Motivating Students

How do I encourage students to be active/interested? How do I deal with apathetic students? How do I get my students to prepare for class? How do I motivate students who are not interested in the subject? How do I deal with groups who are not functioning well together? How do I get students over anxiety about the course? How can I recognize different learning abilities and work with them individually? How do I create assignments that are challenging but not overwhelming? How can I make sure my students have done the reading? How will I know if my students are learning? How do I inspire students who are only taking my course because the "have to?" How can teachers promote excellence and rigor in an encouraging environment? To what extent should I care if the class likes or dislikes my teaching style? Should class be fun? How do I empower students in the classroom? How do I encourage students to be active/interested?

From the first day, demonstrate and talk about your own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it effects you personally. Look for ways to connect the material to the lives of your students. For example: if you are teaching an environmental studies class, bring in examples of environmental issues going on in the area where your students live (Eugene, Oregon is perfect for this...). Use current event articles, editorials from local newspapers, or examples from your own life that illustrate your points. Solicit these examples from your students. Think of questions you can ask about the material that make students think about the subject matter, even if they have not read the material. While students may not have read the biography of Frederick Douglas, they can talk about what life must have been like for an African American living at that time in history. Then, during class, attach statements that come out of their mouths to the reading, so they want to go back and read about their own ideas. Cover course material with effective Discussion Facilitation Techniques. Create a "need to know." As you are preparing your lesson plans, ask yourself - why would a student need to know this? This helps you think about material in terms of its relevance to students' lives. What are some good ways to facilitate a discussion?

Students must feel comfortable talking to each other. To encourage this, generate a warm climate at the beginning of the course. Consider the physical set-up in your classroom. Can students see each other, or are they sitting side by side in rows facing the front of the room? Is it possible to create a circle or a semi-circle? Establish criteria for a good discussion at the beginning of the course. Spend a few minutes letting the students generate these criteria themselves. (One GTF had each student introduce themselves by completing this sentence: "When I am in a small group discussion, I usually...) Feedback discussions are wonderful for making this happen. Make your students responsible for bringing good issues for discussion to class. Listen well. Respond in a way that indicates that you heard and understood the question or the comment. Validate questions by either expanding on or challenging them, and encourage students to challenge you. Allow enough time for discussion. Good discussions take some time for warm-up, reflection, and maximum input.

Give students time to respond. A few seconds can feel like a century, but students need that time to process the question. Warm up your audience. Use review questions from the last session or even a non-related current event to get people in the mood. Sometimes controversial events or issues will jump-start a discussion. Check out The Book of Questions as a resource; it poses dilemmas of all kinds, and it demands that readers take a stand. Go around the room and let every student comment. Present material as problems to be solved, and encourage the consideration of multiple solutions. For example: "Let's consider all the ways we might determine the period in which to place this artifact." --or-- "There are lots of ways this story can be interpreted. Let's see if we agree or disagree with the critics." Tell the students in advance what the discussion topics will be. Offer different options for participation. Letting students turn in written responses often helps shyer students. Let students work in groups of three or four. Assign them a discussion topic and give them five or ten minutes to put together a response. Let them decide how to present their thoughts to the class. Prompt students with a variety of questions that require different levels of thinking. Some questions can be answered with information from general experience or from basic knowledge of the discipline. Some questions require that students explain the relationship between different ideas, using this to form general concepts. Some require students to apply concepts and principles to new data and different situations. Tried-and-true techniques for structuring active discussion: Sliding Groups Feedback Discussions Nominal Group Technique Sliding Groups "Sliding Groups" is a loose term for a loose discussion format. Its value lies in its process of "sliding" the structure of the classroom up and down levels of interaction: from individuals reflecting on a topic, to pairs sharing their reflections, to four-person groups synthesizing their concerns, to general class discussion-and back down the chain again, whenever one format stops eliciting productive discussion. To conduct a discussion with a sliding format, begin by introducing the whole class to the topic of the discussion. For example: "The Book of History is an important document in the history of China. Today we are going to try to figure out what it says about the politics of Chinese culture at the time.") When you feel all your students are oriented to the topic, tell everyone to spend two or three minutes jotting down any ideas, questions or issues they have about the topic. For example: "Take out a piece of paper and write down some ideas or opinions you have about what The Book of History says or does. Anything that comes to mind, as long as it relates to the Book or Chinese culture." Let them interact with you staying out of it as much as possible. Next have individuals form pairs and discuss the ideas they came up with. What is each person's view on the other's issues? For example, "O.K., now pair up with someone and compare notes. Keep working on the question: what was going on in China at the time and why did the authors sit down and write The Book of History? Come to some agreement about the purpose of the Book." Keep on the sidelines, as before. Now tell each pair to find another pair, and continue the process of exchanging information and opinions in four-person groups: "Each pair grab another pair to form small groups and keep going. How does The Book of History present the world to its readers and why would the authors write it that way?" Again, let the groups form their own ideas, and try not to answer any questions.

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Finally open the topic up to the whole class, using the energy the groups have created. Have each group report on what issues they felt were most important and why. Then get interaction going among the groups: pick one group's issues that you think are particularly valuable and have another group comment on those issues. Then ask groups to relate their own issues to the issues of another group, and so on. For example: "Group One, you have some points about Chinese culture at the time that are interesting. Can you relate them to Group Three's ideas about what The Book of History says about the 'Mandate of Heaven?'" Pick a third group to synthesize the points of the first two groups, or whatever feels right. By this time, you should have a fairly lively interaction. If, however, things start to bog down or sidetrack, "slide" the class into a different format: into quartets, pairs, or all the way to individual reflection. Give them a question or topic that you feel heads in a productive direction. This topic can come from something said earlier, or your own notes. Fore example: "O.K., we're covered ground about the feudal wars, and that is important. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to spend a few more minutes on The Book of History. Everybody take a sheet of paper and spend a minute writing down your reactions to what the reading said about the purpose of education in Chinese society." After a minute or two: "Now bring those ideas back to your groups and relate your ideas about the purpose of Chinese education to the purpose of The Book of History." (The goal of this discussion is to get students to realize for themselves the secularization of Chinese society. The educational system trained people to become bureaucrats, and the "Mandate of Heaven" in The Book of History was a "spiritual" justification for one dynasty's conquest of another, subordinating religion to politics.) The advantage to sliding groups is that they allow you to continue class discussion in a different way when one format doesn't work or stops working. It mixes up the energy in the room and keeps students interacting around the course content, making it harder for topics to get "stale." If you use sliding groups often, it is a good idea to regularly change which students are grouped together, to keep the class from falling into a routine. However, like any teaching technique, it is important not to use sliding groups to the exclusion of other techniques. Feedback Discussions The original idea for this strategy came from John Zola at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. His version was called a "scored discussion", because students received positive or negative points each time they participated in a discussion. The teacher awarded positive points for such things as: taking a stand on an issue, presenting factual or research-based information, or making a relevant comment. Negative points were given for interrupting, monopolizing, personal attacks or making irrelevant comments. After working with this strategy with a number of instructors, we decided to eliminate the point structure, but keep the awareness of group roles and processes for good discussion. What follows is one version of how a feedback discussion might work, based on 25 students meeting for 50 minutes. Divide the class into two groups. One group will be part of an inside circle having a discussion and the other half will be taking notes on group dynamics and the quality of the discussion. The inside group will be given a designated number of questions to discuss on a particular topic. (At the midpoint in the class the groups will switch roles.) The instructor takes his/her place in the outside circle and should not interfere unless absolutely necessary. The questions for the discussion may come from the instructor or the students, but the quality of the discussion will depend largely on well-constructed, relevant questions which invite discussion. Fact-based questions requiring primarily recall tend to kill discussions quickly. It is better to ask a few questions and allow time for the discussion to develop. Sometimes one good question is enough for a 12-15 minute discussion. This is the old quantity/quality dilemma. Plan time for introducing the activity, two rounds of letting the discussion happen and debriefing with the outside circle and closure. The debriefing session should address two things. First, the quality of the discussion: did the question/questions asked get answered well? Secondly, how well did the group work together throughout the discussion? Did they distribute "air

time" equitably? Did they encourage shy people to speak? Did they introduce new questions or insights? Did they challenge each other appropriately? Did they help each other clarify their contributions? Did they make relevant contributions? The purpose of this discussion technique is to: 1. allow students to conduct a discussion among themselves without having the instructor in a primary role, 2. raise awareness about group roles and processes, 3. improve the quality of class discussions. Variations on this theme

Run two feedback discussions at once (invite a colleague in to help you observe the second group) if you are dealing with large class and your classroom allows for this in terms of space, acoustics, movable chairs, etc. Have an "empty chair." If someone from the outside circle feels like they have to join in, they can take the empty chair, say their piece and rejoin the outside circle. In a large lecture class you could rotate the responsibility of a student-led discussion (without the feedback component) during the lecture itself through the GTF discussion groups which meet weekly. Students will have possibly had practice in their GTF sessions and be able to successfully carry out a good 15-20 minute discussion. This might be an improvement over having the same handful of students dominate the lecture-discussion. Leading A Discussion Using the Nominal Group Technique Students are often anxious about contributing to discussion because they don't want to look stupid in front of the class. The beauty of the nominal group technique is that it short-circuits that fear by soliciting anonymous contributions from everyone. This makes it an effective technique to use early in the quarter before the ice is broken in class. The core of the technique is the use of "anonymous cards." These can be 3 x 5 index cards, small pieces of paper, or whatever is convenient for you. When you want to generate contributions to a discussion, pass out these cards to the class. Give everyone a minute or two to write down questions, issues, or ideas, then collect and redistribute the cards randomly. Finally, have everyone read what is written on the cards. Presto -- everyone in class has contributed to the discussion and no one looks stupid! It is often useful to write the responses that you get up on the board, and cluster them according to topic. This gives everyone a visual display of what opinions and priorities are held by the class as a whole. There are two ways you can use anonymous cards:

If you want to focus the discussion on course material, have the students respond on their cards to a strategic question you have posed. For example: "Tell me why Medea was or was not justified in killing her children." Or "Write down all the variables you can think of that might affect the reaction between these two compounds." If you simply want the discussion to clarify a concept covered earlier (in lecture, reading, or discussion), then have the students pose questions to you. For example, "Write down any questions you have about yesterday's lecture -- anything you don't understand or have a hard time connecting to the homework." As students read their cards aloud, use the blackboard to cluster what they say, putting hash marks on the board next to questions that are repeated. When you are done, the blackboard will contain a prioritized agenda for the day. The advantage of the nominal group technique is that it solicits contributions from everyone, no matter what the class climate is like. Whether your class is shy or over-active, the use of anonymous cards gets everyone's ideas -- even those from the guy in the back reading the Emerald -- heard and thought about by everyone. This is a wonderful technique, but it is important not to use nominal group technique to the exclusion of other techniques.

How do I deal with apathetic students?

Try to build a relationship with these students. Take an interest in them to find out what is at the bottom of the perceived apathy. Learning students' names and using names in class can help students understand that you are interested in them and in their success in your course. Consider emailing a student who seems uninterested or unresponsive and let him/her know that you would like to help in any way that you can. Oftentimes their apparent apathy has nothing to do with the course. There may be personal matters that are dominating their attention. Some students are going through a period of depression which disconnects them from their studies. Showing a little concern can be very helpful. Measure the students' progress early and regularly, so they have a clear idea about where they stand academically. This may involve quizzes, short response papers, or some kind of weekly assignment which gives you some indication of their level of understanding. Your "apathetic" students may also be the students who are struggling with the class. They could also be students for whom the class is inappropriate. In either case, it would be good to find this out early, so you can arrange an appointment with the student to talk about how things are going and to possibly recommend dropping the class. Take some initiative here. Just saying "Drop by my office if you need to see me"as a general comment to the whole group may not be enough to get them in there (especially freshmen). Promote good will. Let students know when they have done well. This can be an occasional group email that says something likeIn looking over your homework last night I was pleased to see that so many of you are now understanding the connection between _____________ and ____________. If you are still confused about this, look over the examples I have included in this message. It can also be an individual email that says I really appreciated your comments in class today. They led to a very productive discussion. How do I get my students to prepare for class?

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Give students some kind of assignment. They often need this structure. They also need accountability. Make sure the assignment is not just busy work. Design it to be relevant and use whatever the students have prepared directly in class. Some teachers ask a few study questions, some give a short quiz, some ask students to write a response to the reading. You can require a short assignment with each reading, but they do not all have to be graded. You can tell students that out of the 8-10 assignments they will turn in, X will be graded. These will be done at random so it is important that each assignment is completed. This will help with your grading workload. When assigning reading, give the students a few questions on which they must take a stand at the next class meeting. This helps make students more active readers. For example: "Was Medea justified in her actions?" "If you were Jimmy Carter, what would you have done?" "How many ways can we go about figuring the distance between these two points? Have students prepare an outline of their reading assignment. Have students write a half page response paper noting what questions and concerns the reading raised for them. These weekly assignments do not need to necessarily be graded. Sometimes instructors grade them randomly. Some use a check, check plus, and check minus system to credit the work. Let students know they may have a quiz over the reading material. How do I motivate students who are not interested in the subject?

Learn more about the student. Find ways to connect the material to his/her life. Cover course material with effective Discussion Facilitation Techniques. How do I deal with groups who are not functioning well together?

There are several factors which impact how well students work together. How groups are selected (randomly or strategically) can make a difference. The amount of in-class time people have to work together (more is better) will greatly influence group behavior. The design of the activity is important. Poorly-designed activities feel like busy work

and students resent that. If instructions are unclear, students will waste valuable group time in a state of confusion. For good information on group learning read Larry Michaelsen's article "Team Learning: A Comprehensive Approach for Harnessing the Power of Small Groups in Higher Education," To Improve the Academy, Vol. 11, 1992.

Meet with the group in your office. Find out how they have distributed their work load and how they arrived at that distribution. If you think it could have been done more equitably, discuss that. If you feel the distribution was fair, then discuss each person's workload, and help clarify the steps they need to take next to complete their assignment. Set aside some percentage of group project points for team-member evaluation, in which students grade each other's participation. Important: your peer evaluation form should let the students grade each other's participation and grade how each of them allowed others to participate (so a red hot student doesn't run away with the project.) How do I get students over anxiety about the course?

Sometimes course fears have more to do with learning the skills necessary to handle the material: how to take good lecture notes, how to effectively read the text, etc. Suggest that students contact the Teaching and Learning Center if they need skill-building help. If a student expresses anxiety, talk to him or her in private. Ask questions. Find out specifically what the student fears. Students who fear doing math have different fears than students who fear presenting their own poetry. Ask the student at what point in the process his or her heart starts pounding, and they start looking for distractions. Some instructors make written contractual agreements with especially anxious students. Here is an example. Share the frustration you experienced and mistakes you made when you first learned the material. Try to present the topic in the student's terms. Connect it to his or her experience using situations from his or her life. Find out what particular terms or concepts the students find ambiguous. Spend time first clarifying definitions, and then examine the relationships between the terms/concepts. Explain that your subject is just something someone, somewhere understood and the student's goal is to work toward understanding it, too. Discipline-specific knowledge is a human invention, not some inhuman, unattainable thing. How can I recognize different learning abilities and work with them individually?

Recognize different learning abilities early on and make it clear to your students if you think they are not equipped with the requisite knowledge or skills to succeed in your class. Ask your students to tell you about their experience that might prepare them for your class and to tell you about any learning disabilities that they believe will affect their performance. Of course, this information should remain confidential. If some students seem to be less prepared, and others more advanced, provide supplementary (optional) material for each, so that all the students are challenged, but not overwhelmed. When creating assignments, be sure that they vary in the types of learning styles to which they would appeal. If one assignment is abstract, consider designing a more concrete assignment next time. Do not try to teach to the worst or the most advanced student. Teach to the B+ students. You can address the concerns of a few struggling students, or the questions of the most advanced students during review sessions or you office hours. Make your expectations clear. A good way to do this is to distribute examples of good - not extraordinary - work, so that students can see how they might improve their own work. If students struggle, despite your attempts to help them individually, refer them to tutoring services, such as those offered by The Teaching and Learning Center. Finally, encourage students to learn from each other. Help students form study groups of five or six students and encourage them to help one another with homework or studying. How do I create assignments that are challenging but not overwhelming?

When designing assignments, always consider the interest, abilities, and time constraints of your students. For example, if you know there are returning students in your class, or that many students work in the evenings, you may also want to

take these things into consideration. Giving students some choice in the format and/or topic of their assignment can also relieve some pressure on them. Finally, do the assignment yourself and see how long it takes you. Or, if you have a teaching assistant, ask them to complete the assignment first and comment on the difficulty. There may also be other faculty who could tell you if your ideas for assignments are reasonable and suggest good changes. How can I make sure my students have done the reading?

Be certain that you provide a reasonable amount of time in which to complete the assignment. Always assign reading at least 2 sessions in advance of the discussion on the material. At the time of assigning the reading, consider distributing study questions which will help students find the main themes or big ideas in the reading. Consider allowing students to use notes from their reading on exams. This will motivate reading and more extensive thought prior to the exam. Ask for journal entries or response papers on readings. Collect these the day the material is to be discussed. Finally, make it clear to students that they are responsible for all the materials, not just those discussed in class. Then, ask exam questions on undiscussed readings. You will know who did the reading. How will I know if my students are learning?

There are certainly many ways to assess learning. The most obvious of them are tests. One nonthreatening way to test knowledge, is to give a 10 or 15 minute quiz each week over the material recently covered. This will provide you with some idea of whether or not your students are "getting it" and will give your students opportunities to receive feedback from you. A couple of midterms and a final will also tell you if your students are learning, however they won't give you as many opportunities to assess their progress and perhaps make changes to the lesson plans or your teaching style. Class discussions can also provide opportunities for students to demonstrate learning and understanding. However, it can be difficult to get all students to participate in discussions and therefore difficult to gauge everyone's understanding. Finally, class assignments and projects can be a very valuable way for your students to demonstrate gained skills and knowledge. Vary the formats of assignments so that different styles of learning and performing can be accommodated. How do I inspire students who are only taking my course because the "have to?"

Make them want to!! Most students are more than willing to enjoy a class rather than just endure it. Tell them why you love the subject. Share your enthusiasm with them. If you know others in the field with a lot of enthusiasm, bring them in as guest speakers. Incorporate interesting or funny anecdotes relevant to the topic into your lectures. Make them want to learn what you know and then do all you can to help. Don't assume they aren't interested or can't be inspired by you. Chances are you have enough enthusiasm to go around. How can teachers promote excellence and rigor in an encouraging environment?

Make your expectations clear to your students early. Then help them meet those expectations. That may mean working with them on an individual basis. When grading, make comments. If something is done poorly, explain how it could have been done better. When something is done well, convey that with a comment like "Nice work!", "That's right!", or "Good argument!" Always grade fairly and consistently. If a student does poorly on a test, make a written comment on it like "See me. I can help." Let your students know how they are doing in your class on a regular basis. Let your teaching model the rigor, enthusiasm, and dedication that you want to see in their work. To what extent should I care if the class likes or dislikes my teaching style?

You should care to the extent to which you care about their success in your class. If you refuse to teach in way which is conducive to the diverse learning styles which exist in a classroom, then you will have to fail a great number of your students. On the other hand, if you are willing to consider all your students' needs and adapt your teaching style accordingly, then you will probably have many more successes as a teacher.

Should class be fun?

If you can make learning fun, then by all means do it! If your class is uninteresting to students, they are unlikely to work to their potential, and even less likely to pursue further studies in the area. Make the material exciting and share your enthusiasm with students. How do I deal with groups who are not functioning well together?

There are several factors which impact how well students work together. How groups are selected (randomly or strategically) can make a difference. The amount of in-class time people have to work together (more is better) will greatly influence group behavior. The design of the activity is important. Poorly-designed activities feel like busy work and students resent that. If instructions are unclear, students will waste valuable group time in a state of confusion. For good information on group learning read Larry Michaelsen's article "Team Learning: A Comprehensive Approach for Harnessing the Power of Small Groups in Higher Education," To Improve the Academy, Vol. 11, 1992. Meet with the group in your office. Find out how they have distributed their work load and how they arrived at that distribution. If you think it could have been done more equitably, discuss that. If you feel the distribution was fair, then discuss each person's workload, and help clarify the steps they need to take next to complete their assignment. Set aside some percentage of group project points for team-member evaluation, in which students grade each other's participation. Important: your peer evaluation form should let the students grade each other's participation and grade how each of them allowed others to participate (so a red hot student doesn't run away with the project.) Motivating Students I know, I know. Who is Dale Carnegie? Author of How to Win Friends and Influence People and developer of courses in self-improvement, public speaking, and so on. The company still exists. Here are some good tipsgathered from a variety of sourcesabout motivating students. From the research on motivation and learning we know that the following factors can enhance motivation, these include: -Attitudecontent is relevant for students -Inclusionrespect for all students -Meaningchallenging, thought-provoking, valuable course content -Competencelearning goals are attainable -Leadershiphigh expectations, but with structure, feedback, and support -Satisfactionbenefits to learning (Temple University Teaching and Learning Center, Factors that Affect Student Motivation) ----------------------------------Both undergraduates and postgraduates think that research activity makes their lecturers more enthusiastic, increases their credibility, and ensures that their knowledge is up to date. (Tomorrows Professor maillist) __________________________

Research has shown that good everyday teaching practices can do more to counter student apathy than special efforts to attack motivation directly. (Barbara Gross Davis in Ericksen, 1978.) __________________________ Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn. Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm. As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material. Get to know your students. Use examples freely. Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. Teach by discovery. Students find as satisfying as reasoning through a problem and discovering the underlying principle on their own. Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure. Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades. Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students' work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats. Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted. (Vanderbilt Center for teaching, Strategies for Motivating Students)