Student Motivation
Student motiviation is a key factor in success. Recently, I assigned my students to make a poster of all the things that motivate them to attend and finish college. We hung the posters in our classroom. This allows for a reminder to why they are enduring the hardships that accompany attending college.
Clifton, great technique and I would highly recommend communicating with your students more and more in this way. Sometimes we as instructors are so focused on rubrics, assessments, pedagogy, and other approaches, we tend to forget the simple skills such as asking our students what they like most and lead about the class. Data gathering from this simple task can make a big difference with respect to students feeling more connected to the learning process.
James Jackson
I find in my classes there may be one or two students that seem like their not intersted, but at times are focused on every word I say. So what I try to do is figure what I was doing to hold their intrest if I can't figure it out I will pull aside and ask them what it was.
I agree and that’s a great idea. One thing I do with my student on a regular basis is have them write down their strength and weaknesses. Man student can’t tell you what they are good at.
I totally agree. I have taught kindergarten and I have taught adult education for years. Nonetheless to recognize those students that have behavioral issues early and deal with them effectively is vital. The sooner dealt with and with positive reenforcement is crucial. It is also equally as important to be agressive in your coaching, mentoring as to not send the wrong signals. Students must clearly understand that some behaviorals are not accepted nor will be tolerated.
Rochelle, you make a great point about motivation and the role a student must eventually play in their own education. It is important however to understand the difference between adolescent behavior and adult behavior are not age specific and we as coaches, mentors and guides need to motivate those stuck in a mental state of adolescence at the age of 45 versus being a more of a flight director for those adults that understand their ownership of the educational process at age 24 or 42. Truly effective instructors will learn to recognize the difference between the various levels of maturity and how best to move students to that next level.
Regards,
James Jackson
A major function a teacher is to motivate his/her students. (There is debate as to whether a person can motivate another versus whether a person can only support another to motivate themselves.) There are approaches to motivating people that are destructive, for example, fear and intimidation.
While these approaches can seem very effective in promptly motivating people, the approaches are hurtful, and in addition, they usually only motivate for the short-term.
There are also approaches that are constructive, for example, effective praise, inspiration, examples and coaching. These constructive approaches can be very effective in motivating others and for long periods of time.
When attempting to help motivate people, it's important to identify what motivates each of them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves, but as a teacher we are partly responsible for keeping them motivated while they are in class and that will inturn resonate in their everyday lives and they will become fully self-motivated.
Praise and encouragement are the best motivators in the classroom!
Tyesha, that is a great way to help remind students of why they are enrolled! I teach online but I still like the concept. I will add a discussion thread for my students to post his/her motivations for attending college. It will be an ongoing discussion and reminder for the class. I will also be able to address the posts within my online chat sessions.
Eon, I really like how you use a reflective process towards the end of your class to bring forward thoughts from earlier in the learning cycle. Such exercises can influence learning and also enhance memory of that particular subject matter.
Regards,
James Jackson
Tyesha. I use somthing very similar in the begining of my course. I ask the students to list the things that have internally motiviated to attend the course and then we use the info at the end to find out if we have addressed their issuess.
Tyesha sounds like an awesome exercise. I really like how you are positively reinforcing the motivation factor by getting them to think directly about positive motivators. One additional suggestion would be to have them put their top three motivators on a business card and then take it out anytime they are feeling stressed about school to remind them continuously why they are working so hard to obtain their degree.
Regards,
James Jackson
