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Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation"Our
students vary significantly in academic abilities and interests and attitudes
toward work and authority. Few
students have the capacity for self-reinforcement" (Lowman, 1990* in
Eddington and Hunt 17). Nevertheless,
students are motivated by a variety of factors, such as interest in a subject,
seeing the relevance or uses of a subject, a wish for achievement, con
fidence, "patience and persistence," as
well as desire for approval and even the desire to overcome a challenge (Davis
193). "The
most a teacher can do is to create the circumstances that influence students to
want to learn" (17) especially in required courses. "Some
of your students may have never experienced academic success, some may have
learning disabilities, some may suffer test anxiety, some may be divergent
thinkers, and some may have had embarrassing or humiliating classroom
experiences" (17-18). "Most
students respond positively to a well-organized course taught by an enthusiastic
instructor who has a genuine interest in students and what they learn"
(Davis 194). v
Introductory Letter: Ask students to tell
about themselves, what they expect out of the course and you as a teacher (goals
and behaviors, not grades), and ask what you can do to make the learning easier
or more comfortable (methods, not work loads). v
Train Students to Take Your Course: What exactly do they need to succeed in your
course? Make the first week a
"learning week," as Barbara Glenn (JSRCC, English) calls it.
During the course, instead of pointing out to students that they are
"way behind," point to ways they can learn and offer help (Davis 195).
v
Reading: Find out who has textbooks, or give students clear reasons to use the
course text, e.g. study questions to answer for a chapter, perhaps for a grade
or perhaps because a section of the next exam will be based on those questions o
"Survival
Cards": J.
W. Daniel reports ("Survival Cards in Math." College Teaching 1988,
36.3: 110) getting 90 percent of students to read instead of 10 percent by
having students submit at the beginning of each class a 3" x 5" card
with highlights from the day's reading--outline, definitions, etc., which he
collects and stamps. Cards are
returned just before review for the test, during which students can add to each
card but not add more cards. Cards
are collected by the teacher and passed back at the test for use as aids in
taking the test. o
"One-Word
Journal":
Thomas Angelo has students state a word characterizing the reading for the day
and jot down a brief (less than a page) explanation to justify the
characterization. o
"One-Sentence
Journal": Ericksen
and Strommer (Teaching College Freshmen.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991) vary this method by suggesting that you
ask students to write one detailed in answer to a question you have about the
reading and to list 3 bits of supporting evidence--such as quoting from the
reading, citing facts or figures, noting experts quoted, etc. o
"Critical
Reading Questionnaire": Either one-by-one or as a
poll for a reading, ask students to respond to questions such as these: §
Can you
give me one or two items from the chapter that seem important? §
What
section of the reading do you think we should review? §
What in
the reading surprised you? §
What
topics in the reading can you apply to your own experience? (Davis 200) (See
also: "When They Don't Do the Reading." Teaching Professor,
1989, 3.10: 3-4.) v
Emphasize Mastery and Learning Rather Than Grades:
o
Show
students an old exam question or two, sample answers, and get them to indicate
which answers are superior and why. o
Instead
of grading all homework--especially with zeroes--encourage student effort by
asking for a reasonable effort, plus bringing in questions about tasks or
problems they could not complete or study questions that were unusually
challenging for them. (A study by
Ames and Ames suggested that grading everything puts students' egos on the line,
so some will simply not submit homework rather than risk a low evaluation.
The "try it for 30 minutes" class was attempting to learn and
seeing the trial and error involved. That
teacher also counted the homework as a smaller part of the grade--and got more
turned in.) (Davis 197) v
Fair Exams: Avoid
the tricky, overly long, and infrequent exams. Consider alternative and frequent
assessments--portfolios, essays, collaborative or group quizzes or tests, partly
take-home, student-made tests and study guides, with mastery learning options (Eddington
and Hunt 18). Tests--all
tasks--should require the kind of thinking you want students to exhibit, not a
default term-and-definition rote (Davis 197-198). v
Respond to Tests/Assignments Quickly and Informatively:
Students need to know how to do better, either for revising or retesting on the
current assignment or for the next one. They
also should know how well they have done compared to your standard or each other
(or both). Provide positive
feedback and "recognize sincere effort"; for attempts that fall short,
indicate your belief that students can improve with enough time on task (Davis
198). v
Use Rewards, Not Punishment: Instead
of subtracting from grades for absences and late work, give instructive
feedback--even on ungraded practices--and note during the course how much
students have advanced to demonstrate that you are on their side (Eddington and
Hunt 19, Davis 197). v
Show successful work in ways like these: o
For
assignments you've used before, note thesis statements that have been
successfully defended in the past, e.g. for research tasks or exam essays.
o
Perhaps
permission the best writing to show it in other sections or later semesters.
o
Get
students to read, even write a critique, of each other's essays, lab reports,
field reports, etc., (Davis 198) especially if your criteria are clear or even
developed with the students. v
Emphasize Progress and Self-Review:
Especially when students get upset about a grade, get them to take stock
of what they have learned, see their strengths, and target their weaknesses
(Davis 195). Of course, that's hard
to do if you only give 2-3 tests for the entire course grade, so scale out more
frequent assessments, including quizzes and papers, maybe presentations, group
tasks, and even informal assessments, such as an occasional one-minute paper (on
the day's clearest or muddiest point, collected anonymously). v
Use Cooperative and Group Learning Methods:
Decreasing individual risk helps promote intrinsic motivation; so does
giving students some say in the formation of the schedule of assignments. v
Find out a discussable fact for each student in addition to a name:
Other class atmosphere
methods include study buddies, pointing out uses of course concepts, making
expectations clear, and looking to student comfort with movable seats (20-21)
and activating the low-state bid ventilation vs. the low-state bid sound
suppression system (opening the classroom door for air or
closing it for quiet and privacy). v
Praise encourages; routine suppresses motivation: Other
methods include students teaching, avoiding grading curves (a quota for A's and
B's) and keeping up your own enthusiasm, keeping tests focused on the course
objectives and mainstream information and at a challenging but realistic level
that recognizes the level students have upon entering the course, pacing the
course [and the help] appropriately (21-22). v
Increase students' intrinsic motivation: "Frequent, early, positive feedback" and providing
opportunities that are sufficiently challenging but not over students' heads are
as important as helping students see personal meaning in the subject, creating
an open and positive learning environment, and establishing a sense of community
(Davis 193). v
"Don't tell students something when you can ask them."
Active participation requires students to do, make,
write, design something, to solve a problem, to test ideas against perceptions
of their peers. In particular,
replicate E. J. Sass's 1989 study, "Motivation in the Classroom: What
Students Tell Us" (Teaching of Psychology, 1989, 16.2:86-88), by
asking your students to recall two recent classes, one motivating, one not so,
and list specific traits of each. Students
should group to combine lists, but they will probably note that motivation
springs from an enthusiastic instructor, relevant material, an organized course,
appropriately challenging tasks and content, active involvement, variety,
rapport, and concrete, understandable examples (Davis 194-195).
* Lowman, J. "Promoting Motivation and
Learning." College Teaching, 1990, 38.4: 136-139. Sources: Barbara Gross Davis, Tools for Teaching.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. "Motivating Students": 193-204. Susan Eddington and Cathy Hunt, Teaching
Consultation Process SOURCEBOOK. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press, 1996.
"Motivation": 17-25. |
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1999