It's my idea, darn it.
As it turns out, I teach this in Psychology, but it was a nice way to see it applied in the classroom. I try to stress the importance of their own autonomy, reminding them that their grade is their choice, and encouraging them to seek out assistance from me or other school resources. I also attempt to bring to them many different teaching tools to reach every learning style. And offering them applied methods for psychology hopefully taps into both extrinsic and intrinsic learning.
Althea, very interesting and thanks for sharing. Students come from all walks of life and all types of background. One of the stumbling blocks of less experienced instructors is the project their own sense of values and expectations onto their students and they do not understand they need to forget about what motivated them when they went to school and focus more on what they need to understand about their students and those motivating factors. For some students the thought of taking responsibility can be frightening but is essential to their overall growth while other students have no problem taking control. The more time we take to get to know your students and their root motivators the better we can mold them in a direction that will allow them to accomplish their own goals.
James Jackson
