Homework Day 213 : Motivating Students to Reach Their Full Potential
Besides parents, teachers play important roles in directing students to reach success. Generally, the role of teachers is limited in some aspects of the learning process in schools. However, in some cases the teacher also holds a dominant role in students' lives. When I writing this article, I remind a true story experienced by Brad Cohen who suffers from Tourette Syndrome. The story is then filmed in the movie "Front of The Class", and I have watched this moves for many times, it is so inspiring. The movie told us how the role of a teacher who is very influential on the success of Mr. Cohen as a best teacher.
Departing from the story, I as a teacher try to take some important aspects in motivating students to realize the best potential in them which, if developed, will lead them to success. As teachers, we have to believe that every student has different potential. To lead them to succeed, the teacher must be able to motivate and realize them in developing the best potential of theirs.
In the process of learning, to motivate students in improving their skills then teachers need to be aware of some aspects of motivation. With motivation, students will have an interest in learning, want to engage in learning activities, and have enthusiasm to learn new things in their lives. With the increased intensity of student involvement in learning activities, the teacher will be able to easily identify the potential of each student and lead them through the learning process to develop the potential.
In motivating students to develop their best potential, I consider 3 aspects of motivation suggested by Kyriacou (2009); those are Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation and expectation for success
Build students' Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the motivation that exists within the student. Each student must have an intrinsic motivation that is different from other students. Teachers should be able to ensure the motivation of each student, so as to develop models and learning activities that can motivate students and develop their potential for success in learning. For the development of this motivation, I strongly recommend to use a varied learning model with the characteristics of students.
Teachers can apply a game in a particular topic of learning related to what the student likes. For example, the teacher applies Business Board Game in English learning. The activities of this learning model can increase the intrinsic motivation of students who want to become entrepreneurs. On other topics, teachers can use other learning models that are appropriate to the potential of other students, so that each student has the opportunity to develop their potential through the learning model and learning activities that are applied in the classroom.
Build students' Extrinsic Motivation
Besides through intrinsic motivation, teachers can also develop students' potential through extrinsic motivation, that is, external motivation built into students, both from the learning environment, from the teacher and from their classmates. To build this motivation, students are usually given rewards and appreciation so that they are more motivated in learning. Such rewards and appreciation can come from both verbal and non verbal forms.
Learning strategies to build this motivation can be done by teachers by giving rewards to students who have worked hard in learning, or can be done by appreciating students through assessing or giving high scores . It can also be given in words as an appreciation to students as saying "excellent, very good, well done, etc. With such stimuli, students will be motivated to learn to develop their potential through classroom learning activities.
Trust and Opportunity to Expect Them for Success
Another way that teachers can do to motivate students in developing their best potential is by giving students trust and opportunities to engage and to complete their tasks independently. In this case, the teacher provides a challenging and realistic task for the student to work for both individuals and for teamwork. In the giving task or exercise, the teacher must minimize the negative possibilities such as student frustration, then the task should be given in accordance with students' abilities in completing the task.
By giving tasks or exercises to students with the trust and opportunity of the teacher to the students will foster students' confidence to work optimally in completing the task. Also, it will enhance the creativity skills, critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills. With such teachers' efforts, it is expected to encourage and develop the best potential students maximally through classroom learning activities
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