motivating students
How can we as instructors motivate the lazy student?
Kristie,
By having a lot of engaging activities that will engage the students and show them the value of the content being offered. On the other hand some lazy students refuse to be motivated because they do not see any value to being in college. These students amaze me since they are paying to be in school and yet we have to work to get them involved in their coursework.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Having students that appear not to care is hard but sometimes getting them to understand how the content of the lecture will help in their careers is all that is really needed to get students motivate.
Nanyamka,
This is a good point because they have to personally connect the content of the course to their career development. When they do they start to realize that they need to put forth the needed effort to be successful in the course if they are going to be successful in their career.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
A good portion of my students have served in the armed forces and so they are not paying for courses directly. Motivating them takes a lot of extra effort as they have seen/done things that are well and beyond anything I can present.
They do bring with them a good deal of knowledge and so I always ask them to share with the others (and myself) ... they seem to enjoy the chance to share their experiences.
I use this on students who are not motivated as well, by asking them how they would fit the information into their current world.
Somen,
You are using a good strategy with this group because as you mention their life experiences are far beyond what most instructors will encounter. So the more you can bring them into the class setting via their sharing of their lives the more engaged they will be.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When I encounter a student that is less involved than the others for whatever reason lazy, shy or embarrased that they may make a mistake. I would usually choose those students to assist me with demonstrating lab skills and that way I have their attention and cooperation as they learn the skill, have ther questions answered and give me return feedback and it usually work without the student feeling singled out. Now I can pair that student with another student also other students will volunteer to perform that skill with the lazy student because the lazy student assist the instructor and they are more than likely to get the skill right so it kind of fources them to perform without them being aware.
Sarah,
This is a good strategy to follow and it helps all students to have involvement in the class. Thank you for sharing this with us as I know it will be of help to other instructors.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Having a student stay motivated can be a challenge, especially when the content apprears to have nothing to do with the program overall. What I do in cases like that is use real life examples and personal experiences to show the students how at one point or another in their career, this particular subject will come up.
Ana,
I teach a gen ed course so I can relate to what you are saying. In courses like this we need to use all of the examples and real world stories we can to create a connection between general education and their career field. If we don't we are going to lose many of them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One of my toughest issues is trying to get the student to understand that in any “introductory†course/courses you must learn the language used in the field before they can have meaningful discussions about their area of study. For instance, I teach biomedical science classes, and as with any specific field of study we use a certain set vocabulary that the normal person would not understand. It is hard for me to get across to them that, yes, initially there is an enormous amount of pure memorization before you can “talk the talkâ€. I tell them it’s going to be tough and that we have all experienced this at one time or another, but if you love the field, and I will help them in anyway needed, that they will have to persevere and eventually it will all begin to make sense. Any advice to help them understand the importance of the foundation would be much appreciated.
Anita,
I teach such a course so I can appreciate your comments. It is tough because many students today do not want to work that hard at getting a solid foundation. I do a lot of case studies to show them why they need to know certain concepts and vocabulary words. I try through stories from the field to show them the value of what is being taught and then have them role play using the words. In one role play I have a student use the words and try to explain them to another student that plays the role of a person that does not understand the words and tries to make up definitions for the words based upon what the words sound like whether the definition is close to being right or not. It is a fun time but it doesn't take long before the rest of the class is helping to provide the definitions. As the days go by you can see the growth the students are having in learning the terms. This approach is not magic for sure but it does help a lot of students to acquire the needed vocabulary.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
