How to Motivate Learners: Learning is a lifelong -process
Friends….. Learning is a lifelong venture and in order to instill and sustain a lifelong love of learning, motivation is a must. Inspire, Instill drive, Incite excitement, and Stimulate curiosity. These are common goals for many educators.
What do you do if your students or you lack motivation?
How do you light that fire and keep it from burning out?
Both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation is required. Besides this actionable methods should be used.
Intrinsic Motivation
It is internal. Interest, and enjoyment, are intrinsic motivations. For example, You want to achieve better grades in your academics or in a foreign language course because you want to become fluent in the language. Such students are motivated by their interest, enjoyment, and satisfaction from learning the material.
RYAN explained that intrinsic motivation is congruous with higher performance and predicts students' higher achievement.
Extrinsic Motivation
It is derived from a more external source and involves a contingent reward. For example, a student may be motivated to achieve satisfactory grades in a foreign language course because they receive a tangible reward or compliments for good grades. Their motivation is fueled by earning external rewards or avoiding punishment. Rewards may include parents’ and teachers’ approval.
According to the Self-Determination Theory, there are three basic psychological needs that are fundamental for motivation.
1}Autonomy 2)Competence 3)Relatedness.
Autonomy means students’ and the ownership they take of their learning or initiative. A teacher can generate students' autonomy by involving them in decision-making. They can try blended learning, which combines whole-class lessons with independent learning. Teach accountability by holding students accountable and modeling and thinking aloud about your own responsibility.
Competence means students must feel that they can grow and succeed. Assisting students in developing their self-esteem is critical. A teacher should help the students see their strengths and refer to their strengths often. Promote a kid’s growth mindset.
Relatedness refers to the student's sense of belonging and connection. Build this by establishing relationships. Facilitate peer connections by using team-building and encouraging collaborative learning. Develop your own relationship with each student. Try to find out student interests to develop common ground.
9 Ways Teachers Can Motivate Students
When teaching a subject and providing classroom management is a juggling act. Try a few of the suggestions below and see the results:
- First and foremost, it is critical to develop relationships with your students. When students begin formal schooling, they need to develop quality relationships, as interpersonal relationships in the school, setting influence children’s development and positively impact students' outcomes. Which includes their learning, behavior, and cognitive skills.
- Try to find out their interest at the beginning of the school year. Tell students to demonstrate their interest by asking them about their weekend sports game or other activities they may participate in. Interest inventories can be used also.
- Prefer a physical learning environment. Who says students need to sit idly at the desk. Flexible seating is something you may want to try. Students who are comfortable in a learning space are better engaged, which leads more meaningful, impactful, learning experience Cole explains. You must try to implement pillows, couches, stools, rocking chairs, rolling chairs, bouncing chairs, etc.
- Parents are the key factor in students' motivation. So involve the parents and solicit their aid to help or encourage the students. It is important to develop your relationship with the crucial allies. Involve parents by sending home a weekly newsletter or by inviting them into your classroom for special events. Inform them that you are a team and have the same goal for the child.
- If students do not understand the importance or real-world application for what they are learning, they may not be motivated.
- The learning process should be children -centered not teacher-centered. A student-centered approach engages students in the learning process, while another approach involves the teacher delivering most of the information. Student-centered type of teaching requires students to construct meaning from new information and prior experience. Student-centered teaching is better.
- Give students autonomy and ownership of what they learn. Try enlisting students as the directors of their own learning and assign project-based learning. Involve the students in decision-making and provide them the opportunity to lead.
- Encourage the students to ask questions. The process of asking questions helps students to understand new topics, realize others’ ideas, evaluate their own progress, monitor the learning process, and increase their motivation and interest in the topic by arousing curiosity. ( Dogan and Yucel).
- Students need to feel safe in their classrooms. A teacher can foster this environment by setting clear expectations of respect between students. Involve students in creating a classroom construct or norms. Acknowledge all students' responses no matter how wild or off-topic they may be.
C.s. Lewis said, “ The task of the modern educator is not to cut down the jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
So it is the need of society to nourish the children as they are the future of the world.
Friends, the Conclusion is that intrinsic motivation is always better than extrinsic motivation. Still, I am a learner. There may be some mistakes in my writing. I feel motivated when I write and receive your comments. I get intrinsic motivation and enjoy it a lot. Your feedback and follow-up mean a lot to me.
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