Teach English in Pudongxin Qu [incl. Nanhui Qu] - Shanghai Shi

Motivating studentsI have chosen to do my research article on motivating students because of a few reasons. First, I feel that if students aren?t motivated they won?t learn much. Second, I want to learn more about how to better motivate my students. Lastly, it is a very useful topic and can benefit me in more than just teaching english. I was looking on the internet and really enjoyed reading Barbara Gross Davis article about motivating students. She brings up the point that there is not one single magical formula that can be used to motivate all students, each student is different and needs different types of motivation. There has been quite a bit of research done on what a teacher can do to encourage students to be more self-motivated and learn more independently. Current research shows that giving frequent, early positive feedback that is in tune with the student?s belief that they are doing well is very beneficial to their motivation. It is also very beneficial to make sure to assign the students assignments that are not too easy or too difficult. Another idea is to help the students find a personal reason to study the material. Creating an atmosphere that is inviting and optimistic also helps students become more independent learners. Having a good student teacher relationship is also key because it helps the students feel valued. Another article written by Dimitrios Thanasoulas talks about the importance to rewarded the students when they are motivated. Just general psychology principles say that positive reinforcement is a very strong reward and can condition the students to do that behavior. For example, if the student is motivated and turns his homework in early or is motivated enough to go the extra mile on a project the teacher can reward him by giving him praise in front of other students, if they are young students maybe a sticker or a stamp also the teacher can give the student extra credit. This brings up a past point of making sure the teacher has a good relationship with the students. The better the teacher knows the student the more effective they can reward the student. Every student is different, some students are motivated by praise in front of a group, and others by individual praise, some like physical things like stickers or stamps, and others are really motivated by grades. If the teacher can find out what motivates them the most they can do it more often! Another big motivation for school age kids is playing games! You can motivate them by incorporating games into the lesson. Students spend most of their school days sitting in a desk writing things down, it is a huge motivation for them to stand up and interact with peers. You can almost use it as a bribing tool. For example, you can tell the class that if everything finished their worksheet in 10 minutes we can play a game, or if the class average on the test is above 80% we can play hangman. You can use lots of different game to motivate students according to their problems. Motivating students is really important! It is not all the teachers responsibly to motivate the child, some of it needs to come from within the child or from the home; however, the teacher can make a big difference in helping to motivate the child! This essay just talks about a few things, there are many more ideas, but it is a good start! Barbara Gross Davis: http://honolulu.Hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm Dimitrios Thanasoulas: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Motivation.html