Rochele, I have always been fascinated with the concept of motivation. If students were always motivated I am not sure higher education would be the same model it is today. I think the real issue is maturity. Some students will be mature at 18 years of age while others will still be adolescent at 55. Maturity is not so much a matter of chronological age as much as it is a state of mind. Our roles as instructors is to find ways to help students mature into themselves and come to a level of understanding of the role they need to play in their own education. We will not always be successful but this does not imply we should not try. I hope we hear from others on this important and sometimes controversial topic.
Regards,
James Jackson
Josef, you are so correct. It is really all about building relationships. The better you are at building relationships the better your class dynamics and learning outcomes.
Regards,
James Jackson
I believe that even though the student has to take ownership of their responsibility to be committed and motivated to their education we as educators have to introduce a motivational enviornment to some of our students who aare lacking in that area... sometimes even self motivation is a learned behavior some individuals have low self esteem and have been told they are stupid all their lives and they find it difficult to find motivaion on their own so we have to set the tone and be the role models of motivation so I belive it is our responsibilty to at least try to give them a dose of motivation.
Depending on the class, there is often a vast gulf in the amount of self motivation a student has. I recently had to deal with a situations where students were placed in a class because they needed credits to graduate and it was one of the only classes offered at a pleasant time. Since some of the students did need the class, I gave each student some choices in various aspects of projects and tests so it would relate more to their field of study. It was also a small class so I could monitor this. Results were very positive. I realize this does not always work in larger classes but if you can make students feel like you care about their individual program and progress, they tend to respond better.
I agree with you.
I sit with this question continually. My best guess, and it is truely a try and try again strategy, is that the students on the fence are really evaluating themselves. If I can give them opportunity to give themselves an excellent in something, anything, they will then invest in themselves. The trick is finding that something.
I also agree that the instructor tasks become more familiar and you do have more time and energy to spend on the climate of the classroom.
We all want to feel that what is being taught is connected to us individually.
For those few remaining, I have not yet found the magic path in. I have yet to discover how to teach passion.
James, greatly appreciate your clarification and I feel you are correct as well. Becoming an effective and efficient instructor is not an overnight process and requires annual development and professional goals. I feel between out two posts we have provided some great action points for any new instructor.
Regards,
James Jackson
I completely agree. More what I was trying to get across to the brand new instructor was on the time management aspect. From what I understood he was having trouble balancing reaching people while maintaining his other tasks and other jobs. And I beleive where his time initially could be better spent is sharpening his approach to instruction and getting his methods down before trying to "save the world". But yes you are correct, the ones that seem unreachable sometimes just need a different path, well said.
James, great comment about those students being on the fence. Motivation can be a very tricky behavior to identify. In my experience of over 20 years and thousands of students I have been surprised many times. Those that appeared to be unmotivated have gone on to great successes and those that seemed very motivated failed to produce or move forward to achieve anticipated goals. In short, be careful to make judgments. Take the time to build relationships with your students and when an opportunity comes up to learn more about behavior profiles such as DiSC or Myers-Briggs, of course there are others, take full advantage and over time you will develop a good way of determining the different motivators for the different types of students you will encounter. A student who is perceived to be unmotivated may simply require a different approach. Determining if they are introverted and private may provide you the information you need to break through their outer shell and make a connection that allows a true relationship to take place and better learning can result.
Regards,
James Jackson
Tyler, I understand your comments and feel they are common among many instructors. One thing to also consider is to be careful deciding between motivation and lack of resources. Resources can be mental or physical. By mental I imply that not all students have had the same background in their K-12 environment or their family support environment. By physical I imply they may not have the financial resources to have experienced many of the advantages others have experienced. Nothing about teaching is easy. Educators do not teach because they seek rewards, educators teach because it is what drives them and what is intrinsic to the fulfillment of their value funnels. There were times in my teaching career where my personal life simply had to take a back seat to learning my craft as an instructor. There have been other times where the teaching came naturally and my personal life thrived. There will be an ebb and flow process and this will happen in cycles. I am sure there are others that may have a more effective or efficient methodology and I look forward to those comments. I hope this has been helpful to you in some way.
Regards,
James Jackson
I have only a few years in as an instructor but it hasn't seemed to change much. There will always be a few out of the bunch who lack motivation. What I find helps me, as well as my class, is that you can try to reach those students that are on the fence and are still able to be shown that they are capable. So in short, there are those who are motivated (whether intrinsic or extrinsic) and those who are not. But there is a median group who are still "choosing sides" and you can attempt to open their eyes. Once you have your teaching style down and have found what works for you the menial tasks become easier to handle. Finding out interests and hobbies can be as simple as listening to their responses, or applying what their learning to what they already know. You can throw out an example and ask how it applies to them and usually they'll start it with, "well when i.....". That lets you know the activities that they may participate in.
