Self-Study Course

Task List 7: Motivation

Last lesson we covered material about how to enourage critical thinking in your lessons. This time we will discuss the need and methods of motivation and class participation.

Why Do We Need Motivation?

Most students lack either the background to understand the context of your lesson, or they lack the self-confidence to determine the context on their own, or frequently, both.

With no such context-building lessons seem disconnected.

Motivation serves as both a guide and a tool.

As a guide, motivation serves to provide the immediate need for the subject of a lesson.

As a tool, motivation provides the answer to the question, "What does this have to do with me?"

How Do We Motivate?

1. Recap what has been covered so far.
2. Introduce new concepts in light of what has already been covered.
3. Foreshadow what is coming later where it is relevant to what you are covering now.
4. Explain how the current topic is relevant to the study as a whole.
5. Demonstrate this relevance.
6. Make the lesson important because it is part of the course, this is the least effective level of important (and it rarely survives the course).
7. Make the lesson important to the job related to the course.
8. Make the lesson important to the student's life (this is the most effective level of importance).

Class Participation

1. Ask thought-provoking questions in your lesson. Discuss them. A good dscussion is worth minutes of time for every second spent.
2. Ask homeowrk questions throughout the lesson. This immediately provides the motivation for the question.
3. Ask for the advice of the students, thus generating more discussion.
4. Ask the students to provide examples.

There are many reasons why students do not participate:

1. Participation is traumatic. This can be mitigated by providing a friendly atmosphere of discussion and participation right from the beginning.
2. Participation in embarrasing. This can be mitigated by being gentle with participants, even when they are wrong. Demonstrate that getting the wrong answer is the only way to learn something new.
3. Participation is hampered by uncertainty.

The reward for participation is greater self-confidence.

To return to the Self-Study Course Homepage click here.