chapter 4 some ideas for motivating students

8/7/2019 Chapter 4 Some Ideas for Motivating Students

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Some Ideas for Motivating

Students

Robert Harris

Version Date: March 2, 1991


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1. Explain.


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Some recent research shows that manystudents do poorly on assignments or in

participation because they do not understandwhat to do or why they should do it. Teachersshould spend more time explaining why weteach what we do, and why the topic or

approach or activity is important andinteresting and worthwhile. In the process,some of the teacher's enthusiasm will betransmitted to the students, who will be more

likely to become interested. Similarly, teachersshould spend more time explaining exactlywhat is expected on assignments or activities.Students who are uncertain about what to do

will seldom perform well.


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2. Reward.


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Students who do not yet have powerful

intrinsic motivation to learn can be helpedby extrinsic motivators in the form ofrewards. Rather than criticizing unwantedbehavior or answers, reward correct

behavior and answers. Remember thatadults and children alike continue orrepeat behavior that is rewarded. Therewards can (and should) be small and

configured to the level of the students.Small children can be given a balloon, apiece of gum, or a set of crayons.


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Even at the college level, many professors at

various colleges have given books, lunches,certificates, exemptions from final exams, verbal

praise, and so on for good performance. Even

something as apparently "childish" as a "Good

Job!" stamp or sticker can encourage students

to perform at higher levels. And the important

point is that extrinsic motivators can, over a brief

period of time, produce intrinsic motivation.

Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishment

and recognition; rewards for good work produce

those good feelings.


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3. Care.


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Students respond with interest and

motivation to teachers who appear to behuman and caring. Teachers can help

produce these feelings by sharing parts of

themselves with students, especially littlestories of problems and mistakes they

made, either as children or even recently.

Such personalizing of the student/teacher

relationship helps students see teachersas approachable human beings and not as

aloof authority figures.


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Young people are also quite insecure, andthey secretly welcome the admission by

adults that insecurity and error are

common to everyone. Students will attend

to an adult who appears to be a "real

person," who had problems as a youth (or

more recently) and survived them.


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It is also a good idea to be approachablepersonally. Show that you care about your

students by asking about their concerns

and goals. What do they plan to do in the

future? What things do they like? Such ateacher will be trusted and respected more

than one who is all business.


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4. Have students participate.


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One of the major keys to motivation is the

active involvement of students in their ownlearning. Standing in front of them and lecturingto them (at them?) is thus a relatively poormethod of teaching. It is better to get students

involved in activities, group problem solvingexercises, helping to decide what to do and thebest way to do it, helping the teacher, workingwith each other, or in some other way getting

physically involved in the lesson. A lesson aboutnature, for example, would be more effectivewalking outdoors than looking at pictures.


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Students love to be needed(just like

adults!). By choosing several students tohelp the teacher (take roll, grade objective

exams, research bibliographies or

biographies of important persons, chair

discussion groups, rearrange chairs,

change the overhead transparencies, hold

up pictures, pass out papers or exams)

students' self esteem is boosted andconsequently their motivation is increased.


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Older students will also see themselves as

necessary, integral, and contributing parts

of the learning process through

participation like this. Use every

opportunity to have students help you.Assign them homework that involves

helping you ("I need some magazine

illustrations of the emphasis on

materialism for next week; would someone

like to find one for me?").


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5. Teach Inductively.


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It has been said that presenting conclusions first

and then providing examples robs students ofthe joy of discovery. Why not present some

examples first and ask students to make sense

of them, to generalize about them, to draw the

conclusions themselves? By beginning with theexamples, evidence, stories, and so forth and

arriving at conclusions later, you can maintain

interest and increase motivation, as well as

teach the skills of analysis and synthesis.

Remember that the parable method of making a

point has some significant historical precedent.


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6. Satisfy students' needs.


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Attending to need satisfaction is a primary

method of keeping students interested andhappy. Students' basic needs have beenidentified as survival, love, power, fun, andfreedom.Attending to the need for power couldbe as simple as allowing students to choose

from among two or three things to do--two orthree paper topics, two or three activities,choosing between writing an extra paper andtaking the final exam, etc. Many students have aneed to have fun in active ways--in other words,

they need to be noisy and excited. Rather thanalways avoiding or suppressing these needs,design an educational activity that fulfills them.


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Students will be much more committed to

a learning activity that has value for them,that they can see as meeting their needs,

either long term or short term. They will, in

fact, put up with substantial immediate

unpleasantness and do an amazingamount of hard work if they are convinced

that what they are learning ultimately

meets their needs.


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7. Make learning visual.


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Even before young people were reared in a

video environment, it was recognized thatmemory is often connected to visual images. Inthe middle ages people who memorized theBible or Homer would sometimes walk aroundinside a cathedral and mentally attach certain

passages to objects inside, so that rememberingthe image of a column or statue would providethe needed stimulus to remember the nexthundred lines of text. Similarly, we can providebetter learning by attaching images to the ideas

we want to convey. Use drawings, diagrams,pictures, charts, graphs, bulleted lists, eventhree-dimensional objects you can bring to classto help students anchor the idea to an image.


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It is very helpful to begin a class sessionor a series of classes with a conceptual

diagram of the relationship of all the

components in the class so that at aglance, students can apprehend a context

for all the learning they will be doing. This

will enable them to develop a mental

framework or filing system that will helpthem to learn better and remember more.


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8. Use positive emotions to

enhance learning and motivation.


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Strong and lasting memory is connectedwith the emotional state and experience ofthe learner. That is, people rememberbetter when the learning is accompaniedby strong emotions. If you can make

something fun, exciting, happy, loving, orperhaps even a bit frightening, studentswill learn more readily and the learning willlast much longer. Emotions can be created

by classroom attitudes, by doingsomething unexpected or outrageous, bypraise, and by many other means.


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The day you come to class with a bowl on

your head and speak as an alien observer

about humans will be a day and a lesson

your students will remember. Don't be

afraid to embarrass yourself to make a

memorable point.


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9. Remember that energy sells.


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Being energetic in your teaching is amotivating factor in itself; adding energy to

the ideas you want to convey will further

enhance learning and commitment to the

ideas.


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Baseball and Motivation

It has been pointed out that students who are

bored by school and "unmotivated" in the eyes

of the teacher nevertheless find plenty of

motivation for playing a sport. The obviousquestion, then, is, What is motivating about a

sport? Think about a group of young people in a

baseball game. The very things that motivate

them to work hard and do well playing baseballcan be adapted to the classroom. Let's look at

them:


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1. Teamwork.

Humans are gregarious and like being aroundeach other. Young people and adults usually likeworking as a team. Yet often the learningactivities we assign call for individual effort.Young people especially complain that they

don't like doing homework alone, yet we ofteninsist that it be done that way. y designingmore team assignments, we can exploit thebenefits of teamwork, where the weakerstudents will learn by having others help. And, of

course, since teaching someone something isthe best way to learn, the students who teacheach other will learn better than if they werelearning alone.


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Why not let or even encourage your

students to do their homework as a group?

You will still have measures of individual

learning when exam time comes.


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2. Fun.

Sports are fun, exciting, sometimes thrilling,highly emotional. Learning experiences shouldprovide as much fun (or at least enjoyment andsatisfaction) as possible. We sometimes think

that some learning tasks are by necessityboring (like learning definitions, grammar,vocabulary), but perhaps this attitude reflectsonly a lack of creativity on our part. Americansespecially have indulged the myth that workand play are two distinct entities that shouldnever overlap. Work can be fun; it should befun.


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3. Enjoyment of success.

Playing a game provides a constant flow ofaccomplishments and the enjoyment of thoseaccomplishments. Even the team thatultimately loses enjoys, say, a strikeout, a base

hit, a well-caught fly ball, and so forth.Teachers should think about this stream ofsmall but constant ego rewards. reakinglearning into small packages that can beconquered and that will in some way produce afeeling of accomplishment and success willhelp motivate students to go forward, eventhrough very difficult material.


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4. Active.

A baseball game is not passive (like toomuch learning). It requires both mentaland physical activity. Teachers should

strive to make learning always at leastmentally active and perhaps oftenphysically active as well. The studentsshould be responsible for producing

something, rather than just sittingpassively, soaking up the lecture.


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5. Flexibility and Creativity.

Baseball has rules, of course, but there is withinthose rules a large degree of flexibility, so that aplayer has a range of choices and strategies foraccomplishing a given goal. In education, it has

been found that students learn better when thedirections given them have a similar flexibility sothat they can put some of their own creativity--some of themselves--into the assignment. Thefreedom to follow hints, suggestions, and their

own inclination will produce a greater desire toperform and a better long-term learningexperience.


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6. Tangible Thinking.

The game connects thought with the tangible in

that every decision is worked out physically and

its result is seen in three dimensions. This kind

of connection is the best there can be forlearning and remembering, as well as for

providing fun. Teachers should therefore attempt

to connect ideas, concepts, conclusions, and so

forth with physical reality, whether as effects andconsequences or in a symbolic way.


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Bring objects to class that will make or

illustrate a point you want to convey. Call

up students to stand before the class and

give them roles or use them as examplesof something. Connect ideas to pictures or

to visual images in the imagination (that is,

use concrete analogies whenever

possible).


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7. Outside the Classroom.

It has been said that most learning takesplace outside the classroom. It's important,then, for the teacher to prime students to

continue learning after class, to preparethem to be aware, to ask them to applyconcepts in their lives after they leaveclass, to shape their out of class learning

experiences through hints, suggestions,assignments.


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Some professors have a small shelf of

favorite books they encourage students toborrow and read. Some suggest practicalapplications or experiments for students toperform after class. ("Tonight at dinner,

ask your meal partners how they woulddefine 'need' and compare it with thedefinition we've developed in class." or "Asyou watch TV this weekend, look for the

techniques of emotional manipulation theadvertisers are practicing.")

chapter 4 some ideas for motivating students

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