Motivate Your Students or Die Trying: How Can We Keep

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Motivate Your Students or Die Trying How Can We
Keep Teachers Alive?

• Emily M. Lens
• Erin S. Ulrich
• A Presentation on the Teachers Role in
  Motivating Students

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Moti-what?

• Who knows a child in need of serious motivation?
• Motivation describes a students drive to
  participate in their own education.
• Sounds like a dream come true.

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Why should we care about motivation at 730 pm
when we are all tired?

• Students cannot succeed academically if they are
  not motivated to learn.
• When there is a disconnect between students and
  their academic tasks, it is unfair to expect them
  to complete these tasks with any type of
  enthusiasm.

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Why should we care?

• Students who become academically disconnected may
  be at greater risk for dropping out of school
  (Fredricks, Blumfield, Paris, 2004).
• Decreased behavioral engagement in school has
  lasting effects on a childs academic future
  (Birch Ladd, 1997).

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Thats not my problem...

• Older models of motivation have proposed that
  motivation is a student-centered construct
• A student is seen as either motivated or not
  motivated (Linnenbrick Pintrich, 2002).

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Motivation Seems Internal, Not Social...

• Attribution theory related to motivation looks at
  how students view the causes of academic
  successes and failures (Levesque Lowe, 1992).
• Newsflash Teachers attribute reasons for student
  academic behavior and performance too.

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Motivation as a Social Construct

• Johnson (2008) looked at two school structures
  traditional and non-traditional
• The non-traditional school put more emphasis on
  relational and collaborative learning.
• These students were more engaged than the
  students in the traditional high school.

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Multifaceted Motivation

• Linnenbrick Pintrich (2002) suggest four parts
  of student motivation
• Attribution
• Self-efficacy
• Intrinsic motivation
• Goal orientations

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Multifaceted Motivation

• Performance v. Mastery
• Performance Goals Focus on completion and
  competition
• Mastery Goals Focus on understanding and
  comprehension of the material
• Performance goals are not as conducive for
  student motivation
• (Linnenbrink Pintrich, 2002)

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Multifaceted Motivation

• Fredricks, Blumfield, and Paris (2004) suggest
  that motivation is influenced by all of the
  following
• School-level Factors
• Classroom Contexts
• Teacher Support

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Kohn (2008)

• The more we fault people for lacking
  self-discipline and try to help them control
  their impulses, the less likely we are to
  question the political, economic, or educational
  structures that shape their actions.

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Summing up Motivation

• Motivation does involve internal thoughts and
  feelings of the student
• However, these thoughts and feelings are heavily
  influenced by schools, teachers and the
  educational environment

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Whos Really Responsible?

• EVERYONE

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Why Pick on Teachers?

• Teachers have the most individual contact with
  students
• Teachers have the opportunity to dramatically
  change a students life and influence motivation
• For kids who arent self-motivated and dont
  have support at home, we need to stand over them
  and say, get this done... (Kennedy-Manzo, 2008).

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Dolezal, Welsh, Pressley, Vincent (2003)

• Compared nine third-grade teachers in Catholic
  schools
• Looked at the different characteristics between
  engaging teachers and those who do not motivate
  their students as well

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Dolezal et al. (2003)

• Behaviors that undermine motivation
• Neglecting to encourage cooperation
• Emphasizing ability over mastery
• Struggling with classroom management
• See luck and task difficulty as determinants of
  success/failure
• Tasks may not be appropriately challenging

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Dolezal et al. (2003)

• Engaging teachers
• Use cooperative learning
• Scaffolding
• Making connections across curriculum
• Encouraging autonomy and choice
• Individual, one to one interactions
• Make class fun!

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Ryan and Patrick (2001)

• Looked at classroom social environment fostered
  by teachers
• Evaluated the outcomes of
• Promoting interaction
• Mutual respect
• Performance goals

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Ryan and Patrick (2001)

• Found that classroom environment affected
  students self-regulation, efficacy and
  disruptive behavior
• After accounting for prior levels of engagement,
  achievement and demographics

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Murdoch and Miller (2003)

• The better the relationship between a student and
  teacher, predicts stronger academic motivation in
  students
• This research suggests that teacher effects on
  motivation can mount year after year and
  eventually have a large, lasting effect

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Turner, Thorpe, and Meyer (1998)

• Studied the importance of mutual respect in the
  classroom
• Respect among classmates and in student-teacher
  relationship
• Students worried about their teachers reactions
  will not feel compelled to engage in their work

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Students Are People Too...

• Teachers actions, as well as reactions are
  linked to a students level of motivation
• Children pick up on a teachers attributions and
  perceptions

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Pay Special Attention To

• Interactions with students
• How youre presenting materials
• Encouragement of interactions and collaboration
• Management of the Classroom

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Suggestions for Teachers

• Encourage collaboration
• Reduce the amount of time spent lecturing and
  doing seatwork
• Place and emphasis on interaction between
  students
• (Johnson, 2008)

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Suggestions for Teachers

• Provide students with tasks that are within their
  range of competence
• Use prior knowledge as a stepping stone for new
  skills
• Decrease social comparison (performance goals)
  and increase understanding (mastery goals)
• (Linnenbrick Pintrich, 2002)

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Suggestions for Teachers

• Use a variety and multiple forms of assessments
• Allow students to pick their own report and
  project topics
• Monitor your reactions to student success and
  failure
• (Linnenbrick Pintrich, 2002)

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Suggestions for Teachers

• Use scaffolding, embrace autonomy and make class
  as fun as possible (Dolezal et al., 2003)
• Be fair and flexible in rule setting, help
  children feel accepted and encouraged (Fredricks
  et al., 2004)

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Can We Go Home Yet?

• Motivation is a very broad topic, usually viewed
  in terms of a students internal drive and
  attributions
• However, its better described as a dynamic
  quality that exists at different levels,
  influenced by different constructs in each human
  being

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Almost time...

• As education is the key to success in life,
  academic motivation comes to the forefront of a
  students learning style

• It is increasingly clear that the teacher plays a
  significant role in a students motivation to
  succeed

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Just a Few More Seconds...

• Since, as educators, it is only possible to
  affect change relative to our personal roles in
  schools and education
• Focusing on ourselves becomes the best way to
  incite change in a students life

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Just a Couple More Points...

• Our role as educators is beautiful and
  frightening
• We have a huge impact on the academic success and
  failure of students
• It is up to us to ensure that motivation is
  spread widely across every classroom

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Finally...

• It is crucial that teachers are motivated to
  motivate their students!

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References

• Birch, S., Ladd, G. (1997). The teacher-child
  relationship and childrens early school
  adjustment. Journal of School Psychology, 35,
  61-79
• Dolezal, S. E., Welsh, L. M., Pressley, M. P.,
  Vincent, M. M. (2003). How nine third-grade
  teachers motivate student academic engagement.
  The Elementary School Journal, 103(3), 239-267.
• Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., Paris, A.
  H. (2004). School engagement Potential of the
  concept, state of the evidence. Review of
  Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.
• Johnson, L. A. (2008). Relationship of
  instructional methods to student engagement in
  two public high schools. American Secondary
  Education, 36, 69-87.
• Kennedy-Manzo, K. (2008). Motivating student in
  the middle years. Education Week, 27(28), 22-25.
• Kohn, A. (2008). Why self-discipline is
  overrated The (troubling) theory and practice of
  control from within. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(3),
  168-176.
• Levesque, M. J., Lowe, C. A. (1992). The
  importance of attributions and expectancies in
  understanding academic behavior. In F. J. Medway
  T. P. Cafferty (Eds.), School psychology A
  social psychological perspective, (pp. 47-81).
  Hillsdale, New Jersey Erlbaum.
• Linnenbrink, E. A. Pintrich, P. R. (2002).
  Motivation as an enabler for academic success.
  School Psychology Review, 31(3), 313-327.
• Murdock, T. B. Miller, A. (2003). Teacher as
  sources of middle school students motivational
  identity Variable-centered and person-centered
  analytic approaches. The Elementary School
  Journal, 103(4), 383-399.
• Ryan, A. M. Patrick, H. (2001). The classroom
  social environment and changes in adolescents
  motivation and engagement during middle school.
  American Educational Research Journal, 38(2),
  437-460.
• Turner, J. C., Thorpe, P.K., Meyer, M. K.
  (1998). Students reports of motivation and
  negative affect A theoretical and empirical
  analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90,
  758-771.