37 How Do I Motivate Students? The first day of class is an excellent time to address student motivation. Many instructors are concerned about motivating students who enroll primarily to fulfill a graduation requirement, but motivation is an issue in every class. If you want students to work to their full potential, you need to find ways to enhance their motivation. For more information on motivating students, see Section 6.
Motivation for learning depends on three interrelated factors: Appreciation of the value of the learning experience. (“What’s in it for me?” or “When and where will I ever use this stuff?”) Expectation of success. (“Will I be able to learn the skills in this course?” or “Will I be able to make the grade I want in this course?”) Belief that performance is related to rewards. (“Will this course take more time than it is worth to me?” or “How much work will I have to do to get what I want from this course?”)
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If you spend time the first class meeting addressing these issues, both you and your students will benefit. For example, to show them the value of the learning experience, you could discuss how the course material will be useful for different majors, how the concepts will enhance their general education, or how the learning will help them in their future careers — in short, illustrate the ways they will directly benefit from mastering the course material. With some clever questioning, you can probably elicit most of these points from the students themselves. By drawing attention to your reasonable grading criteria and procedures, you can show students they can succeed — given a reasonable amount of work — and that rewards will be meaningfully related to performance. You would be wise to return to these points several times during the semester so the ideas will be constantly reinforced. *Adapted from Teaching at Carolina (1998). Chapel Hill, NC: Center for Teaching and Learning, University of North Carolina.
Building Rapport* Perhaps nothing is more important to good classroom dynamics than rapport between instructor and students. Some behaviors that promote the establishment of good rapport include: • • • • • •
willingness to share personal experiences willingness to admit uncertainties openness to new ideas ability to suspend judgment of others ability to listen carefully to others’ statements tolerance of opposite points of view.
Many students test the waters to see how their ideas will be accepted; if the instructor lacks sensitivity, students may become unwilling to contribute. Instructors can begin the rapportbuilding process on the first day of class.
Opening Session Activities designed to break the ice and get students used to speaking in front of the group help set up a supportive environment on the first day. In smaller classes students can share their names, home towns, academic majors, and/or a question they would like the course to answer. In larger classes instructors might ask the same questions, using a show of hands to