Motivating Students: Creating an Inspiring Environment

We can positively affect the environment within which students learn by paying attention to students sense of inclusion, their attitudes toward learning, the meaning they make of course material, and their feelings of competence. The strategies listed below overlap somewhat and should work together. Consider how much difference one small change might make toward creating an inspiring teaching and learning environment. And refer to the last page for a reflection tool on your profile as a motivating instructor.

1. Establishing inclusion: Create or affirm a learning atmosphere in which you and your students feel respected by and connected to one another (focus on these strategies, in particular, at the beginning of class):

Establish a relationship with your students by sharing something of value with them (e.g., time, humour, feelings, values). Introduce yourself so that your students know more than your name and contact information (e.g., outside interests, family, academic history, personal experiences). Have your students introduce themselves, either to the whole class or to a small group (in a large class setting).

Use a short opening activity (ice-breaker) to help your students relax and get to know each other.

Get to know your students as individuals (e.g., their academic history, their goals for taking course, their future plans) by using 3x5 index cards or a questionnaire.

Use students names, not only in class but also when giving written feedback.

Use gender-inclusive and culturally diverse examples.

Listen to students with warmth and respect give them your full attention. Be personable and approachable remember the positive power of a smile.

Validate all comments and questions, even those that seem irrelevant or inappropriate.

Welcome criticism and receive it with an open mind.

When you dont know something, ask your students for help.

Use a class management approach that is fair, accepted by students, well understood, and consistently applied.

Be faithful to your promises: follow through on what you have said regarding class structure, course content, and grading.

2. Developing attitude: Create or affirm a favourable disposition in your students toward learning in your course (focus on these strategies, in particular, at the beginning of class):

Model enthusiasm for the subject taught Be clear about your expectations: tell students what they need to do to succeed in your course

Preview the content and structure of the course to build student interest

Use focusing methods to arouse curiosity and to draw students attention to new topics (e.g., puzzling questions, problems to be solved, suspenseful stories, cartoons, newspaper clippings)

Clearly state course objectives from the students perspective (e.g., You will learn)

To the extent possible, shape the course content and goals based on your students interests and needs use a survey or question-answer session to determine these needs

When feasible, give students a choice in the type of assignments they can do (e.g., essay, artwork, model, group presentation)

Provide the opportunity for self-discovery through problem solving, experimentation, and selfevaluation

Allow flexibility in how the final grade will be calculated, e.g., paper=35% and mid-term=25% or viceversa; allow students to take two mid-terms or to take one mid-term and write a paper

Communicate high expectations assume that students do want to learn

When a students (negative) emotions are apparent, approach the student in a caring way and discuss the feelings and positively confront the possibly erroneous beliefs, expectations, and assumptions that may underlie the students negative attitude

Associate a seemingly unmotivated student with other students who are enthusiastic about the subject

3. Enhancing meaning: Create engaging and challenging learning experiences that target your students (focus on these strategies throughout the class period):

Introduce the unfamiliar through the familiar build on information students have learned previously, either in your course or in other courses.

Discover students strengths, interests, and goals, and relate the topic or learning activity to them.

Use effective presentation skills (e.g., movement, voice inflection, gestures, and pauses).

Use audio-visual aids and props to reinforce your material.

Midway through a long lecture, give your students a stretch/chat break.

Be structured: give clear summaries and transitions, and make explicit connections between the objectives and class activities.

Vary your presentation style (i.e., dont lecture for the whole class period).

Use humour, examples, analogies, and stories.

Use active learning techniques (e.g., question-answer sessions, pair problem-solving, short discussions, and brief independent study activities in lectures).

Give students opportunities to work together (in and out of class time) on projects and case studies.

Limit your use of knowledge and comprehension questions, and increase the use of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation questions (See the CTE Teaching Tip Asking Questions: Six Types).

Ask students to provide relevant examples from their job or co-op experience.

Invite practitioners from a relevant field to speak to the class.

Take your students on a field trip either during the lecture period or outside of class time (You can assign small groups for large classes and you may cancel a class period to make up for any extra time spent out of class).

Hold high but realistic expectations for your students challenge them to grow.

Challenge students thinking on controversial issues and address opposing views to your argument.

Design tests that encourage the kind of learning you want students to achieve.

4. Engendering competence: Create or affirm an understanding that your students have effectively learned something they value and perceive as authentic to their real world (focus on these strategies at the end of class or the end of an activity):

Encourage students: give recognition for real effort, minimize mistakes when they are still struggling, show consistent trust in their capacity to learn, emphasize learning from mistakes.

When students are working on large projects, give feedback at each stage.

Make students feel valued about their progress, not only about their final grade.

Ask students questions which help them realize that they do know a lot encourage them to try or guess.

Use closure techniques such as reviewing material, asking for feedback, and allowing for clarification

Use a variety of feedback procedures to provide frequent, consistent feedback regarding mastery of learning.

Accompany grades with written or verbal feedback that is genuine, immediate, and specific.

Use constructive criticism: emphasize strengths, and be specific about areas for improvement.

Acknowledge and affirm the students responsibility in completing the learning task.

Acknowledge the risk taken and challenge involved in the learning accomplishment.

Demonstrate respect for your students efforts, however ill-informed and unsophisticated they may seem.

Encourage your students to explore how the information theyve learned will be useful for future courses or jobs.

If, at the beginning of the period or course, you have sparked students curiosity with a problem they can not solve, return to that problem at the end of the learning time to show them how much they have learned.

Involve other students in affirming the strengths of each student (e.g., peer evaluation).

Help your students reflect on the process of their own learning: how and what were the critical processes that helped them achieve this knowledge.

Link grades as tightly as possible to what has been learned.

See yourself as assisting students to do well rather than as keeping them from good grades.

To minimize competition, avoid norm-referenced grading systems (e.g., a curve).

Celebrate class accomplishments with a discussion, party, round of applause, or congratulations snacks still work for university students! Resources

Eble, K. E. (1988). The Craft of Teaching: A Guide to Mastering the Profession and Art. 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Forsyth, D. R, & McMillan, J. H. (1991). Practical Proposals for Motivating Students. In Menges, R. J., & Svinicki, M. D., eds. College Teaching: From Theory to Practice. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, No.45. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, p.53-65. Ralph, E. G. (1998). Motivating Teaching in Higher Education: A Manual for Faculty Development. Stillwater, Oklahoma: New Forums Press, Inc. Wlodkowski, R. J. (1978). Motivation and Teaching: A Practical Guide. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association. Your Motivation Profile

To help maximize your effectiveness as a motivating instructor and increase your self-awareness, respond to the questions below. They represent five areas that significantly affect your approach to student motivation. Writing out responses to each section can clarify your thoughts and make the entire process more concrete and useful for you.

Your perception of your students as learners: Do you see them as naturally curious, intelligent, and creative? List six of your teaching behaviours that indicate this. Do you trust them to learn? How? Do you allow them to be responsible for their own learning? How? Your perception of your teaching situation:

Do you feel free to be creative and imaginative in your teaching situation? If not, why? What are the three major advantages and the three major obstacles in your teaching situation? How is your teaching situation changing? How are you changing with it? Your goals as a teacher: What do you specifically want to happen as a result of your teaching? List and rank your five most important goals as a teacher. How are you accomplishing these? Your assumptions about student motivation: What does motivation mean to you? Describe the behaviour of a motivated student. What does she or he specifically do to let you know she or he is motivated? List five observable behaviours of a motivated student. How often do you see these in your classroom? Your perception of yourself as a motivating instructor: List the top six things that you often do to facilitate student motivation.

Consider the best and the worst lessons that you teach. In your opinion, what makes the former motivating and what makes the latter unmotivating for students?

Complete this sentence as often as you can in a way that you believe your students would: My instructor helps me to feel motivated because she or he . . . . After you have reflected upon and completed the five areas, return to each of the five sections and complete this sentence for each: Answering and reflecting upon these statements and questions makes me realize that I . . . You will then have five declarative statements that personally relate to student motivation and your role as an instructor. There are no predictable answers, but these statements should help to stimulate your reflection on student motivation and clarify who you are or want to be as an instructor.

Adapted from: Wlodkowski, R. J. (1978). Motivation and Teaching: A Practical Guide. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association. p. 165-66.

summary of motivation research and pertinent references.

Motivating Students
My students aren't motivated - how can I help them?
Teachers have a lot to do with their students' motivational level. A student may arrive in class with a certain degree of motivation. But the teacher's behavior and teaching style, the structure of the course, the nature of the assignments and informal interactions with students all have a large effect on student motivation. We may have heard the utterance, "my students are so unmotivated!" and the good news is that there's a lot that we can do to change that.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Related Links

Engaging students from urban backgrounds

Educational psychology has identified two basic classifications of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation arises from a desire to learn a topic due to its inherent interests, for self-fulfillment, enjoyment and to achieve a mastery of the subject. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is motivation to perform and succeed for the sake of accomplishing a specific result or outcome. Students who are very grade-oriented are extrinsically motivated, whereas students who seem to truly embrace their work and take a genuine interest in it are intrinsically motivated.

Motivating Students (more info)

This chapter from the book Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis (Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1993) is a great place to start for ideas and tips about increasing student motivation in your classes. The author presents a handy distillation of research on motivation and uses examples and anecdotes that bring this material to life. In addition to general strategies, this chapter addresses successful instructional behaviors, how to structure a course to motivate students, de-emphasizing grades and responding with other types of feedback to students, and tips to encourage students to complete assigned readings. A reference list points the way to more specific information. Excerpts from this chapter:

Give frequent, early, positive feedback that supports students' beliefs that they can do well. Ensure opportunities for students' success by assigning tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult. Help students find personal meaning and value in the material. Create an atmosphere that is open and positive. Help students feel that they are valued members of a learning community.

Motivating Students - from the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching (more info) This website contains a quick and useful primer on many of the important topics in student motivation. Topics include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the effect of learning style on motivation and strategies for motivating your students. Here are some recurring themes about student motivation, drawn from the educational literature Make it real In order to foster intrinsic motivation, try to create learning activities that are based on topics that are relevant to your students' lives. Strategies include using local examples, teaching with events in the news, using pop culture technology (iPods, cell phones, YouTube videos) to teach, or connecting the subject with your students' culture, outside interests or social lives. ([Brozo, 2005] ; McMahon and Kelly, 1996) Provide choices Students can have increased motivation when they feel some sense of autonomy in the learning process, and that motivation declines when students have no voice in the class structure. Giving your students options can be as simple as letting them pick their lab partners or select from alternate assignments, or as complex as "contract teaching" wherein students can determine their own grading scale, due dates and assignments. Kurvink, 1993 Reeve and Hyungshim, 2006 (Perkins 2002, GSA Abstract)

Balance the challenge Students perform best when the level of difficulty is slightly above their current ability level. If the task is to easy, it promotes boredom and may communicate a message of low expectations or a sense that the teacher believes the student is not capable of better work. A task that is too difficult may be seen as unattainable, may undermine self-efficacy, and may create anxiety. Scaffolding is one instructional technique where the challenge level is gradually raised as students are capable of more complex tasks. (Wang and Han) (more info) , [Margolis and McCabe, 2006] [Adams, 1998] Seek role models If students can identify with role models they may be more likely to see the relevance in the subject matter. For example, Weins et al (2003) found that female students were more likely to cite a positive influence with a teacher as a factor for becoming interested in science [Wiens et al, 2003] . In some cases, you can be a role model but it's unlikely that you will connect on that level with everyone in the class due to differences in gender, age and social circles. However there can be many sources of role models, such as invited guest speakers, fellow students or other peers. Use peer models Students can learn by watching a peer succeed at a task. In this context, a peer means someone who the student identities with, not necessarily any other student. Peers may be drawn from groups as defined by gender, ethnicity, social circles, interests, achievement level, clothing, or age. [Margolis and McCabe, 2006] Establish a sense of belonging People have a fundamental need to feel connected or related to other people. In an academic environment, research shows that students who feel they 'belong' have a higher degree of intrinsic motivation and academic confidence. According to students, their sense of belonging is fostered by an instructor that demonstrates warmth and openness, encourages student participation, is enthusiastic, friendly and helpful, and is organized and prepared for class. [Freeman, Anderman and Jensen, 2007] [Anderman and Leake, 2005] Adopt a supportive style A supportive teaching style that allows for student autonomy can foster increased student interest, enjoyment, engagement and performance. Supportive teacher behaviors include listening, giving hints and encouragement, being responsive to student questions and showing empathy for students. Reeve and Hyungshim, 2006 Also see how immediacy in the classroom can be part of a supportive style of teaching.

Show me examples of supportive-style teacher behaviors

Hide

Listening - carefully and fully attended to the student's speech, as evidenced by verbal or nonverbal signals of active, contingent, and responsive information processing.Asking what student wants - Such as "Which problem do you want to start with?"Allowing students to work in their own wayAllowing the students to talkUsing explanatory statements as to why a particular course of action might be useful, such as "How about we try the cube, because it is the easiest one."Using praise as informational feedback, such as "Good job" and "That's great."Offering encouragements to boost or sustain the student's engagement, such as "Almost," "You're close," and "You can do it."Offering hints, such as "Laying the map on the table seems to work better than holding it in your lap" and "It might be easier to work on the bottom of the map first."Being responsive to student-generated questions, such as "Yes, you have a good point" and "Yes, right, that was the second one."Communicating with empathic statements to acknowledge the student's perspective or experience, such as "Yes, this one is difficult" and "I know it's sort hard to tell."From What Teachers Say and Do Supports Students' Autonomy during a Learning Activity Show me examples of controlling-style teacher behaviors Hide TalkingHolding or monopolizing learning materialsGiving the solutions or answers before the students had the opportunity to discover the solution themselves.Uttering directives or commands, such as "Do it like this," "Start this way," or "Use pencil."Making statements that the student should, must, has to, got to, or ought to do something, such as "You should keep doing that" and "You ought to . . ."Asking controlling questions, such as "Can you move it like I showed you?" and "Why don't you go ahead and show me?"Making statements communicating a shortage of time, such as "We only have a few minutes left."Using praise as contingent reward to show approval of the student or the student's compliance with the teacher's directions, such as "You're smart" or "You are really good at playing with blocks."Criticizing the student or the student's lack of compliance with the teacher's directions, such as "No, no, no, you shouldn't do that."From What Teachers Say and Do Supports Students' Autonomy during a Learning Activity Strategize with struggling students When students are struggling with poor academic performance, low self-efficacy or low motivation, one strategy that may help is to teach them how to learn. That is, to outline specific strategies for completing an assignment, note-taking or reviewing for an exam. [Tuckerman 2003] [Margolis and McCabe, 2006] Example - Strategies for College Success (more info) from the Ohio State University. This course teaches learning strategies and motivational skills.

Show me examples of learning strategies Hide Specific learning strategies: Pre-action phase (preparing for task) -take a reasonable risk, work toward goals that are challenging but attainable, work in manageable, bite-size pieces, take responsibility for your actions, believe in your own effort and capability, set a plan and work from it. Action phase - search the environment, ask questions, visualize it (?) Reaction phase (after one task, preparing for the next one) - use feedback from prior tasks, monitor your own actions, give yourself instructions (see also Tuckerman, 2003 ) Link to more information about the Strategies for College Success (more info) course, including a course description, resources used in the course, and a PowerPoint presentation covering helpful motivational strategies. Also, try these on line resources: Test yourself- three self-assessment quizzes on learning style, learning strategies and procrastination.Study Strategies and Test PreparationMotivational Assistance Further Information

Presentations from the 2007 workshop on student motivations and attitudes Internal and External Aspects of Motivation (PowerPoint 332kB Feb20 07) Eric Pyle, Department of Geology & Environmental Science, James Madison University Thinking About Motivation (PowerPoint 139kB Feb20 07) Jenefer Husman, Psychology in Education, Arizona State University Thinking About Learning: Motivating Students to Become Intentional Learners (PowerPoint 720kB Feb20 07) Karl Wirth, Department of Geology, Macalester College

Read and respond to classroom dilemmas about student motivation written by workshop participants. Web Sites

Motivation: A General Overview of Theories (more info) This chapter in an e-book provides a brief summary of motivational theories that is written for educators. Topics include goals, self-efficacy, attribution theory, self-regulation and volition, and intrinsic motivation.

Six C's of motivation (more info) This website describes a scenario in a geography classroom where the teacher uses instructional strategies to promote motivation amongst her students. The tactics are to give students choices in their assignments, to challenge them, to allow the class some extent of control over the learning environment, to promote collaboration between students, to construct meaning in the material and to establish positive consequences for students' achievement. The author concludes that when students engage in meaningful open-ended tasks, their motivation increases and the effect of learning is more powerful.

Motivation: What does the Research Say? (more info) This website is written in the context of high school or middle school students, but is easily applied to the undergraduate learning experience. The site provides definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, strategies for increasing motivation, and suggestions to motivate students to engage in class activities.

How Can Teachers Develop Students' Motivation -- and Success? (more info) This interview with Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Columbia University, answers questions about types of motivation, with emphasis on performance (extrinsic) motivation vs. mastery (intrinsic) motivation. Questions address topics such as what teachers can do to help develop students who will work to overcome challenges rather than be overwhelmed by them, the challenge of the "gifted" label, and if self-esteem something that teachers can or should "give" to students. The site is easy reading, yet provides many useful insights.

Books and Journal Articles

Motivation from Within: Approaches for Encouraging Faculty and Students to Excel Michael Theall, editor citation and bibliographic information The dozen authors of this book describe how motivational efforts involve adapting one's personal strengths to accommodate unique situations. Motivation is not something one "does to" others. Rather, efforts to motivate students and professors involve first connecting with their interests and their concerns, then broadening these with expanded significant choices, and gradually increasing participants' empowerment to meet these new aspirations.

Improving Self-Efficacy and Motivation: What to Do, What to Say Howard Margolis and Patrick P McCabe citation and bibliographic information This article suggests practical solutions to improve the motivation of struggling learners. Specifically, the authors present strategies such as using peers as role models, teaching specific learning strategies, presenting the students with options and choices, communicating recent success, and more. These tactics can strengthen struggling learners' beliefs in their academic abilities and increase their willingness to engage in academic tasks.

The Effect of Learning and Motivation Strategies Training on College Students' Achievement Bruce W. Tuckerman, the Ohio State University citation and bibliographic information The general purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching students the use of specific learning and motivation strategies to meet the cognitive and motivational demands of college. A group of college students went through a course that was specifically designed to teach them learning strategies and give them an opportunity to practice the techniques and transfer these skills to other learning situations. The results showed that this method improved the GPA of the students who went through the program.

Who Does Extra-Credit Work in Introductory Science Courses? Randy Moore citation and bibliographic information

This study measured how many introductory biology students took advantage of extra-credit opportunities, the grades they earned, and reasons they gave for not completing extra credit work. The study found that high-achieving students pursued the extra credit work, while students who were earning poor grades did not. The author asserts that this behavior is tied to student motivation. Students who were motivated to succeed in the course made the choice to do the extra credit work, which is consistent with the other choices they had made, such as to attend lectures and help sessions. Similarly, students who earned poor grades typically demonstrated a low commitment to several components of the course, including the extra credit work.

Sense of Belonging in College Freshman at the Classroom and Campus Levels Tierra M. Freeman, Lynley Anderman and Jane M. Jensen citation and bibliographic information This study examines how students' sense of belonging is related to academic motivation, and which type of teacher behaviors is correlated with developing a sense of belonging in students. The paper presents some useful background information on the topics of belonging, motivation and academic self-efficacy. In their experiments, the authors found that students' sense of belonging is fostered by an instructor that demonstrates warmth and openness, encourages student participation, is enthusiastic, friendly and helpful, and is organized and prepared for class.

What Teachers Say and Do to Support Students' Autonomy During a Learning Activity Johnmarshall Reeve and Hyungshim Jang citation and bibliographic information This research paper presents the results of an educational experiment to measure the effects of different instructional behaviors. The experiment investigated a controlling style of teaching compared to an autonomy supportive style, and found that the supportive style resulted in increased student interest, enjoyment, engagement and performance. Autonomy-supportive teacher behavior can be effective in fostering intrinsic motivation in students. The paper provides useful background information on the topics of motivation, intentionality and autonomy, and also gives examples of controlling vs. supportive teacher behaviors.

The ABCs of Motivation Lynley H. Anderman and Valerie S. Leake citation and bibliographic information

Although this paper is written for faculty of educational psychology, the information is useful for any teacher who is interested in learning about some of the theory behind motivation. The purpose of this paper is to distill the numerous theories and frameworks for motivational principles into a simpler format. The authors offer that motivation is based on three fundamental needs: the need for autonomy, the need for belonging and the need for competence. An understanding of these concepts can help teachers provide a learning environment that increases motivation in their students.

Gender matters Darrell J Wiens, Dayna J Depping, Stacey R Wallerich, Emily S Van Laar, Angela L Juhl citation and bibliographic information Do females and males choose science for different reasons? In this study 271 college biology students were surveyed to learn when they became interested and what factors determined their origin and maintenance of interest in biology. One finding was that females were more likely to cite a positive influence with a teacher as a factor for becoming interested in science, which has implications for teacher behavior in fostering an interest in science among female students.

"Contracting" as a motivational teaching tool Karen Kurvink citation and bibliographic information The concept behind contracting, a motivational tool for stimulating learning, is discussed. Contracting involves a learning agreement between students and teachers, and it offers the opportunity for independent thinking.

What works in the nonmajors' science laboratory David L. Adams citation and bibliographic information This paper offers practical advice on building a workable and meaningful introductory science laboratory for non-science majors. These students usually lack experience in and motivation for the laboratory, so a balanced use of "cookbook" and discovery-based approaches is recommended.

Connecting with students who are disinterested and inexperienced

William G Brozo citation and bibliographic information This article was written in the context of middle school education, but is still relevant for undergraduate students who are hard to reach. The author states that when students claim they are not interested in anything, educators must help them discover what actually does interest them. Furthermore, another way to help youth expand their repertoire of interests is by arranging systematic opportunities for them to interact with community members who are engaged citizens and have a wide variety of life experiences.

A Candle Lights the Way to Scientific Discourse Li-hsuan Yang citation and bibliographic information This short article describes a simple and thought-provoking teaching strategy, burning a candle in the classroom and asking students to observe it and try to explain the processes they observe. The result is that students are able to engage in scientific discourse, hold competing hypotheses, looking for supporting evidence, communicating their ideas with supportive arguments, and proposing possible empirical studies to further their understanding. This technique could be applied to a geoscience classroom via simple demonstrations with physical models, videos or rock samples.

To learn more, read about how self-efficacy is related to student motivation and academic performance.

Previous Page

Next Page