It starts with you, the teacher: Tips for motivating students.
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There are many things associated with a teacher's profession. There's the apple, the blackboard and chalk and in some regions like mine, there is the cane. Which is an equivalent of a Jedi master's Lightsaber. However, after our very own order 66, our Lightsabers have been purged.
I am getting carried away, coming back to the topic, while all the items above are associated with teachers, the single greatest tool in a teacher's tool box is the skill to motivate others. It is that skill in which a teacher can make a class excited over something as simple as a plant, or bring a hyperactive class under control. It is with that same skill that allows the teacher to fight a battle where the odds are forever against him or her. That is the battle of winning the hearts and minds of the students.
So how can a teacher motivate students to be the best they can be? I have two education psychology books and several long articles to address that question. I could go on and list the pros and cons of each different method and technique. I could conduct long and complex studies to answer that question. However, I think the answer is not as complex. It is rather simple but deceptively difficult to carry out.
The answer to being able to motivate the students to be the best they can be starts from you, the teacher.
Patience and understanding
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Students are a rather critical bunch. Depending on the age group, it could be the parents who are the critical ones instead. One of the hardest group of students to motivate are teenagers. Depending on who they follow on Instagram or Facebook, they have a very different outlook on life. None of which prioritizes the need to work hard. Do note that there are exceptions and that I am fine with everyone having their opinion. The challenge lies in convincing them that studying and working hard are pathways to success, instead of just dreaming about it.
Compared to the rich kids and other influencers they find on social media, studying is extremely boring. As a teacher, the responsibility falls on us not to motivate them negatively. Negative motivation can come in many forms, there is subtle shaming and at times nagging. However, to be positive on this would be to first understand their point of view no matter what it may be, respect it and share from your own life.
I remember meeting a student who was not able to dance, who aimed to be a professional dancer just to 'be cool'. I saw that he had enormous potential in science and encouraged him to do that. I told him that he could pursue dance while studying and that it need not be a full time profession. He still dances, but he is studying medicine and doing rather well. The key in this situation was to be patient and understanding. To be very honest, I wanted to laugh at his idea, but reminded myself to be respectful and understanding.
Role model
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However, there are times where the students are not interested to hear your opinion. They may not come to seek for advice and may maintain a distance. While it can be hard to directly motivate them in such a situation, I try to do this by modelling the best behavior I can. In this case, I found being fair to be a great motivator in the classroom. This happened once when I found out that one of my student was an 'untouchable'. Not of the undesirable kind, but he was the star player on a sports team and was on first name basis with many of the faculty staff and even my superior.
I was told to 'be nice' to him and to 'avoid getting into trouble'. I am a stubborn person, so I did not respond very well to such advice. I told the class that everyone would be treated fairly no matter their race or background. They nodded but they needed proof that I was as good as my word. The following day, the untouchable student came in an hour late to my class. He claimed that I should let it slide and that I should be cool with it. I glanced at the class, most of them knew that I would let him go, but I did not. He was suspended for a week.
After that incident, the students started to respect me and were more enthusiastic in the class. They were motivated that such unfairness had ended. They were motivated that their achievement would be based on merit and not background. As for me, well, I followed procedure and so no one came threatening to fire me. That same student was never late after that.
The challenge in this case is standing up for what you think is right. That same attitude will motivate students to do their best because being fair is similar to telling them that you care for who they are as a person.
Be their cheerleader and coach
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We all have that one student who has made life difficult for us, be it the most disruptive student or that one student that has caused as much inconvenience. No matter who they are or how difficult they may be, be their cheerleader in their studies and motivate them to do their best. No matter how bad they do, focus on the positive, telling them that whatever small improvement that they have made, is an improvement. That focus on the positive would boost their self-efficacy and would give them hope. That hope will then be translated into effort and later down the road, success.
Of course, some may not respond to cheering and thus, some coaching is needed. Some students have the potential but refuse to put any effort. They need to be driven and to be told that they can do better. Sometimes, they need to see the consequences of their lack of effort.
The teacher's challenge is to identify which he or she should be. Too much coaching may cause the child to be demotivated. Too much cheering may give the child an unrealistic sense of confidence. Such challenge can only be overcome through experience, observation and practice.
The patience, understanding, role modelling, cheer-leading and coaching may seem like things that are obvious, but they will change a student's heart, drive them towards a goal and who knows, may impact a generation.
It all starts with you, the teacher.
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I Upvoted you and commentted on your nice post.. Pls don't well to Upvote and comment on my post ..am a new Steemitier pls
It was so much simpler in school when the light sabers were not banned, and parents who finds out their kids were treated with jedi strict saber treatment would themselves serves up another light saber treatment .
It is never easy to be a teacher. My mom was a kindergarten teacher since 1980 and only retired last year, and though her methods no longer follows the standard "non caning, only be nice" protocol the parents understood the principle of
I think bottom line that not only teachers play a crucial part on a child's growth and enthusiastic in learning, parents will need to do their part too as the teachers only face the students a few hours a day for a few years; while parents should be facing their kids the rest of the hours in their lifetime.
upvoted
Exactly, it happens when policy is being made with the best intention but implementation is poorly done. We do have one of the best policies in the world. However, we do very poorly at times in making sure it succeeds. Not bashing, just being critical after doing some studies. That's one important area that we can work on.
I was caned on a regular basis by our headmaster, secondary school - a man with a doctor's degree in education, as he could not find a more suitable way for getting me to perform as well as my ed-lab chart indicated I should...with absolutely no positive effect of course.
Why his education did not guide him to analyze my case down to the cause and apply remedy there, I never really understood, even in my adult life. There were understanding teachers and I performed reasonably well under their inspiring attitudes. I suppose a divided camp must have existed amongst the teachers, some sharing the views of the headmaster and some with more common sense, for all did most certainly not instill enthusiasm for their subjects in me.
Maybe studying under a headmaster like @alvinauh would have had a dramatic effect on the remainder of my life as well!
Caning also stopped during my high school times.
As many very wise proverbs and even real life examples led to,
If you want to discipline (with the light saber), you got to do it before 12 years old
Not that I advocate caning as in child abuse, but children under 12 does require strict guidance, which at the same time, can be a tool to brain wash as well for the conspiracy theorists statement.
But once one crosses 12 years old, they are able to think, justify, seek clarification; and at that time, the cane / forced doctrine will not work.
I was not caned during my highschool but my physics teacher has shunt me out of his class most of the time with very negative comments that I "will never be able to learn maths"
While on the other hand, I was an only 4/100 marked modern maths student, and my modern maths teacher, made me sit right opposite his desk every time we had math's class, and taught me how to do maths personally with 100 problems to solve in a week.
I can't say I am a math expert now, but I got from fail to high credit in my final government assessment exam (as we call it SPM); while I totally dropped physics and never looked back although I wanted to be an architect.
a Great post highlighting the traits of a good teacher, reading it made me think of a couple of teaches I had when I was younger
thanks for the memories
I'm glad that I brought back those memories, do you still meet them often?
No last time I saw one of them was about 15 years ago my math teacher was pretty old then
I do not get back home to NZ any more
Looks like you really taking the time to understand and help your students... Positive teaching!!
Great advice.
Thank you, I try to be positive so that it helps me stay focused, the paperwork and other jobs can be daunting, so being positive helps me more than it helps the kids
good post @alvinauh thanks for shere
Which school you teaching? Im gonna send my children there.. LOL
I think the biggest challenge for a teacher is to handle difficult parents. I hope parents can understand that teachers are doing their best.
I was teaching in a primary and secondary school in Malaysia and borneo, now I'm tasked with training new teachers for the service.
Thanks for the compliment, super honored =)
Education is the hardest job and should be valued all over the world. Many times the teacher does not feel valued their work, be it monetary or motivational, making the education devalued and bringing as a consequence a social instability. That is why a great sense of belonging is required when choosing this profession, because the future of the community depends on the teacher.
That's right, and Finland does it very well by elevating their teachers to a very high position, Finland and South Korea if I am not mistaken. But many countries are still not quite there yet unfortunately.
When I was in school, the best teachers were the ones who set the tone on day one by saying how easy the subject was going to be to learn. The geography and biology teachers pointed out what percentage of the exam was for drawing pictures (who can’t remember how to draw a picture?), the music teacher said you’d get an A just for showing that you want to learn, and so on. It motivated us, but most of our teachers weren’t like that.
That's great, I normally start by encouraging questioning. I normally get the most challenging subjects so I tend to be real with the students and tell them we are in it together.