Maintaining Motivation

Over the course of this semester, we have seen a lot of great ideas in our Learning and Development class. There have been many ideas with great real-world applications. One of those ideas that caught my attention was “Motivation”.

Motivation is one of the most important factors in a student’s participation in their own education. It’s the driving force behind their efforts to succeed. Because of that, I feel that it is very important for teachers to be aware of student motivation, and how to use it effectively. In my own experience teaching English in Japan, I had firsthand experience of the importance of motivation. 

I taught in a vocational school. The students were training to enter the workforce as machinists, electricians, and roboticists. They saw little value in learning English because it would not be very useful in their careers. In other words, they were not particularly motivated to study English. This made it challenging for me to find an effective way for my students to participate in class. I figured that if I could make my lessons more fun, then my students would be more motivated to get involved. So I began adapting board games to teach English vocab and grammar points. Those lessons were a big hit for my students. Instead of dreading a boring English class, they looked forward to playing games with their friends. I gained a reputation as a “fun teacher”, and the class would light up when I came in for a lesson. It was a great feeling. I was glad to find an effective way to motivate my students to learn a rather unpopular subject.

That is why I was so interested in the seminar on motivation in my Learning and Development class. After watching the seminar, I learned that I had used the TARGET method without knowing it. The games were group activities meant to challenge students and give them a degree of control over their learning. In my English classes, I saw firsthand how student motivation can affect the class, and the mood of the students. I believe it’s a very important factor that all teachers should be keenly aware of.

JustinR@OTU