You ask a question and learn, perhaps, that they just came from an incident in the previous class: a difficult midterm, the announcement of the new business 100K winner (for a startup), once, a (seemingly) unfairly challenged student. Perhaps, with only 10 minutes between classes, they will not have had time to digest news, or commiserate about an especially difficult test. (In some institutions where departments plan with each other, the professor will have a calendar showing all scheduled exams and papers and can anticipate student stress points.)
Instead of commencing that day with your material, begin explicitly with the students and their mood. Invite them to discuss, briefly, their fears, or the facts, or their excitement. The professor simply acknowledges this mood, hears what is going on, and, perhaps, reflects on it. This moment, in effect, reverses the physiological changes that had occurred in the students’ nervous systems. Their reactions have been quieted by their own examination and evaluation In a facilitator’s guide, it is a checking-in activity. By acknowledging the pressures they feel, or whatever they are feeling, and providing witness to their moods before putting them into the task at hand, the professor will help them put aside the previous incident. From brain research, we know, in effect, that hyperarousal takes over the bulk of a frontal cortex’s resources. Once freed up, the frontal cortex can focus on something else. And information obtained in the process of discovering your students’ moods will add to your understanding of their needs, your knowledge of who they are, as well as what else is occurring in your institution. It may even lead you to make new connections in your course to the students’ interests.
Motivation
Having attended to the mood, the professor will want to explore student motivation. It is not enough to tell students they need to know your subject matter, or that you have some unique slant on what they already know. Telling them the subject is useful is not even enough motivation for the student who already realizes its relevance. The student will need to understand two things: why the material is relevant and what knowledge they are missing.
When dealing with adult students who are professionals, this is especially important. Some courses may lend themselves more towards motivating learning than others. For example, a student’s interest in Futures and Options may be obvious. The student may know very little about the subject, and may be totally unfamiliar with the language. This makes it easier to get them to acknowledge that they are missing information.
However, they can guess scope and context in order to relate the subject matter to what they intuit or have experienced in their jobs as relevant. In some courses, Human and Organizational Behavior, for example,
students tend to take their knowledge for granted. The language is familiar; the solutions posed may sound like common sense—all adding to their sense of competence. Still other courses may seem unique but not fulfilling of a pressing need. One MBA required course, Conceptual Foundations of Business, essentially a course in business ethics, consistently received low course/faculty evaluations. But when alums were asked, three years out, which core course was of most value to them, this one received the highest ratings. The students had by that time experienced the ‘startle factor’—its relevance to their security and success. Still, involving the student during the semester proved difficult.
Motivating students to learn
To create an urgent need to learn is a little like trying to arouse someone from sleep. You want to increase alertness. Our brains attend to multiple stimuli, from within and without. ‘Novelty and reward are the two primary forces that direct the selection of where to focus our attention. The novelty system takes note of new stimuli. The reward system produces sensations of pleasure, assigning an emotional value to a stimulus, which also marks it for memory’ (A User’s Guide to the Brain, John J. Ratey). An ‘emotional’ value—key to long-term memory as well as motivating attention—means actively involving the students. The professor will help students ‘experience’ their needs, or help pinpoint more precisely where they are ignorant: through a case, a
discussion, a problem set, an example, or a role play. Recognizing in a graduate level course that some in the class are novices and others are experienced, the professor will acknowledge this difference implicitly or explicitly. The professor’s meta-communication, communication about the communication, to the knowledgeable will make clear the relevance of this material to them. Or, she will explain that for them this review and their involvement can be useful to those who are inexperienced. If possible, she will show how their knowledge might need refreshing or updating, or at least, invite them to bring their related practical experiences into discussion.
Motivating students can be simple and practical. One professor I know always brings extra copies of the assignment given out, and when asked about it by someone who missed the previous class, states, ‘Would I forget about you?’ In other words, her administration and housekeeping role is personal with her students. It is simple awareness, for example, that after 50 minutes of class, students need a stretch break. We can do many things that make it easier to help them manage the learning process.
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