EDUC 1301 - Student Motivation Blog

In our previous lecture, we discussed student motivation and the vital role it plays in the classroom. The most significant point for me was that student motivation in the classroom partly reflects how teachers affect student morale. In that week's assigned reading, the author notes that teachers cannot take "students’ motivation for granted, and they have a responsibility to ensure students’ motivation to learn" (Seiffert et al., 2009, p.100). Some way or another, "teachers must persuade students to want to do what students have to do anyway" (p.100). 

I am reminded of my own educational experiences, particularly my time as an elementary school student, as I was not an overly engaged or motivated student. If a subject did not pertain to my interests, I often did the bare minimum, and that was sufficient up until I was in the seventh grade. In hindsight, that year of schooling was perhaps the most gruelling of my elementary and secondary school career. I struggled immensely in mathematics that year. I had a grasp on the content from previous school years, but seemingly no matter how hard I tried, I could not make sense of the newly introduced concepts and, therefore, meet the curriculum expectations. Evidently, mathematics was not a subject I could be successful in. Although my seventh grade teacher never said anything outright cruel to me, she was not approachable nor offered me much feedback besides the fact I needed to improve significantly. My frustration at myself and the subject combined with a lack of a tangible route to improvement led to my mathematics grade worsening. It took intervention from my parents and working one on one with a tutor the following summer for me to get back on track. 

As educators, we have a responsibility to our students, to keep them motivated and engaged with the content. Of the strategies discussed in the assigned reading, as a future educator, I hope to incorporate assessments focused on student choice and autonomy, pertaining specifically to student interest. Autonomy is a key component of the TARGET acronym and promotes “self-efficacy” and “self-determination” among students (p.122). Students should have the opportunity to be active participants in their own learning as it increases their overall engagement in the classroom. 

References:

Seifert, Kelvin & Sutton, Rosemary (2009). Educational Psychology (Second Edition), OER.

KatherineM@ONTech