A. The question of motivation is an excellent one. While some teachers will naturally struggle with this more than other based purely on the make-up of students, it is an important question for all teachers to have answered.
Motivating a student is not often a simple task. Many students do not want to be in school and do not care about learning anything. Motivating these students is the most important task a teacher has. While the task of motivating students will be a life-long learning process for teachers, there are some strategies that teachers have found to be helpful.
1. Make learning fun. Students who are not motivated to learn often think that learning is boring. While it will take extra creativity and enthusiasm to draw these students in, making learning fun is the most important thing a teacher can do to motivate students to learn.
2. Ask students what they want to learn about. When students are not listening, being respectful or willing to learn, asking them what they want to learn may shed light on creative ways to motivate them. The music teacher who cannot interest students in music in the curriculum may find that the student’s desire to learn about rap may in fact fit with the curriculum with a little bit of creative tweaking.
3. Use mini-rewards. Extrinsic motivation for learning is often frowned upon as it squelches the intrinsic motivation to learn and continue to learn outside of the classroom. The bottom line, though, is that students need to learn when in the classroom so teachers may need to resort to rewarding students for the act of learning. It is important that the reward offered students is indeed motivating enough to give the desired academic result.
Finally, holding parent conferences can often help motivate students. If the parents are involved in their children’s lives, they often can hold sway over cooperation and willingness to do the work that teachers assign. While this is not an option for every teacher and many times the unmotivated student has the uninvolved parent, it is always worth a try.
Read more ideas for motivating students.
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