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Motivation in the ClassroomEveryone who has been a student understands what it is like to be motivated in a classroom. It can be easily argued that a person?s motivation is closely related to his/her success and enjoyment of the class. Addressed in this article, will be the importance of motivation in the classroom and many of the different factors that affect motivation in the classroom. Motivation in the classroom is important because it has the ability to either make a class highly effective or meaningless. If a class is motivated, the students are likely to be engaged and interested in the material. This makes a teacher?s job more rewarding as a class will gain its full potential. While the level of motivation can change from one day to another, it is crucial to set a standard of motivation from the beginning of a course. If students get off to an unmotivated start, it makes the teachers job of motivating the students later in the class a bigger challenge. For example, if the first few days of class students are disengaged because they are not interested or cannot relate, it will be difficult to get them on board later in the course even if the teacher changes his/her enthusiasm and uses different material. Now that the importance of motivation has been addressed, the factors that influence motivation should be understood. There are internal factors that affect individual student?s motivation. For example, ones perceived ability. If a student feels he/she has the ability to do well, that person is likely to be more motivated. Another internal factor is one?s interests. If student are interested in learning english, there will be more motivation in the classroom. A sense of responsibility for learning also impacts motivation. Students who feel it is their responsibility to learn, whether interested in the material or not, will express a higher level of motivation. Lastly, but an equally important internal factor is ones attitude. Regardless of any external factors, if a student has a positive attitude it will increase the motivation of their peers and the effectiveness of the lesson. External factors play an essential role with regards to motivation in the classroom. Things such as: instructors enthusiasm, relevance of material, organization of the course, appropriate difficulty level of the material, active involvement of students, variety, rapport between teacher and students, and use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples. Another external factor that plays a role in motivation is the features of the classroom. For example, a class of adolescent students might feel more motivation in the classroom if they have access to certain technological features where as children might prefer big, colorful visuals. Whatever level of motivation a student brings to the classroom can be transformed, for better or worse, by what happens in the classroom, by the external factors. To conclude, motivation in the classroom should always be an important factor to any teachers planning and preparation. It will result in a more effective classroom setting and maximize students? capacity to learn. Unfortunately, there is no magical formula to motivate students, which is why it is important to understand the elements that influence motivation in the classroom. Sources: Focus on effectiveness. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. http://www.netc.org/focus/about/ Motivating Students. Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. University of california, Berkeley. Center for Teaching. Motivating Students. Matt Delong and Dale Winter. Vanderbilt University.
