Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Motivation
Some say that relevance is the key to motivating students in learning. By connecting learning in the classroom to lives outside of the four walls of the school building, it is going to make learning more interesting for students. Is there an experience in your education (elementary, middle, or high school) that you can recall where the relevancy of the unit/project had an impact on your motivation? How has relevance played a role in classes you have taken and how did that level of relevance impact your motivation for learning?
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I do believe that relevance is a strong motivator for the classroom. I do not really recall any specific classes that applied content to the real world and real world situations very much when I was in high school, but I do remember that field trips and projects that actually had a purpose or meaning were always more motivating for me. My senior year for one of my health classes we went to the hospital and Des Moines University and got to see cadavers and even hold a human brain. Although the brain was a little too much for me to handle the experience overall was a great one and I feel like I actually took a lot of content from that day. I have also noticed this in many of my college classes this year. Now that I am finally out of all the general education classes and more into classes that are relevant to what I will be doing I’m finding the information much more useful and interesting which really motivates me.
ReplyDeleteI think relevance is a huge part of motivation! One thing I'm really passionate about is music and whenever music is incorporated into other subject areas, I'm immediately more engaged in the lesson at hand. If we as educators can tap into student interest and make material relevant to them, we can open up a whole opportunity for learning. I've noticed during level II here that students light up and express themselves during certain subjects and are more passive in others. This just goes to show students are motivated by how relevant the material is to them.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue of relevance being a motivator really shows through in writing projects. You typically see a lot more students interested in writing if they get to write about anything they want or about something that happened to them. I’ve even noticed this is my research methods class. I was really intimidated before starting the class and was not excited at all to have to write a long research paper. However, the teacher let us pick our topic and I decided to pick a topic that I could relate to and was really interested in. This has helped motivate me so much. I’m not saying that I really enjoy writing the paper but I am actually finding the topic very interesting and that helps me to work harder. I think this is something important to remember as a teacher. If you can relate the material to the students you are bound to get a lot more interest from them.
ReplyDeleteRelevance plays a huge part in motivation. When a teacher can relate the subject content to the real world, it helps the students understand why they are learning what they are learning. This also helps students to see a purpose in the their learning. I remember in my high school math classes, my teachers would tell us how and where we would use the math we were learning in the real world. Instead of feeling like I was learning just random math, I understood the reasons behind the learning and I appreciated it more.
ReplyDeleteI have always hated math, especially upper level math, because I knew that I was never going to need it. I remember thinking that if my parents didn't know it or remember how to do it then I didn't need to know it. In high school, we had pages and pages of math problems. It took me forever to finish them because I had NO motivation. It is hard to keep going and actually try to learn something when you know you can forget the information after the test. If it had been applied to a real, everyday problem I might have paid more attention.
ReplyDeleteSo many times in high school did I hear the phrase, "When I am ever going to use this in real life?" This applied mostly to those science and math classes. In other classes where the lessons were more relevant to our lives, that phrase did not get thrown around as often. Obviously, relevancy is very important to students and it catches their interest more than a lesson that does not apply to their lives.
ReplyDeleteHistory in middle school seemed kind of boring, but then when we had to trace out our family tree, it got very intersting. The relevancy to my life got me motivated and interested in history because I learned how it could be applied to my own life. Relevance has played a role in how interested I am in a topic and how much effort I will put forth. Basically, the more relevant the topic is to my life, the more motivated I will be to learning.
Music is a big part of my life, so I agree with Jennifer's excitement when it gets incorporated into other subject areas. Having music while studying science and math would have made those subjects a lot more interesting and created another dimension to it. A lot of students like music and it would be great to expose them to different kinds while in school. It is probably the one time where they will have to listen to other music than what they would listen to at home. Motivating through music is a great way to get kids interested in learning and I will definitely try it out one day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amela when she talks about the "when will we ever have to use this" questions. It's inevitable that students are going to ask this question, but if we try to make content more relevant, hopefully we'll hear that phrase less often. I forgot about the family tree projects until Amela brought it up and looking back, I definitely agree! I was never really into social studies but I remember working really hard to get as far back in my family tree as I could get. This project made social studies relevant to my life, and also got my family involved which they loved. It is important to make content relevant to the students as well as the families so learning can be a family event.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it is something that needs to be related to relevance. Many students don't want to do anything that isn't related to what it is that they are interested in. I know that I personally didn't understand why I needed to know certain things in high school. Why do I need to memorize the periodic table? I feel that there are many students that feel this way. I did get a lot out of my health classes because a lot of what we learned what about me and how my life is affected. It is something that is relevant to everyone. Whether it is birth control to diseases that are communicable. I feel that teachers need to use what they know about their students in order for them to stay motivated on a certain topic.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Amela. Students are constantly questioning the way we are teaching and what we are teaching. If we make things more relevant to their lives and what they want to learn I feel that they are more prone to learning and staying on task. Students are always going to ask what are we going to use this for. I don't think there is a way of stopping it completely however we can make it happen less by making it more relevant to what our students are doing.
ReplyDeleteI feel that motivation is the key to teaching. I feel that it is up to the teacher to create things that are relevant to both the classroom and the real world. I think that doing this really helps the students take the information in better because it relates better to them. I feel that in high school my teachers could have done a better job of making projects relate to real life instead of only relating to the particular class. It would have made my overall learning more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Amela. I feel that music is something that can be used in the classroom regardless of the topic. I feel that students learn information better. Also, it is so much more fun to learn things through music. Music is a big thing in my life as well. I have been around music my whole life and love it. When i get the chance to use music in my learning, I never turn it away. Well said Amela
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