Lighting the Motivational Flame

          

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          Getting students motivated may be one of the biggest challenges that a teacher has to experience. A teacher can create what they think is the perfect lesson or the ideal assignment, but will find that some students, or all students, will not be invested. Sometimes it simply feels like lighting a match that has been left in the rain for days – an impossible task. Students are often bored during the school day, but what can a teacher do about that? Often educators will implement different strategies in the classroom to try and get students motivated, incentivising students to do work by offering small prizes (i.e. stickers) or creating a points system that allows students or groups of students to acquire points by performing certain actions (i.e. cleaning up the classroom, behaving well in class) or even for doing their homework. The points would then build up to them earning a prize, ones I have come across typically are pencils, candy, and bookmarks. Almost any class I have worked in has had some sort of incentive system in place and through my experience, it does not seem to actively impact how the students act in class – at the introduction of the incentive system students will try and please the teacher, but as the year goes on, interest is lost and is sometimes completely disregarded by the students.

            The problematic nature involved with incentive systems is that they only focus on instilling motivation through extrinsic means. Extrinsic motivation, as defined by Drake, Reid, and Kolohon (2014), is that motivation is driven through extrinsic rewards, such as prizes, and is a type of motivation that does not positively impact students in the long term, but rather is a short term solution to a huge problem. Inspiring students to be motivated through extrinsic methods does not typically incite intrinsic motivation in students later on. Motivating students intrinsically means that students participate in doing their work or performing certain actions because they get satisfaction from it (Drake et al., 2014) – students are not doing work because they get a tangible reward from it or to please the teacher, but because they get personal enjoyment from performing the task. I argue that trying to get students intrinsically motivated to do school work, rather than through extrinsic methods, allows for life long learning to occur. The issue with trying to stimulate intrinsic motivation within students is that there is not a clear-cut method for teachers to use, whereas giving out prizes or even using grades as an incentive is much easier and manageable to do.

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Kusurkar, Croiset, and Ten Cate (2011) offer tips that educators can use to get their students intrinsically motivated, or going back to the match metaphor, to light their fire. Teachers can begin by structuring their classroom and teachings that acknowledge what the students need – building lessons off of what the children need and enjoy allows for learning to occur that is actually interesting to the students and serves to stimulate their interests (Kusurkar et al., 2011). Using extrinsic rewards to get students interested will inevitably backfire when students do not have any real interest in the lessons being taught, but by catering to their needs as individuals, interest is more likely to be sparked within the students. Another way for a teacher to motivate students intrinsically is by encouraging students to be active participants within the classroom. Allowing students to have discussions, engage in group work, and control the flow that the lesson takes allows them to be active agents within their own learning, rather than passively accepting the information that the teacher gives them (Kusurkar et al., 2011).

An example of intrinsic motivation would be a student actively enjoying reading, which a teacher is able to facilitate in all their students by presenting reading in a way that can appeal to many students. Often times when teachers introduce reading to students, little choice is given to the students since they are all made to read one book whether they enjoy the content of the book or not. Doing something like this can serve to deter students from wanting to read if they are always given content they do not find enjoyable. Teachers should allow students the choice of picking a book they want to read, even creating an assignment off of this such as a book report, where a student is able to pick any book of their choosing and decide what they want to write about the book. Giving students choice is the key to intrinsic motivation and can allow teachers to work with students strengths and passions by giving them agency within their own learning. 

Motivation is a complex topic to discuss because often times what is considered extrinsic and what is considered intrinsic can be subjective – doing something for a good grade can be seen as extrinsic, yet many students are intrinsically motivated by grades and can be a true incentive for them to work hard because it provides feedback on the work they are doing and allows them to grow as students. Moreover, implementing methods to develop intrinsic motivation may seem daunting for many teachers because often times it means they must change their teaching style, whereas adding extrinsic rewards to the classroom generally does not effect the teacher directly. I would argue that it is the teachers job to facilitate intrinsic motivation within students and that the proper measures to do this begins with the teacher doing research as to the methods they can implement within their class (Kirk, 2015). Being able to understand exactly what intrinsic motivation means, reading scholarly articles on what teachers can do, and by speaking to fellow colleagues about the strategies they use can give a teacher a deeper and a more in-depth understanding of what they can do to get students intrinsically motivated. Having a class of students who are not motivated can be troubling to a teacher, but beginning with getting to know the students and their preferred way of learning can be what it takes to spark their flame. 

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom

            Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University

            Press.

Kirk, K. (2015). Motivating Students. Retrieved from          

            http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html

Kusurkar, R. A., Croiset, G., & Ten Cate, Th. J. (2011). Twelve tips to stimulate intrinsic

            motivation in students through autonomy-supportive classroom teaching derived from

            Self-Determination Theory. Medical Teacher, 33, 978-982.

Red, Yellow, and Green: Student Anxiety About Asking Questions

            Gaging the understanding that students have of a subject can be one of the most difficult tasks as a teacher. We have all heard stories about students who feign understanding of a topic just because they feel anxious that everyone in the classroom, including their teacher, will see them as unintelligent for not understanding a certain topic, subject, or concept. I can vividly recall situations where I either did not mention to the teacher at all that I was confused about something because of a fear of being looked down upon or that even when I did gain the confidence to ask for further help, I would still not fully grasp the concept, but I would tell my teacher that I understood it because I felt like I would make a fool of myself if I said that I still did not understand. This type of fear that students feel in a classroom is problematic for various reasons. Not only are students feeling like their classroom is not a safe enough environment that asking for help or saying that they do not understand something being taught will make them seem ridiculous, but this means that teachers are also not being able to truly know what each individual student is thinking about the topic (Drake et al., 2014).

            Even with this resounding fear that many students have about asking questions in class, strategies are being created and implemented with their main purpose to reduce this fear and create a classroom environment where students feel safe to admit when they do not know something. Overcoming the Fear of Being Wrong is an article that was written about how students have such a great fear of being wrong that they will often times refuse to raise their hand in class to answer a question or feel uncomfortable asking questions because that will let everyone in the class know that they do not understand the topic being discussed (Briggs, 2014).

“For fear of being wrong, or simply being judged by their peers, students limit their creativity.” (Briggs, 2014)

Classrooms that create a foundation where communication is key will allow students to flourish and reduce the fear they may face when it comes to answering or asking questions. With a foundation of communication placed, student creativity will be able to flourish, as spoken about in the quote I posted. Furthermore, teachers will then have a classroom where they have more of an idea of what their students are thinking and which ones do not understand the concepts, so that further explaining and discussions can occur so students fully grasp the topic at hand.

I want to discuss a specific method that I think can be beneficial at any grade level and can be adjusted depended on the age and maturity of the students in the classroom, so that its usefulness can be implemented fully. Traffic cards can be used as an effective resource to engage students understanding of the content and hopefully is used as a way for students to admit about the degree in which they understand the class topic.  A simple explanation of the usage of the traffic cards is that each student would be given a set of traffic cards: a red card showing a lack of understanding, a yellow card meaning they have a partial understanding, and a green card showing a full understanding of the topic (Drake et al., 2014). Having these cards be used by each student creates an environment where not understanding something is not looked down upon, but rather the teacher is creating a space where students are allowed to not understand a topic. Another aspect of the cards is that students at the end of a lesson will fill out an “exit card”, which is essentially them showing what they understood from the topic being taught and also clarify what exactly they did not understand (Drake et al., 2014). Having a system like this in place gives the students a chance to show their teacher their understanding (or lack there-of) of the lesson that was taught and allow for teachers to know what each student in their class is thinking – destroying the mysticism that surrounds what students did and did not know.

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            The uniqueness involved in this strategy is that it does not rely on the level of comfort a student has in raising their hand and asking questions or having to go up to the teacher personally after class, but rather can be something they fill out by themselves that is given to the teacher without fear of judgement (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & William, 2003). Teachers are then able to react in an appropriate way since they now have an idea of what their students are grasping from their lessons and what they are confused about. By being able to directly address the issues that are coming up in the class in regards to understanding a topic, the teacher can focus on the confusion being brought to their attention and even change the way they teach the topic in a way that may be more beneficial for their students. As I discussed earlier about putting down a foundation built upon communication, which is exactly the purpose of the traffic cards, allowing for a conversation to be opened up amongst students and the teacher about what they do not understand and serve as means of self-assessment for the students (Black et al., 2003) to gain insight into their knowledge of the topic.

            Addressing and acknowledging that students have specific fears and anxieties around asking questions and admitting that they lack understanding is the first step a teacher can take to begin to create a safer environment. Using traffic cards is a generally effective way to make students feel comfortable discussing what they understand about class topics and also what they did not understand. The traffic cards may not be exactly what your class needs, but it can serve as a good example of a potential strategy that may be helpful to create communication between you and your students. Ultimately, creating solid communication between the teacher and the students is crucial because it allows for a classroom where the teacher is aware of the students abilities and potential limitations, and where students feel comfortable to open up about their own limitations, so that proper help and facilitation can occur.

References:

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D. (2003). Assessment for Learning:

            Putting It Into Practice. New York, NY: Open University Press.

Briggs, S. (2014). Overcoming the fear of being wrong: 20 ways to help your students.

            Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/overcoming-the-fear-

            of-being-wrong/

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom

            Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University

            Press.