vocational studants find that being able to acheive the required lab skills is even more motivation. Everyone should have the opertunity to see a job well done. An enviroment found with a good positive attitude and a thank you for a job well done is a good motivational place to start.
Hi John,
Good strategy. Changing the ebb and flow of the class is essential to keeping students engaged in the learning process. You are progressing with the teaching of the content but you are doing it in a variety of different ways and that is what keeps the students engaged. Keep up the good work.
Gary
I like changing their actions in class by have having some type of activity this could be individual or group activity. Discussing the importance of the course with the students is very important. I have students set there goals for every topic that we cover at the end of that topic I have the students look at the goals to insure that the goals were covered, this is one way I have found that keeps the student motivated in class and lab.
Motivation to me is a very big deal for my students, I really work hard to help the students to find their inside motivations that brought them to this education in the first place. I give them the support and tools to allow them to look inside and get passionate about their goals and how the course that we are in will help them in their future, wherever that may be. I give good work experience examples and relevent techniques to keep them grounded to the task, as well as life lessons to be learned that they can draw on to be sucessful and motivated about their choices.
I like this idea. I usually present this tye of information at the first class . I now will try and integrate this concept into each lesson plan.
Bringing in real world experiences and how they tie into the course objectives can be a great motivator. At the start of each lesson plan while going through the objectives I like to discuss the importance of what in it for them or why learning this information will help them be sucessful.
One thing I do during the first day is to ask each student about their expectations of the course. "What is it that they want to learn." Sometimes it is general knowledge they seek but sometimes a student has a specific interest within the course. This allows me to taylor my course overview and introduction so the students understand that I have an interest in what the student wants to achieve. Depending on the student, sometimes the student knows the material but just wants more confidence when diagnosing problems, and at other times, the student may need to learn how something functions.
Sometimes motivating students is not easy, especially in a somewhat boring course such as A/C. In this course, I keep reminding students of the possible large amounts of money to be made by knowledge of A/C work. Many students say they live in cool climates, and nobody uses their A/C. I remind them that the A/C system also involves the heater system and that many times the A/C system must be discharged, dismantled, then recharged in order to perform a heater repair.
I like to relate the material being learned to the goals the students have and how the information learned can lead them to accomplishing their goals and in the end relate to the amount of dollars they can earn. I try to let them know that the work they do today, prepares them for tomorrow but it also gives them the advantage today, no guarantees but one must prepare for tomorrow in case there is a tomorrow, the best prepared person usually reaps the greatest rewards, opportunity favors the prepared mind!
Thanks for yor comments, Steven. Yes, positive feedback is the most important reinforcement to skill-building and is itself a great motivator. Relevance is the other key factor - relating skills and techniques to individual goals of a good job and good money. It's something that most career students can immediately relate to.
Jay Hollowell
MaxKnowledge/CEE
Each day as i introduce the days lab/lecture I like to explain how the task/subject relates to what they will be doing in the shop. This seems to bring more value to what they are learning. I also stess quality instead of quanity and challenge them to develope the skill of doing it right and haveing pride in their work, explaining that speed comes with experiance and a profesional concetrates on quality with quanity become the result of doing the job right.
Hi James,
Excellent! Your understanding how important the modeling of behavior is to the future professional success of your students is to be commended.
Keep up the good work.
Gary
A great motivator is to explain to the students that the information and techniques they are about to learn in the course will greatly improve their ability to earn money.
Explaining that the systematic approach to solving problems is going to allow them to solve problems in much shorter amount of time.
The satisfaction a student recieves from solving a problem or learning a new technique can also be a great motivator for future challenges.
Reinforcing good work habits with positive feedback can also help motivate the student.
I tell my students that my responsibility is to help make them the most marketable technicians possible - $$$. That includes; technical skills, problem solving skills and professionalism. I have found as others have that giving real world, realistic examples from the field is one of the best ways to motivate students. It is usually easy to find something to praise the student who is trying. The challenge is the student that is not showing effort. That is when it is important to talk to the student about why. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for the lack of effort. By guiding the student in the direction to find help is a great motivator. Just the aspect of someone caring can really help. Showing consistency in the classroom is paramount. Lack of consistency is one of the main reasons students can lose motivation
I ensure my students are motivated by keeping them involved in their labs and assignments and by relating the information to the field in which they will work. I help them acheive professionalism by the old adage 'lead by example'. I dress, carry myself, make my presentations in a complete professional manner.I do this and am very approachable and friendly.
When the course starts I give the students a sylibus of all 15 days in the course. Then we will cover the content of what will be covered in the material & how it relates to what they will be doing in feild.
I often use potential profit as a motivator. I explain how learned skill sets can make them fast and efficient and how as a flat rate technician this directly equates to money, or how in any job it means job security for many reasons. I give examples from my personal experience including mistakes I made (Often humorously to keep intrest up and lighten things up) so they may avoid those mistakes but also realize mistakes are part of life and to learn from them. I also explain customer desires and expectations and how much of customer satisfaction is based on how professional the customer views them. By being skilled as well as professional they will build up their own customer base that asks for them by name and this too means more profit.
