Monday, November 9, 2009
Motivation 3
Respond to this scenario: You have completed a project for a teacher that has taken you almost a month to complete. It was handed in on time, and you have waited more than three weeks to receive a grade on it. You have inquired about the grade, but have not received a response. What role does feedback play in student motivation?
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The reasearch shows that the feedback should be close to the behavior. If a student has to wait too long to receive his/her feedback s/he would loose interest and motivation for the next project or even a to study for a test. The feed back is very important, especially for those students who needs extrinsic motivation. Not only the feedback needs to be given promptly but also often. This way the student can adapt and change his/her behavior in order to reach the teacher's expectations.
ReplyDeleteI have not had the opportunity to read any research about the effects of feedback. I can only speak from my own experiences.
ReplyDeleteI can say that when I recieve grades back immediately after doing an assignment or taking a test, I am more likely to look over what I have missed and work to correct it on future assignments or tests. If I recieve feedback of my grades too late, I sometimes do not even remember what I did in the assignment. I am less likely to remember what I was thinking while completing the assignment. If I can not remember my thought process on the assignment, it is hard for me to understand why I made the mistake. Also, if I recieve feedback of my assignments too late, I have a hard time working on new assignments when I am not sure if I am doing it correctly.
I had a course recently where we were given an article every week that we had to write a reflection over. I kept writing my reflections the same way, but was frustrated because I did not know if I was doing them correctly. The class would ask the professor each class when we would be getting our assignments back. We finially recieved a stack of reflections around midterm time. Each time I wrote a new reflection, my motivation weakened until I recieved feedback that showed me I was doing a good job.
So, I believe delaying feedback can weaken student's motivation to do other work.
I think that feedback plays a crucial role in student motivation. For example if a student isn't receiving feedback on a project they are less likely to take that class seriously because it is obvious that the instructor doesn't. It is obvious that the teacher doesn't because they are putting other things ahead of supplying you with that feedback.
ReplyDeleteBy supplying stuents with immediate feedback students can see what they did wrong and how to improve it. This could beneit them not only in the area being addressed but also in other aspects of their schoolwork.
I feel that feedback is very important in student motivation. I know when I was a student if I had a teacher that never showed me my grade I would not try as hard or want to do the work. I think it is that way in anything, people work hard so they can see the final outcome. Also with feedback the students know what they need to work on and what they are doing well at. Feedback is necessary for student and teacher learning.
ReplyDeleteIn that scenario, if I were the student, I would most defiantly feel less motivated to complete my next assignment. In my own opinion, as the student I have a loss of respect for my teacher due to the fact that I spent a lot of time and effort and probably had a lot of pride put into my project. Considering that my project was turned in on time, I would feel that it would be considerate to receive a grade within an appropriate amount of time. I would have expected my teacher to reciprocate the same amount of reverence towards grading my project that I had put into doing the project. I think that overall this would result in a weakened student-teacher relationship.
ReplyDeleteConsidering in the scenerio, if the project took a month to complete it may take a while to grade, especially when you consider there could be 20 or 25 students in the class. It is the teachers responsiblity to give the students some form of feedback, even if the assignments are not fully graded. At the very least, the teacher should let the students know the when they should expect to receive the grade. If I do a project and it takes me a month, I would want the teacher to take the same care in grading my assignment.
ReplyDeleteOne assignment shouldn't be the defining point of a grade. There should be several other assignments for the students to receive feedback. I think it is important to keep the students motivated, but not at the expense of properly assessing their work. Feedback is important because it keeps the student informed of where they are at and what they need to do to get on the right track.
Reading the comments above, we all agreed that timing is very important for students to get the feedback on grades. But what about giving timely feedback in other areas? I think students should not just be graded on tests and projects; there are other important areas in students life in school that are worth noticing. I am talking about being sensitive to other classmates, responsible on his/her work, attentive during lectures, helpful and willing to cooperate, respectful, etc. Sometimes we take these behaviors for granted and we do not give them feedback because that is what they should do anyway. I believe these types of behavior and values are what make a student a real person. Students need feedback on these behaviors in order to shape, correct, and encourage them.
ReplyDeleteI think feedback is very important when considering student motivation. Personally I feel that if this project was big enough to be spanned over a month's worht of time then the project had probably been high on the student's priority list for that month. So I feel like if the teacher assigned such a project that he/she should also put that high on their priority list to get it graded or some sort of feedback. Especially considering it might be hard for the student to stop thinking/worrying about their project and they would be able to move on to the next project/assignment. Also, the student might not feel like the teacher cares enough to grade their homework, so they also might take the "I don't care" attitude towards the next assignments.
ReplyDeleteFeedback is extremely important when it comes to student motivation. I believe that it plays a huge role in how students view their progress when it comes to academics. If a student does not receieve timely feedback from a teacher, whether it is on an exam, project, quiz, paper, etc, they are likely to become discouraged and feel as if whatever they did was not worth all of the hard work that was put into it. I know from personal experience that I have always been highly motivated when I receieve good feedback from a professor. Constructive criticism along with positive feedback on anything in academics is so wonderful because it makes a student better. It is a teacher's job not only to teach, but to let students know how they are doing with the material they are learning. I agree with some of the statements above when it comes to the importance of feedback in ALL aspects of education. In order for students to grow, they must receieve feedback on their relationships with peers, attitude towards school, etc. If teachers want their students to be passionate about school, they must show that they are passionate for what they do, and this includes giving good feedback to students.
ReplyDeleteI think that feedback plays a huge part in student motivation. No one likes to feel ignored, and I know from experience that when someone doesn't reply to a message you feel like they are ignoring you. If a student is taking enough time to write to you and you want them to feel like your class is important, you need to respect them and answer their question. Teachers are extremely busy, and to even just tell the student that you received it and will try to get back to them as soon as you can will show the student that you care. If you care, the student will feel motivated to continue trying in your class, because caring is a huge factor when it comes to a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI really like what edtechstudent said. There are many times as a student where we will contact teachers and hear absolutely no reply back and it gets frustrating. So I know with my own experience, I get frustrated enough that I do not want to participate in class and may not try as hard because I feel that the teacher doesn't care enough to show me that I am important in his/her classroom and also, if I don't participate or do well - will they even notice?
ReplyDelete