Below is a summary of my recent plenary in Lisbon:
Teachers have clear aims for their lessons but these are not always shared and negotiated with or understood by students. Under the pressures of school work, often studying and being tested in more than 10 subjects, students’ motivation can flag and even disappear.
My contention is that in order to create and maintain motivation, students need:
· a sense of direction and challenge
· scaffolding versus teacher centredness
· to understand and celebratesuccess in learning
· ateacherwith the rightattitude
· motivating exam preparation
· to have fun
1. a sense of direction and challenge
It is vital for students to know what they are learning as well as why and how. They need to be part of the conversation and understand the learning journey.
Everyone can experience feelings of resolve and a commitment to think more and to dare more … and of being poised to learn and ready to take the next step.
Martin V. Covington, The Will to Learn, Cambridge University Press
Students need to understand WHY we do tasks, especially those that seem like a game, in class. They are under a lot of pressure preparing for exams and don’t want to think they are wasting time.
If we do a listening based on a pop song, we should ask students to think about how this task can help them develop their English skills, eliciting the following:
How is this helping you now?
To be able to understand song lyrics
To practise listening to authentic English
To watch English language TV / films
To learn new vocabulary
To practise particular grammar
Later?
To have successful conversations in English by decoding what is heard
To follow lectures in English
To build oracy and listening skills
To pass listening papers in Exams
It’s a great idea to get into the habit of asking ‘why did we just do that activity? How does it help develop your English skills / prepare for the exam?’ So that eventually students will understand our methodology / aims without being prompted.
Tasks / activities should have the right level of challenge – not too hard (demotivating) or too easy (boring)
we feel best in flow.. fully involved in meeting a challenge, solving a problem, discovering something new. Most activities that produce flow also have clear goals…
Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow, Basic Books, 1998
2. scaffolding versus teacher centredness
Tasks should be scaffolded (see the earlier post below for details)
Jerome Bruner said:
The task may need to be simplified / broken down into manageable chunks
They made need to be shown how to do things
Their frustration needs to be managed
They need to see model of what they need to achieve
And they need to be engaged and find solutions themselves!
For example, if we want our students to write a poem, we can introduce this poem to them and then get them to write their own version using the frame below.
I don’t like people
who can’t listen
who never read books
who smoke while I’m still eating
and who gossip about others.
I like people
who are energetic
who love children
who fight against stupidity
and who care about the fate of our planet.
Writing Simple Poems, Holmes & Moulton, CUP
I don’t like people
who can’t ........
who never .......
who ...........................
and ..................
I like people
who are ..............
who love ...................
who fight against ………
and who care about ..................
or a story writing task like this:
Once upon a time there was a .................... girl who lived in a .................... village. Her mother and father were very .................. She liked to play in the ................... with her ..................... friend, who was called .......................
One day they found a ........................... and they took it to the police station. The policeman was very ......................... and told them they could keep it. They were very ..................................
By filling in the gaps with their chosen vocabulary, students will have created a model of ‘good’ writing. There is no need initially to have the pressure of worrying about all the sub-skills needed to write texts.
Everyone can be successful if we
achieve ‘a realistic match between the individual’s present capacities and the demands of the achievement task’
Henry Widdowson
3. to understand and celebratesuccess in learning
We should avoid making students feel that they are failing. No one likes to feel like a failure and it’s not a good starting point for making more effort in class.
All individuals can be characterised by two learned drives, a motive to approach success and a motive to avoid failure.
The Will to Learn, Martin V Covington, CUP
4. ateacherwith the rightattitude
Teacher attitudes are crucial – we are SO important sometimes in the tiniest almost imperceptible ways for maintaining and increasing our students’ motivation.
Carl Jung’s model of teacher / parentis a great 4 step approach to remember. Teaching is just as much about shaping the emotional development of students as about teaching the nuts and bolts of the English language.
Think – give information
Direct – give direction
Feel – care about well-being
Do – give confidence to carry out work
And this is also a very nice strategy to follow:
The Pygmalion Effect
High expectations lead to better performance:
Rosenthal & Lenore, psychologists
said teachers should do the following to help students reach their potential
Expect the best
Be charitable when things go wrong
Be aware of how we give subliminal messages
Use positive reinforcement
Ignore students ‘bad’ moods
5. motivating exam preparation
Don’t give students practice tests which they will do badly in and feel like failures. Consider how demotivating that can be.
Instead
• Allow students to collaborate on tasks
• Break tasks down and do small bits (together)
• Show models of good examples e.g. essays / videos of speaking tests (handbooks)
• Share marking criteria
• Let students do practice tests for homework
Don’t forget to have FUN!!!
Remember the philosophy of Winnie the Pooh
You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
A.A.Milne
