The biggest problem students have in my courses is doing the work required to
do well on tests. There are all sorts of difficulties for them--especially
those involving their home lives and jobs. But the biggest difficulty, it seems
to me, is that most have LITTLE MOTIVATION to sit down and do the work. I'm
sure some of this motivational difficulty is related to the other problems in
their lives, but it seems to be more fundamental than this. My guiding
assumption is: we can not possibly be motivated to put a large amount of effort
into accomplishing a task UNLESS IT SEEMS DIRECTLY RELEVANT to something very
important in our own lives. I think that most students don't often see how the
material being learned is related to their own lives. Thus, for many of my
students, the course material is not terribly relevant to their concerns.
With demonstrations, we can present the material in an entertaining manner,
thereby helping students to pay attention and learn difficult concepts. But
paying attention is just the first step. As with any form of entertainment,
once the event is over, the attention often gets directed back to other matters.
What I have in mind goes beyond entertaining demonstrations: it involves
facilitating their motivation to become deeply engaged in the material even
when we are not trying to entertain them during class with clear demonstrations
of difficult ideas. I think that the best way to help students develop their
motivation would be to instruct each one individually and help them to see the
connections between the material and various events in their own lives. For
most of us, however, such individual instruction is not possible.
So my question is this: what have you done to help develop the motivation of
(initially unmotivated) students to become deeply involved in the course
material?
Jeff Ricker
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale AZ
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
