Motivate the UNMOTIVATED

BY. Mr. Teachers

Over the years, I have seen them collapse, falling hard into the vinyl seat of the faculty lounge, they heard the buzz that “Oh, hell” and “damn” that came from experience working with students who do not learn. I have heard with long sighs of frustration and then discussion of the “fact” that most students are “unmotivated,” unwilling slugs taking my time and best performance.

Though I also have fallen into this occasional “locker room talk” about students, I now find myself regretting my ignorance. During the last few years, I try to take the time to get to know my students, to talk honestly with them about who they are and what they want from me, the institutions where I meet them, and their education. They have taught me much. I no longer believe that their motivation is the real issue of how many of them do or not do in the classroom.

Students become clear to me that they realize the many sources of frustration about the process before I ever face them, frustrations that are difficult to set aside for 50 or 60 minutes each time. And they bring a lot of problems in attitudes about the nature of learning. They come from different backgrounds. Some arrive soon after graduating from high school, but many others came to me after years involvement in the work force.

In general, today’s students who may be older than the stereotypical 18 – or 19 years. They may be apprehensive about traditional classrooms – paper and pencil and “book learning” – and they are likely to see themselves as outsiders when they consider the teacher of the world – my world. They are often uncomfortable with formality. They learn skills less often. And they are often struggling to work jobs, increasing family, handle the financial responsibility and limited funds, all while trying to better themselves by going to university.

If all that is not enough, to come to campus they challenge the social identity and shakes their confidence. Many of them come from a world that is different from mine and have been established by experience far different from what they face in school. When I think about all that’s going on with their social, psychological, and economic, it is not surprising that many students who do not see the class as a very important point of their existence.

Even knowing all the problems they bring with them, I always want to believe that the class should be something that they cherished and for which they will give more of himself. I want the best of the students. If I can have roads, they have come to me as active learners, seeking assistance and insight at every opportunity. They thrived on the academic challenges, and they would have disabled me to teach better than I ever taught before. They questioned all aspects of their education and explore the understanding of “how’s” and “why’s” of the factors that relate their curious minds.

Oh, what a wonderful experience that would be … buy, let’s face it, who does not do what most students. What a disappointment! How easy it is to blame them! And how easy it is to frustrating … and how easy it is to fall into the belief that they are passive, uninvolved, apolitical airheads. How easy it is to assert that they avoid responsibility, that they never question anything that relieves their responsibilities, and they often pull their students with the social networks they use in the classroom to reduce the value of the lesson presented to a potential “good” students . How stupid I think I will not teach them to learn how!

In fact – because I have to learn the hard way – classrooms do not have to be deadly, and seemingly unmotivated students who do not have to remain in the unmotivated stage for very long. Make the necessary changes a lot of soul-searching and rethinking on the part. And, most difficult to accept, then required that I accept some blame for what I – as a representative of the teaching profession – has been given to the students’ responses to me.

I have learned a lot from those who do not know that they have the right to ask for anything other than what they provided. Most, they are the product of years of experience in schools where they are basically told to sit down, close, listen, and learn – an experience that taught them that the teacher is the source of all knowledge and that learning is something magically injected into them in some point without their awareness. They deny that education is voodoo, and I have learned, they will decline again if I push it, even though their internal struggle with the desire to “make it this time” in the universities.

Opposed to the occasional lounge talk I’ve heard and been part of, the students are in school they spend time and money because you want to learn and because they want a better life for themselves. Given, they often do not know how to get what they want or how to make them learn what is presented to them. However, when asked for their opinions (often a new experience for many of them), they stated that there are instructional areas that they have strong opinions about.

One of the most prominent comments from students about what they want from the college experience involves individual instruction. They all want to meet the needs of each. They want to feel more than they are part of the crowd, each talent and ability who respected and considered to be feasible.

They want a teacher who recognizes them as human beings – teachers who care about them – they not only test the performance.

They want to be a disability, not decimated.

Those who want to check their caretakers on a regular basis, each of which supports learning, that tells them their individual progress, and determine the various tasks that provide opportunities to learn in the mode that matches the style of each and which is designed to meet the level of learning them.

They like teachers who talk at their level, which can take a joke and joke, and let those who talk and learn with other students.

They like clear, complete explanations and concrete examples, thorough (but brief) explanation of difficult concepts, and they have the opportunity to answer questions.

When I think of what the students want, I know that classes that deliver the same message the old “sit down, close, and listen, so you can memorize the facts to the dump test sheet” will probably not motivate them. It seems clear that students are not necessarily reluctant or unmotivated students, they only uninvolved in the depersonalization of the traditional classroom. They are willing to learn, they just may not be able to survive with the way they teach. Now I know that if I really want to see motivation in my students, I must be encouraged to rethink what I do for them.

See more about the Other Lessons Plans :>>Motivate the UNMOTIVATED

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 2:01 am and is filed under Teaching Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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