What the Best College Teachers Do:

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What the Best College Teachers Do

• Motivating Students

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What is Motivation?

• Motivation is defined as the purposeful
  engagement in classroom tasks study to master
  concepts
  

How do you know when your students are motivated
?
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Motivation Question 1

• Think about jot down answer

Remember a class or workshop that you attended w
here you were provoked, interested, or motivated
. Why were you provoked, interested or motiva
ted?
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Motivation Question 2

• Think about jot down answer

Remember a class or workshop that you attended w
here you were bored, uninterested, or unmotivate
d. Why were you bored, uninterested, or unmot
ivated?
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Motivation What We Know

• What do we know already about why we are
  provoked, interested, or motivated?
  
• What do we know already about why we are NOT
  motivated?
  
• Is this applicable to our students?

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What Most Teachers Do

• Most teachers motivate by

• Rewards or Punishments

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Motivation by Rewards

• Rewards are based on needs
• Student are motivated to earn the reward (the
  A), if the student needs the grade

Have you ever coasted through a class, not c
aring about your grade as long as it was passing
?

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Motivation Why Rewards Do Not Always Work
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How do the Best College Teachers Motivate?

• Students learn best (because they were motivated)
  when
  
• Student were actively engaging their brains
  (a.k.a., active learning)
  
• How do the Best do this? . . .

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How Do We Motivate?

• Tap into student values
• What students think is important
• Focus on
• Tasks that are challenging
• Tasks that are interesting
• Tasks that meet a goal

• Tap into student expectations
• What students think they can accomplish
• Focus on
• Ability to learn is controllable
• Effort is controllable
• Professor expects success

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Natural Critical Learning Environment

• Students confront a problem
• The students find the problem interesting or
  important
  
• The environment is challenging yet supportive,
  students have a sense of control
  
• Students collaborate on the problem
• Students know their work will be considered
  fairly and honestly
  
• Students know they can try, fail, and receive
  feedback before grades

Create a lesson using these steps
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Other Motivation Tips

• Get your students attention, and keep it!
• Start with the students, not your discipline
• Seek commitments
• Help students learn outside class
• Engage students in disciplinary thinking
• Create diverse learning experiences