Recently, one of our online course participants, Linda Logan, in her blog, "Understanding Students," stated ..."Also, the instructor must be excited about the course in order to get students excited and motivated.
I had the pleasure of teaching Accounting Principles for years! After a while, it sometimes became challenging to teach the same thing over and over again - how many times can you teach debits and credits a new way? Linda's quote though got me thinking about faculty who teach the same discipline for most of their teaching lives. How do they keep themselves motivated in order to keep their students interested?
Since every group of students is different, perhaps we should encourage our faculty to feed off of the dynamics of each class by observing the interests and abilities of each group, and adapting content and activities accordingly (without, of course, sacrificing the learning objectives).
For example, after repeatedly teaching the components of a balance sheet, I gave a particularly more advanced group of learners a completed balance sheet that was incorrect and had them, in groups, work backward to determine where the errors were and then, upon correction, how the mistake could be averted in the future. It ended up to be a great critical thinking exercise and refreshed the subject for me as well.
What are ways that you have motivated yourself while repeatedly teaching the same subject?
