Re: Theories of Motivation - reply

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> 1. What do you believe is the most important for the
> motivation of the student's you teach? What do you
> capitalize on these motivators? How much of the
> responsibility for student motivation is yours? How much is
> there's ?
1) Future usefulness of the content (teacher's responsibility
to make that connection)
>
> 2.How important do you think it is to praise students? How
> much praise do you use? Why ? Do you use any other kinds of
> rewards to motivate your students to study? Can you give me
> some specific examples?
SPED and athletics teachers do the very best in student
motivation - when I realized that they actually praise ONLY
when the student is successful (even for a small improvement)
and that the praise is simple but true and immediate, I
understood to do that too. Often I just say, "Good comment" or
"Good student."
>
> 3. How important do you think it is for you to try to and
> help students develop their self-concepts/What do you do to
> help students develop their self concepts? Can you give me
> a specific example?
This links directly to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" - we
learn for a purpose and must understand that learning is a
process - what we understand at first will be subject to vast
change.
>
> 4.How important do you think it is for students to believe
> that teachers care about them as people ? Is this part of
> your job? Why or why not ?
I don't like the term "care" implies a non-professional
relationship. I want my students to respect me as the
professional who will help them conquer the course content plus
whatever else needed to make them successful. To that end, I
want to know any problem keeping them from content mastery. I
don't want to particularly know their family stories. Then
again, I teach college and don't normally need that
environment. I'm not rude if a student shares, but instead try
to pull the focus back on the work.
>
> 5. What do you capitalize on students curiosity ? Can you
> give me specific examples? What can teachers do to make
> students feel responsible for their learning? What do you
> do? How well does it work?
I like to give examples of failures and successes, and then ask
the students to find the reasoning why something fails, and
others don't. Personally, I don't think we give students
enough examples before they must do the work, and we certainly
don't give them enough practice opportunities.
>
> What do you do to make students feel that their learning is
> more important or worthwhile? Can you give me some specific
> examples?
I show them examples from the "real world" or the internet. I
discuss my own experiences as a technical writer. I ask them
for situations from their own life.
>
> How important do you think it is to challenge your
> students? Do they feel better about what they've learned
> when it has been challenging? Can you give specific
> examples to illustrate your point ?
Well, sometimes the content they will recognize and even have
done. We have to be honest - and tell them that. Sometimes we
have to explain that content is foundational - not too useful
by itself, but instead will lead into larger activities.
Whatever the task, I ask my students to experience the
"experimentation" of learning - to not fear and to be open for
the work. I ask them to be brave, that I'm not going to fail
them for initial mistakes and give them opportunity to develop
the basis for good learning.

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