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Responses to Merrill
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Responses to Merrill
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I believe one of the basis's for student motivation are setting reasonably high goals for the students, the class in general, and yourself as a teacher. Having set goals and expectations allows for something to strive for. Goals also provide motivation for achievement of them. However, it is not just telling students to set long-term and short-term goals in and out of the classroom. It is showing them how to set goals and accomplish them. Setting goals that are high, but reachable so that you are not set up for failure. The pursuit of a goal in simple things such as an activity, a lesson, a game motivates students to reach it. The more reasonable goals they set, the more motivated they are to continue after new goals and to stay motivated with long-term goals. Overall, students look for rewards or success to continue self-motivation.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers, we can help them set realistic goals and provide the students with individual feedback about their progress and outcome. Hopefully, through goal-setting students will be motivated in the classroom with projects, homework, lessons and activities.
While I was in elementary school I was always motivated by teachers who believed in me and who helped me reach goals I set. There was nothing worse then having a teacher set goals that were too low or too high for me. If they were too low I would achieve them right away and give up on the activity I was doing. However if standards were set too high I knew they were not achievable and would give up. It is important for teachers to believe in the students so they believe in themselves. Setting up goals during the first week of school I also found very useful to help me figure out what I wanted to learn and it allowed me to push myself. Setting classroom goals is also important will help students be reminded of why they are here to learn, and for many students a simple good job will do where others need more positive messages. Not leaving any children behind is very important noticing the children who are struggling and not understanding will help you go back and see if they need extra help. Relating the topics to things the students like and are interested in will make them want to learn more about a topic.
ReplyDeleteToday, I actually saw exactly what I was talking about with goal setting being the basis of motivation. The science teacher said specifically, "Our goal today is to finish both challenges on the back of your worksheet." This goal she set was reasonable for every single student in the classroom to reach. They understood what was expected from them per the teacher and from their partners. This led to motivation to complete the task and goal she clearly set at the beginning. As I walked around, I noticed the students begin to get off task, but if you mentioned the goal again (of finishing both tasks) they focused again to complete it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most of the students who are naturally motivated have high self-esteem and have a reasonable sense of what they can and cannot do. Other students who are not so naturally motivated may have tried something that was too difficult and experienced failure and lost confidence in their capabilities or any number of combinations of factors. However, as teachers it is our job to instill this self-efficacy and reasoning of what each student is capable of. We have to build their confidence and self-esteem by setting high but attainable goals so that they can get a better feel for what they can handle on their own. We want them to push themselves but not to the point of frustration or failure. I think it's important to let students know exactly what is expected of them and on things like pre-tests where it's okay for them not to do so great, they understand that. Students also need to have a purpose for what they are doing. Relevancy is extremely important in motivation. If students believe they are doing something for no reason at all, they won't be very motivated to do it. Think about something you view as virtually pointless..you're not too thrilled about getting started on it, I bet! I believe the basis for student motivation is clear expectations and purpose.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the biggest thing you can do to provide your students with motivation is to make sure that you provide instruction they can relate to. It will be my goal personally as an educator to make sure that with most lessons I can help the students find enjoyment in the activities to the best of my abilities. The more students can relate material to their lives the better. A great example of this personally is in my current class I am observing. The goal was to be able to find the importance of articles and the many aspects of an article. A great way to teach this is to create a newspaper in their classroom. This way not only can students learn the objectives and goals the teacher needs met, but they also can discuss things that interest them. If you can liven a lesson the more it will motivate your students.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing you could do to provide motivation is to have your students help set goals for themselves. It is important to see that students have the ability to work hard and do the curricula, but at the end of the day if they do not want to do something they will not. However, if you set goals with your students they can see how they are not meeting goals and then assess their own behaviors and adjust them in order to reach their goals and even maybe higher goals.
Also as an educator you should relate to your students. If you let them know that you understand things are hard and that that is a natural part of growing and learning, they are more likely to try harder. We struggle when we learn but it is because struggling leads to achieving greater knowledge.
The classroom is all about the student and their learning. Therefore I believe the most important parts of motivation are helping the student realize their potential and have them build accountability for themselves. You can teach until you are blue in the face, but motivation comes from within the student.
I think that grades provide the basis for motivation in school for students. Students want to get good grades and I think that the amount of work they put into school depends on the grade they will receive. Teachers are often asked, "Will this be graded?" If the teachers answer is no, the student does not do their best work and just does the minimal requirements of the assignment. If the answer is yes, the student will work to their best ability. The same thing goes for tests. Teachers are often asked when teaching if what they are explaining will be on the test. If the answer is no then students immediatley drop their pencils, stop taking notes, and start thinking about other things. If the answer is yes, the student will take great notes, be actively engaged, and pay attention. Overall, I think that grades are one of the main motivators for students in school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what kmjhnson said about having the content be something that the students can relate to. In my learning and instruction class we have been talking about how important it is that kids can access their prior knowledge when it comes time to learn a new topic and that it is important for kids to be able to make connections. In my advanced childrens literature class, we have to do a journal with every reading assignment where we make three connections to the reading and and our lives, other things we have read, or the world. He encourages us to have our future students do this because we understand what is being presented so much better when we make connections and can apply the information. Finally, in my methods of teaching early literacy class we talked a lot about having students make connections when reading. I think that kids being able to relate to the content and applying it in other contexts are great motivators.
ReplyDeleteI agree and disagree with Julie. Grading children based on a scale and comparing to others can sometimes be harmful. Today I noticed while giving the spelling test, many students are on different levels of list. List one is a fairly easy list, where list 4 is extremely challenging, some of the words I didn’t even know how to spell! Students comparing themselves to others may discourage them from doing their best. They may not feel smart enough so why even try. When I was in elementary school we only had one spelling list, and I was HORRIBLE at it, and the teacher never worked with me or tried to help me get better, so I got discourage and basically gave up. It made me feel dumb and I almost didn’t want to try in any of the subjects because I felt as if no one cared. So as a student going into teaching I think it is important to be careful about the grading scale and not grade everything on accuracy but to notice more the effort a student is putting into it.
ReplyDeleteI think that students' motivation depends a lot on the teacher. The teacher needs to challenge the students but also let them know that they can succeed. If a student feels like the can't succeed, then they probably won't even try. They need to be told and understand that they CAN get things right, and then they will be more likely to try. I also think that teachers need to be there to support students when they need help. If a student is struggling and needs help, it's important that the teacher gives them the support that they need.
ReplyDelete@kmjhnson- I think that making lessons enjoyable is a huge part of motivation. If a student is interested in a topic, then they are naturally more motivated to learn about it. It's important to make the lessons interesting and fun, but it's also important to relate it to real life. When students can see how things relate to each other and to their lives, then they will be more interested in learning about it.
ReplyDeleteI think that some students just like learning new things more than other students do. I believe if a student is truly self-motivated, they have to be interested in learning. I think these students tend to be the most successful in school as well. Whether that is because they are motivated to learn so they do well or they do well because they are motivated, I am not sure. I think it is harder for a student who is not always successful in school and might struggle a little bit to be motivated in class. I think this goes along with the "learned helplessness" theory, that if a student is not doing as well as the other students, they get discouraged and don't think they can do anything correctly. Therefore, they are not motivated.
ReplyDelete@KaylaCohrs, I agree with you that the most motivating teachers that I ever had were the ones that believed in me the most. I think some teachers overlook that and don't see how important that is. As a young student, I remember really looking up to my teachers as I'm sure students still do. I think that would help students be motivated in school if their teacher showed them that they believed in their success.
ReplyDeleteI agree with making sure the content is relevant to the students. This kind of goes with the purposeful learning I was talking about earlier. I know that I learn material much better when I know why I'm learning it and how it will affect my life later. I do better on the assessments too.
ReplyDeleteOn the grades topic, I think approval and praise can be motivators but I don't think grades should be used in that way. Personal improvement and achievement are very different from grades because it's a student's individual goals not in comparison to their peers.
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ReplyDeleteI truly believe that motivation and success go hand in hand. In order for students to be successful at any level of schooling motivation is crucial. However, I find that across the various grade levels the styles of motivation vary. For example, in elementary school the teacher’s often serve as the primary source of motivation for the students. They teach, assign, and enforce that schoolwork is completed to a satisfactory level. If it weren’t for teacher motivation at the elementary school level, I don’t think many students would feel empowered enough to challenge themselves to the level of learning that is anticipated for their age. However, as you look at the high school and college level of schooling you see that the individual learner is the major source of motivation. Students at these levels know what is expected of them, and they must decide on their own what degree of success they want to achieve. Teachers at this level state their expectations, assign their schoolwork, and teach minimal material in-class. Unlike in elementary school, where getting your school work done and coming to school isn’t much of an option, in college the individual learners have to have self empowerment to motivate themselves to go to class and complete their school work when it isn’t necessarily required of them.
ReplyDeleteI believe students are motivated in the classroom in many different ways. Some students all it takes to get them motivated is to have someone talk to them in the morning when they come to school. The reason for that is because some students don’t get to see anyone before they come to school and sometimes you could be that one person who makes their day because you said hello to them or you told them they looked nice that day.
ReplyDeleteOther students are motivated by the goals that are set throughout the day for them and for the class. As long as the goals are too out of reach for the students they will use those as motivation to get assignments done and to feel good about themselves. I know when I was in elementary school especially there were certain goals that seemed attainable but some that were so out of reach that I would get frustrated trying to accomplish them. Like on Mondays for the spelling test, if you got all the words right on the pretest, then you didn’t have to take the final test on Friday. That goal was really hard for the majority of the students to reach because a lot of us hadn’t ever seen the words that our teacher was giving to us which makes it hard to get 100% on the test the first time.
Every student is motivated differently so as a teacher, you have to be able to figure out on the spot what motivates each student. You don’t have to know it exactly but you need to have an idea of what to do so you can make their experience the best experience for them, so they don’t get frustrated and give up. There are so many students who believe they can’t succeed at anything in life and that is because they have had teachers who set goals too high for them to reach and they become frustrated and just give up. We can’t have students giving up because they are afraid they won’t ever succeed. We need to be willing to work with every student and every student’s need so that all of our students can succeed at the current level of understanding they are at.
I agree with the people who talked about how they were most motivated by the teacher who believed in them. I completely agree with those people because I remember still to this day the years in school that I liked the best and felt the most motivated in were the years where I felt like my teachers believed in me and that I could do whatever I put my mind to. I think every teacher needs to step back and figure out what they can do to make each and every child's learning experience the best it can be.
I believe that student motivation stems from both internal and external factors. These factors can greatly influence student behavior in either a positive or negative way. Teachers play a big role in motivating students through their teaching strategies, creating certain types of classroom atmospheres, and by setting standards of expectation. Certain types of learning practices, such as small group work, open class discussion, giving students multiple ways to express themselves, and teaching to multiple intelligences will all help promote student motivation. Creating a positive learning environment, where students are not afraid to fail at a task or activity and feel a sense of a classroom community where the teacher and peers care about one another, is another key aspect in promoting motivation in student learning. Teachers who set high but attainable expectations help send a message to students that they are all capable of academic achievement, another great way to help strengthen student motivation in the classroom.
ReplyDelete@Kailey: "Think about something you view as virtually pointless..you're not too thrilled about getting started on it, I bet! I believe the basis for student motivation is clear expectations and purpose."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said here. Students need relevant and interesting material to learn about that also serves an authentic purpose. I know that as a student I know the difference between busy-work and homework that is actually beneficial to my overall learning of the content. As a teacher, I know that there just isn't enough time in the school day to cover all the standards and content that needs to be covered, so homework is usually helpful a solution. The homework should be meaningful and interesting for students, not just a random worksheet that bulks up the gradebook. Teachers should also give quality feedback in a timely manner on homework. If a student isn't getting a concept on the homework, they may need extra help to further their understanding before a formal assessment is given; for this reason, giving feedback to students a few days after they complete an assignment is crucial.