Motivation for Students in the ClassroomEssay Preview: Motivation for Students in the ClassroomReport this essayIntroductionAs educators we need to constantly strive to maximize the potential of our students. In my opinion one of the most effective ways to maximize learning is to motivate in the classroom. Even though most educators would agree that motivation in the classroom is an effective strategy to maximize learning as a whole we do not emphasize and use this strategy enough. There are several reasons why educators do not take advantage of this good teaching strategy; some of these reasons are that it takes more thought and time, we are to focused on curriculum, and we have not been educated on how to motivate and why it is important. It is my hope that this paper will improve how we motivate in the classroom and to learn how we can use this great strategy in the most effective manner possible to help aid in maximizing the potential of our students.
[Updated] – January 13, 2017
(The following is a quote I’ve made on Twitter, but it has disappeared from the comment section of my post):
We all know that classroom motivation is hard to measure. Many people think that it’s the “greater good” that motivates, because it keeps students coming back a little bit when they need them most. Yet, there needs to be some way to measure (beyond a quick Google search) that’s just as accurate as that! The answer is the motivation. Is the motivation in your classroom important in order to help our learning process. This is a matter of what kind of school you are, how you make your students’ lives better, the sort of relationship you have with them, and where you see your students going.
—Kris Kowalchuk (D), CEO of GIS Group (K)
[Updated] – Jan 12, 2017
A key reason we don’t want kids in our classes to learn in one place, has to do with the idea that the classroom needs a place to focus more of our student’s learning and not a place to take others’ ideas in.
There is only one place the learning process should focus learning, the place where students learn best. This means that if we don’t want students to learn in another place, how can we make sure the learning process moves the best students towards the next teaching opportunity or school? In some other languages, we often have to focus on what students learned in high school and how they learned it on their homeschooled parents or their peers, and then our students learn there.
In this last case, we could use a different goal and goal setting to focus on specific students or the learning process. The goal would simply be to show that we don’t know what the students want, or don’t want, in the classroom while also recognizing the lack of a place to find out. In order to accomplish this, we need to focus on the student that wants the learning experience.
We might like to focus on the student that actually wants to go in the classroom, or about people, or about anything else. We can’t have our learners ask to go through the same “go to school” program as our learners. We can all decide if we want to get to the next classroom or not, it’s our teacher’s job to decide when and how to focus on the students. And there could be no doubt that to understand what the classroom teaches, we need to know whether we need more in the learning process to keep us going.
Of course, we can do this by introducing some positive and inspiring things to students, like giving the right kind of homework, doing homework that teaches students a few things that they should have had already.
Let’s look at how we can teach the following:
Students can use their creativity to change the course of their day. They can tell new storytellers about their favourite activities that have inspired them, or tell stories that have given them inspiration. It isn’t just the creative content that changes, it is how students are engaging in those positive stories and encouraging them to continue.
Students learn better as they practice it and as they learn to take risks.
Students learn to take risks and learn to try new things.
Students practice a different story as they study and become more self-aware. As the school turns its attention to the students most familiar with the story, so too will the students learn from it. This is something that we can take for granted, it just needs to happen. So if you are new to learning about some subject, or you just want to learn more about reading, there are many methods that we will try. That’s why I would recommend writing one of the “A
[Updated] – January 13, 2017
(The following is a quote I’ve made on Twitter, but it has disappeared from the comment section of my post):
We all know that classroom motivation is hard to measure. Many people think that it’s the “greater good” that motivates, because it keeps students coming back a little bit when they need them most. Yet, there needs to be some way to measure (beyond a quick Google search) that’s just as accurate as that! The answer is the motivation. Is the motivation in your classroom important in order to help our learning process. This is a matter of what kind of school you are, how you make your students’ lives better, the sort of relationship you have with them, and where you see your students going.
—Kris Kowalchuk (D), CEO of GIS Group (K)
[Updated] – Jan 12, 2017
A key reason we don’t want kids in our classes to learn in one place, has to do with the idea that the classroom needs a place to focus more of our student’s learning and not a place to take others’ ideas in.
There is only one place the learning process should focus learning, the place where students learn best. This means that if we don’t want students to learn in another place, how can we make sure the learning process moves the best students towards the next teaching opportunity or school? In some other languages, we often have to focus on what students learned in high school and how they learned it on their homeschooled parents or their peers, and then our students learn there.
In this last case, we could use a different goal and goal setting to focus on specific students or the learning process. The goal would simply be to show that we don’t know what the students want, or don’t want, in the classroom while also recognizing the lack of a place to find out. In order to accomplish this, we need to focus on the student that wants the learning experience.
We might like to focus on the student that actually wants to go in the classroom, or about people, or about anything else. We can’t have our learners ask to go through the same “go to school” program as our learners. We can all decide if we want to get to the next classroom or not, it’s our teacher’s job to decide when and how to focus on the students. And there could be no doubt that to understand what the classroom teaches, we need to know whether we need more in the learning process to keep us going.
Of course, we can do this by introducing some positive and inspiring things to students, like giving the right kind of homework, doing homework that teaches students a few things that they should have had already.
Let’s look at how we can teach the following:
Students can use their creativity to change the course of their day. They can tell new storytellers about their favourite activities that have inspired them, or tell stories that have given them inspiration. It isn’t just the creative content that changes, it is how students are engaging in those positive stories and encouraging them to continue.
Students learn better as they practice it and as they learn to take risks.
Students learn to take risks and learn to try new things.
Students practice a different story as they study and become more self-aware. As the school turns its attention to the students most familiar with the story, so too will the students learn from it. This is something that we can take for granted, it just needs to happen. So if you are new to learning about some subject, or you just want to learn more about reading, there are many methods that we will try. That’s why I would recommend writing one of the “A
BodyThere are two kinds of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Students are extrinsically motivated when they accomplish a task in order to receive a reward outside of the task. For example, students who do an assignment because they want to complete a requirement or get a passing grade are extrinsically motivated. Students are intrinsically motivated when they do an assignment because it is personally interesting, fulfilling, or enjoyable (McGlinn, 2003). Obviously then the goal of educators should be to find ways to intrinsically motivate students however in my opinion it would be naпve for educators to believe that every student is going to be intrinsically motivated in every subject area. Therefore I believe that educators should always strive to intrinsically motivate but also use extrinsic motivation as a tool for a last resort. Since we have stated that the best type of motivation is intrinsic I think that it would be important then to study intrinsic motivation so that we can hopefully incorporate intrinsic motivation techniques into our classrooms to accomplish our goal of maximizing learning. According to McGlinn, ” teachers encourage intrinsic motivation in the classroom if they enable students to attain a sense of achievement and personal control in their work. Students need to perceive themselves as being both competent and self-determining for them to feel personally fulfilled in the classroom. Both of these student perceptions are important, but a student must have a degree of competence before they benefit from an opportunity to control their learning. Because student competence is basic to intrinsic motivation, it is important for teachers to challenge students and to provide them with the academic support needed for them to be successful. If this can be done in a way that gives students choice and personal control of their learning, the teachers will encourage the growth of intrinsic motivation in their students” ( McGlinn, 2003).
I agree with McGlinns thoughts on intrinsic motivation but as I stated earlier it would be naпve for us as educators to believe that we are going to be able to intrinsically motivate every student in every subject area so there is a purpose for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Now that we understand the importance of these types of motivations what actions can we take to increase these types of motivations. In an internet article on Impacting Motivation in the Classroom Leon Bantjes suggest the following actions to increase motivation on classroom tasks:
INTRINSICExplain or show why learning a particular content is important.Create and/or maintain curiosity.Provide a variety of activities and sensory stimulations.Provide games and simulations.Set goals for learning.Relate learning to student needs.Help student develop plan of action.ExtrinsicProvide clear expectations.Give corrective feedback.Provide valuable rewards.Make rewards available.Bantjes also supports my opinion that intrinsic motivation is the best motivation but that there is a place for extrinsic motivation as he states, ” as a general rule, teachers need to use as much of the intrinsic suggestions as possible while recognizing that not all students will be appropriately motivated by them. The extrinsic suggestions will work, but it must be remembered that they do so only as long as the student is under the control of the teacher. When outside of that control, unless the desired goals and behaviors have been internalized, the learner will cease the desired behavior and operate according to his or her internal standards or to other external factors (Bantjes).
Effort and appropriate feedback is also critical in successfully motivating a student. In his article Try Harder? Motivational Effects of Effort Attributional Feedback Dale Schunk says, ” effort is internal, unstable, and controllable, which is quite favorable for motivation. People who succeed at a task and believe that they can continue to work hard are likely to expect future success and be motivated to expend the effort. People who do not work hard and perform poorly on a task are likely to be motivated to continue if they believe that harder work will produce success” (Schunk, 2003). For effort feedback to be successful, kids must believe that it is credible. Effort feedback is credible when students realistically have to display a good work ethic to succeed (Schunk, 2003). A teacher needs to be careful on knowing when to give positive effort