Transcript Activating Student Enthusiasm in the Classroom With Jeff Bertrandt

Activating Student
Enthusiasm in the
Classroom
With Jeff Bertrandt
Motivating
Students to
Learn
Motivation
• Strategies for enticing individuals or
groups of learners to actively pursue
instructional outcomes.
• Without sufficient
motivation, not much
learning is likely to occur.
Learning Targets
• By the end of this presentation on
motivation students should:
• Define and give examples of motivation.
• List, describe, and give examples of the
major factors that contribute to intrinsic
motivation.
• Describe the relationship of reinforcement
and punishment to motivation.
• Describe the major cognitive aspects of
motivation.
Learning Targets
• Describe the major affective components
of motivation.
• Describe how human needs are related to
motivation.
• Describe how physiological factors
influence motivation.
• Describe how self-efficacy influences
motivation and achievement.
Learning Targets
• Describe the major components of
attribution theory as it relates to
motivation.
• Describe classroom atmosphere and its
relationship to motivation.
• Describe the relationship between teacher
expectancy and motivation.
Bottom Line
• If students are going to learn, they must
focus attention on the task at hand and
sustain that level of intensity while
applying procedures and performing
activities at the teachers direction.
What Moves You?
• Motivation refers to getting
someone moving.
Incentives
• When we motivate ourselves or someone
else, we develop incentives - we set up
conditions that start or stop behavior.
• We try to establish conditions so that
learners will perform to the best of their
abilities.
• Incentives can be both positive or negative.
Who Motivates Us?
• When motivating students we use our own
experiences as a point of reference.
• Sometimes we look to famous people or
people who are known to be motivators.
The Drawback
• They have a selective, focused audience.
• Not the same variables
• We have to use a variety of motivational
techniques to reach different types of
learners.
• We have to make it
personal to each student.
Complexities
• Motivational strategies have different
effects on different kids.
• Something that motivates one type of kid
to do something may cause a different kid
to do everything they can to resist it.
“Motivation is strongest when
the urge to engage in a
behavior arises from within
the learner rather than from
outside pressures.”
Multiple Approaches
• There are many approaches to motivation,
but each approach has the same goal: to
make learners more willing to channel their
energies into the productive activities
offered by an activity or by a unit of
instruction.
Intrinsic Motivation
• A motivation to engage in activities that
enhance or maintain a person's selfconcept.
• Intrinsically motivating activities are those
in which people will engage for no reward
other than the interest and enjoyment that
accompanies them.
Challenge
• One of the most powerful individual
factors influencing intrinsic motivation is
challenge.
• Individual vs. Group
• “Going for the Zero”
• Exam Exemptions ~ WKCE, MAP, etc.
Goal Setting
• Use goal setting with students to
create a challenge.
Goal Setting
• Some ways to establish a goal or focus:
• "Here is what we plan to accomplish
today (or this semester)…."
• "This is important to study because it
will help you…"
• "Our ultimate goal is to…. In today's
session we are going to…."
• "It is important to understand this
because…."
Do Not Say Things Like….
“99% of you will fail this course, because
you are too stupid to understand it.”
• This teacher refrains from demonstrating to the
students reasons why the information is worth
knowing and does not give them opportunities to
verify their degree of progress toward mastering
the course objectives.
Curiosity
• Curiosity is stimulated when something
in the physical environment attracts our
attention or when there is an optimal
level of discrepancy between present
knowledge or skills and what these could
be if the learner engaged in some
activity.
Curiosity
• Novelty and interest are good synonyms
for the motivational use of curiosity.
Curiosity
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Artifacts
Riddles
Brain Teasers
Mysteries
Maps
Puzzles
Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Because it ran out of juice.
Purrrple
Between you and me we need a haircut
They take the Milky Way
Alarm Clock a doodle doo
Because their meteor
2 Types of Curiosity
• Sensory Curiosity
Cognitive Curiosity
Sensory Curiosity
• When physical factors such as changes in tone of
voice, light, or sound attract the attention of
learners.
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Video Games
Computer Programs
Crime Dramas
Music
Scary Movies
Changes in Text
Cognitive Sensory
• Is evoked when learners believe that it may
be useful to modify existing cognitive
structures.
• Math/Baseball
• Magic Trick
• Engaging Instruction
Control
•
The basic human tendency to seek to
control one's environment.
3 things influence student perception of
control.
1. Cause and Effect Relationships
2. Powerful Effects
3. Free Choice
Cause and Effect Relationships
• Kids look at the relationship between their
own actions and obtaining desired benefits.
• Identify something a student would like to
do but currently cannot and explain how
what they will learn will help them achieve
their goal.
Powerful Effects
• Learners perceive themselves to be in
control when they perceive the
outcome of what they are studying to
be truly worthwhile rather than
something trivial.
• “Why do we have to learn this?”
Free Choice
• If students perceive themselves as doing
something because they want to instead of
because they are being forced to do it
against their will, they will fell in control
of their learning.
• Empowerment
Increase Choice
• Every day include at least one block of time
during which students can decide individually
what to do.
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Give them choices as to how
they can use their time or
what type of work they want to do.
Fantasy
• Fantasy, plays a role when learners use
mental images of situations that are not
actually present to stimulate their behavior.
Fantasy
• Examples of Fantasy
• Simulation games ~ Oregon Trail, Number
Munchers, Risk, etc.
• Role Playing ~ Mock Trials, Plays
• Word Problems
What’s the Point?
Students will engage if:
• Activities are fun and exciting
• Experience what it feels like to see
something from another perspective.
• Imagine themselves actually
using the specified skills in
real life.
Competition
• Interpersonal Motivation vs.
Individual or Intrinsic Motivation
• Simply, interactions with other people
• Competition motivates behavior
because people can enhance their own
self-esteem when they are able to
make comparisons of their own
performance to that of others.
Competition
• While all learners appear to be motivated
to some extent by competition, the
importance of competition is greater for
some learners than for others.
Competition
• These differences are often related to the
person's previous experience or to the
importance that cultures or subcultures
place on competition versus cooperation.
Competition
• The competition doesn't have to be a
formal competition. All that is required is
that the person compare his/her
performance to that of others.
Competition
• Not all competitions are examples of
intrinsic motivation. If students are
required to compete over things that
they don't care about, this would be an
example of a very extrinsic form of
motivation.
Competition
• What are some examples you
use in your classroom?
Cooperation
• Cooperation, in which learners derive
satisfaction from working toward group
goals.
Cooperation
• The cooperation doesn't have to be based
on formal cooperative learning. All that is
required is that the person derive
satisfaction from contributing to the
success of others.
Cooperation
• How do you use cooperation as a
motivator in your classroom?
Recognition
• Most people enjoy having their efforts and
accomplishments recognized and
appreciated by others. In order to obtain
recognition, the activity of the learner must
be visible to others.
3 Ways to be Visible
• (1) the process of performing an activity may be
visible,
• (2) the product of the activity may be visible, or
• (3) some other result of the activity may be
visible (for example, an article may appear in the
newspaper listing the names of people who
participated in a science fair).
Rec. vs. Comp.
•
The differences between recognition
and competition are that
(1) recognition does not require a
comparison to someone else's
performance and
(2) competition does not require the
approval of an outsider.
Curriculum and Motivation
• Motivation of students is often influenced
more by what students are expected to
study than by the methods teachers employ
in delivering the curriculum.
Curriculum and Motivation
• How we feel about a topic or an activity
has a strong influence on our willingness to
study that topic or to engage in that
activity.
Examples
• People will engage more often and more
eagerly in behaviors related to topics,
people, and events toward which they
have approach tendencies.
Examples
• People will engage more often and more
eagerly in behaviors related to topics.
people, and events that have high
positive valence.
Examples
• People will engage more often and more
eagerly in behaviors related to topics.
people, and events regarding which they
have positive attitudes.
What can we do?
• Helping students develop positive feelings
toward the topics, people, and events
involved in a unit of instruction does not
guarantee that students will be motivated to
engage in a unit of instruction; but negative
feelings are very likely to hinder
motivation.
Arouse Interest
• Teachers can increase student’s
level of arousal by:
A. introduce topics in an interesting
manner
B. use humor during lectures
C. avoid talking in a monotone
D. encourage numerous different students
to participate in class discussions
Arouse Interest
call on students in an unpredictable
rather than predetermined order
raise questions to which students are
eager to learn or discover answers
vary the style or order of presentation avoid doing everything in the same
order every day
Arouse Interest
give tests or quizzes at appropriate
intervals, so that students feel constantly
accountable for what they learn
move around the room rather than
standing stiffly behind a podium;
give breaks during long class sessions.
Student Controls
• Students control their physiological
readiness in a variety of ways.
• Diet (what types of foods they are eating
and the effects of those foods)
• Sleep Patterns (not getting enough sleep)
Exterior Controls
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Temperature
Comfort level of furniture
Lighting
Music/Noise level
Highly Aroused
• There are times when high levels of
arousal can help students.
• Going into the zone
• Ultra-focused
• Hyper-aware
Needs and Motivation
• One fundamental approach to motivation is
to consider is human behavior as it is
stimulated to by the urge to satisfy needs.
Maslow’s List
• Maslow identifies a 4 basic needs and 3
growth needs of every individual.
Basic Needs
• Maslow contends that basic needs are hierarchal.
• Lower level needs must at least be temporarily
satisfied before learners can be motivated by
higher needs.
• For example: Satisfying hunger.
• Basic needs are essential to physical and
psychological well-being.
• Once the needs are met they diminish for awhile.
Growth Needs
• Can never be satisfied completely.
• When these needs become partially
fulfilled the need to fulfill them can
become even greater.
4 Basic Needs
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Physical and Psychological Needs
Safety Needs
Belonging
Self-Esteem
3 Growth Needs
• Need to know and understand
• Aesthetic needs
• Self-Actualization needs
In a Perfect World
• Teachers would know or be aware of the
needs of students and take these needs into
consideration when developing plans to
motivate them.
Limitations
• Teachers can only control what happens in
the classroom and not necessarily the
challenges kids face outside of it.
• When working with students we can
empathize with a student who feels
threatened even if we can’t alleviate it.
What We Can Do. . .
• Help satisfy the basic needs kids have.
• Schools provided breakfasts and lunches
• It is impossible to satisfy kids needs
completely but a partial solution may still
enable the student to be motivated by
higher motives.
The Ideal Situation
• We show learners how learning the subject
matter of school can help satisfy the
learner’s needs.
• Teach a hungry person how to cook, don’t
just feed them.
Self-Efficacy
• people are likely to engage in activities to
the extent that they perceive themselves to
be competent at those activities.
• learners will be more likely to attempt, to
persevere, and to be successful at tasks at
which they have a sense of efficacy.
Factors that reduce student’s
feelings of Self-Efficacy
1. Lock-step sequences of instruction that
may cause some children to get lost
along the way
2. Ability groupings that further diminish
the self-efficacy of those in lower ranks
3. Competitive practices in which many
students are doomed to failure from
the start.
Strategies to Foster Perceptions
of Self-Efficacy
1. Helping learners set specific, attainable goals
2. Modeling cognitive strategies that include
statements of self-efficacy
3. Helping the students focus feedback on the
successful application of effort to achieve
useful sub-skills
4. Supplying positive incentives
5. Encouraging students to verbalize effective
task strategies.
The Outcome
• Students will learn better if they believe
that they are good at managing their
thinking strategies in a productive manner.
For Teachers Too
• Teachers who have a high sense of
instructional efficacy devote more
instructional time to academic learning,
give students more and better help when
they need it, and are more likely to praise
students for their successful
accomplishments.
For Teachers Too
• Teachers with a low sense of self-efficacy
are likely to employ a set of "custodial"
strategies that focus on extrinsic
inducements and negative sanctions (which
are likely to be ineffective), whereas
teachers with higher self-efficacy are more
likely to employ strategies that support
their students' intrinsic motivation and
encourage the students to direct their own
learning.
Attribution Theory
• learners are strongly motivated by the
pleasant outcome of being able to feel
good about themselves.
• it emphasizes that learners' current selfperceptions will strongly influence the
ways in which they will interpret the
success or failure of their current efforts
Basic Principle
• Attribution theory as it applies to
motivation is that a person's own
perceptions or attributions for success or
failure determine the amount of effort the
person will expend on that activity in the
future.
Internal Factor - Control
• Controllable ~ We can control our effort by
trying harder or Uncontrollable (most
people cannot easily change their basic
intellectual ability or change from being an
introvert to being an extrovert).
External Factor - Control
• Controllable (a person failing a difficult
course could succeed by taking an easier
course) or Uncontrollable (if calculus is
difficult because it is abstract, it will still
be abstract no matter what we do).
Point of View
• People will interpret their environment in such
a way as to maintain a positive self-image.
• They will attribute their successes or failures
to factors that will enable them to feel as good
as possible about themselves.
• When learners succeed they are likely to want
to attribute this success to their own efforts or
abilities
• When they fail, they will want to attribute
their failure to factors over which they have no
control, such as bad teaching or bad luck.
Attribution Theory
4 Factors that Influence Motivation in Education
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ability
Task Difficulty
Effort
Luck
Ability
• Ability is a relatively internal and stable
factor over which the learner does not
exercise much direct control.
Task Difficulty
• Task difficulty is an external and stable
factor that is largely beyond the
learner's control.
Effort
• Effort is an internal and unstable factor
over which the learner can exercise a great
deal of control.
Luck
• Luck is an external and unstable factor
over which the learner exercises very
little control.
Recipe for Success
Students will persist at academics if they attribute
their successes to the following:
• Internal, unstable, factors over which they have
control (e.g., effort)
• Internal, stable, factors over which they have little
control but which may sometimes be disrupted by
other factors (e.g., ability disrupted by occasional
bad luck)
• If they attribute their failures to internal, unstable
factors over which they have control (e.g., effort).
Double Edged Sword
• It is not beneficial for students to attribute
their successes entirely to ability. If they
think they already have all the ability they
need, they may feel that additional effort is
superfluous.
Best Case Scenario
"I succeeded because I am a
competent person and worked
hard."
What to Do?
• When students fail, they are most likely to
persist and eventually succeed if they
attribute their failure to a lack of
appropriate effort.
• Therefore, when students perceive
themselves as unsuccessful teachers help
them develop the conviction that they can
still succeed if they give it their best shot.
The Bottom Line
• It is best for students to believe that it is
their own behavior rather than external
circumstances that leads to success or
failure.