The Correlation Between Student and Teacher Motivation

Before you can begin motivating your students, you must first be motivated yourself. During my time in school, I found it difficult to be motivated myself, if my teacher was not motivated themselves. Often my classmates and I would match our teacher’s energy, or lack thereof. For the majority of “general education” classes, that often had nothing to do with the major I was pursuing, I already struggled with being motivated to participate in class, and do work outside of class. The only saving grace to pull me out of being a zombie in class was a teacher that was in some way, interesting. If a teacher could pull me in, make me want to listen to them, and influence me to be motivated, they have done half of their job. With that being said, I must be motivated to teach my students. I must be motivated before entering the classroom. If I am not excited, energetic, or motivated to teach my students then I am in the wrong career. It starts with me, and continues on with them.

With the idea of being motivated before entering the classroom, how do we as teachers stay motivated and passionate about teaching our students? For myself, I have always enjoyed helping others in any capacity possible. I fist wanted to enter the medical field, and I have nearly completed a degree in Nursing. While I still wanted to enter the medical field, I also had an interest in teaching. I took an Elementary Education entrance course for the School of Education, and I fell in love teaching my second-grade students during my internship. That sparked my interest in teaching, and ultimately why I decided to uproot and move to China and teach ESL. I am passionate about teaching people of any age, but especially the younger generation. I want to instill the love for learning and happiness into those students. The most enjoyable things about teaching these students are seeing them so happy to see you, as well as watching them learn and succeed throughout the time I have with them. When the lightbulb turns on, and they “get it”, their faces light up and you can see sparks flying behind their eyes; it is an incredible sight to see, and makes me feel that I have done something of importance. If you are passionate about teaching, it will show. You will naturally be excited, energetic, and motivating to your students.

Like stated above, you have to start with you. However, like most things, it is not always so simple. Myself and many others that I met in school, found motivation “hard to come by”. Having a boring teacher is not the only reason a student may be uninterested. There are many other factors that play a role in a student’s motivation to learn. Those fall under intrinsic and extrinsic motivation(s).

Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. The motivation to engage in learning arises within a student because it is naturally satisfying to do so. If completing a task will benefit you internally, such as a feeling of accomplishment, you are likely to be motivate to do said task. As a student in University, what motivated me during times of discouragement was keeping the ultimate goal in mind: my final degree and career following it. During those courses that did not necessarily directly benefit me in learning about nursing, I had to keep in mind that it was what I had to do. I knew that I wanted to eventually complete my degree and be a nurse, and that I had to get through the seemingly menial courses to get where I was going. For some students learning English, they may not be learning it by choice. For younger students they are placed within my class by their parents, as their parents want them to learn English so that they may have an advantage in the future. For the students, they may not be thinking about their future, and how learning English now will help them later. However, they may feel the want to learn and do well in order to please their parents. They may also be driven to learn simply because it feels good to understand new things.

The opposite of intrinsic motivation is extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when external factors are necessary for someone to work towards a goal or end. Examples of this are competing in a sport to win a trophy or receive praise. Extrinsic motivation is used best to compliment your students’ intrinsic motivations. Receiving rewards, praise, or anything else that motivates you to do something other than an internal need or want to do something, is an extrinsic motivation.

One thing that you should see straight away is that nearly all that we use as instructors is outward. Recognition, rewards, stickers, sweets, needing to make guardians pleased, grants: all extrinsic motivation. There are clearly explanations behind this, in particular that we as instructors can't control what intrinsically rouses an understudy, while we can control most extrinsic motivations. We can't make an understudy like polynomial math yet we can give them a sticker on the off chance that they finish their schoolwork. Here's the drawback: intrinsic motivation is considerably more helpful when learning. Extrinsic motivation can be a very valuable device, particularly to urge understudies to accomplish something they have definitely no enthusiasm for at all. The center, be that as it may, ought to be on utilizing the understudies' natural inspirations—their genuine inspirations—to assist them with learning.

While it may be daunting at first, there are heaps of approaches to work with an understudy's intrinsic motivations. It's tied in with realizing what they like, and—all the more critically—utilizing it. Right off the bat, simply ask the understudies what they like. Appears to be basic, however this can even be an exercise in itself. All English language educators will have shown an 'I like…' exercise. Utilize this as a chance to urge the understudies to discuss what they like. What food/colors/animals/etc. do they like? When you have this data, bank it. It'll be valuable later. Next, utilize this information when building your exercises. This is the place lesson plans become critical. On the off chance that you realize one class cherishes pop melodies, at that point utilize pop tunes. On the off chance that an alternate class despises pop melodies however adores giraffes, at that point perhaps the present exercise is about giraffes. Setting aside the effort to adjust your exercises to the understudies can truly satisfy over the long haul. Keep in mind that understudies—particularly as they get more seasoned—aren't constantly inspired by sentence structure and contemplating. They would prefer fundamentally not to find out about past participles only for learning them. However, they would like to learn English to peruse comic books, watch motion pictures or pursue a soccer match, and you can work with this. Listening, reading, speaking, writing, and even grammar may all be able to energize your understudies, whenever utilized effectively. Some of the best success at motivating understudies as an educator may be by forsaking the run of the mill exercise organization and equipping the exercise that totally towards their needs. An exercise spent perusing comic books will appear to be a fantasy worked out as expected to numerous understudies, but they're perusing more English than they ever would have done in a typical exercise. Nearly ten minutes spent learning soccer jargon and afterward 50 minutes of playing soccer or viewing a significant game will have even the least persuaded understudies yelling English until their throats get sore. It's not just about playing to your qualities as an educator, it's tied in with playing to theirs as well. One thing to recollect is to not over-spur them. In the event that the understudies as of now love a movement, at that point there's no compelling reason to transform it. Grins and giggling are a decent indication of inspiration and in the event that your Batman game is getting heaps of grins and 'again!'s then you don't have to stress over including sticker rewards or giving out treats. Research has demonstrated that additional prizes can really decrease inspiration, particularly if understudies were at that point persuaded.

There is a massive slew of opportunities for us as educators to spark intrinsic motivation in our understudies. Improve and use change as a conduct boost. Attempt to tidy up the showing routine and physical strategies and make normal updates to the learning condition and methods. Move your talk outside of the study hall, make advances into e-Learning, take your understudies for a walk or to a gallery, pursue the patterns of mixed learning – and perceive how the understudies react to the change. Beef up your students' confidence. A few people will in general bomb before they even get down to the assignment. A proposed learning goal may appear to be considerable except if you consider making the plunge. Ensure the understudies feel certain about what they do and have the correct asset to finish their undertakings. Give legit and informational input. Regardless of a prevalent misguided judgment, inspiration isn't about acclaim. It likewise has to do with important 'empowering' analysis. This may concern mentality, learning approach or particularities of the topic. Attempt to consistently get your understudies progressing nicely by concentrating on their qualities as opposed to shortcomings. Show how learning applies, in actuality. Each activity triggers results pertinent for different ventures, sciences, and different backgrounds. Never neglect to feature the application zones and unmistakable 'items' related with your topic. Cause your understudies to accept there is a kaleidoscope of settings where new abilities and guarantee capacities assume an essential job, so it's not only workmanship for the good of art. Reenactments and contextual analyses say a lot where severe hypothesis may neglect to arrive at the objective. Support coordinated effort. A well-attempted situation where characteristic inspiration twists like no place else is a typical undertaking. Understudies will appreciate sharing their insight or abilities, helping other people with their battles or benchmark execution against their companions' showings. Rivalry may likewise make some portion of the cooperation. Cooperative energy of collaboration, singular abilities and wandering driving forces is the thing that records for a drawing in learning experience. Show your understudies how to learn. Some of the time, it's the course that matters as well as the whole procedure of learning securing and maintenance just as scholarly formalization. When the students are prepared to ingest and revise information to their advantage, they empower the natural learning systems that generally stay underemployed. Meet them midway and encourage route in the realm of information by pointing out relevant on the web and disconnected assets, helpful innovation, electronic instruments, and so forth.

One of our most effective forms of extrinsic motivation is praise. However, handing out praise should be handled in an appropriate manner. Constructive criticism and feedback whether positive or negative are a pinnacle to children’s educational motivation, and often educators use it without regard. Consider these:

A: Luna is completing her stage one final test. She has yet to have any problems on the mid-term and periodic quizzes throughout the stage, so she did not complete the optional review. Luna takes the final, and passes with flying colors. Luna’s teacher heavily praises her.

B: Nemo is taking the same stage on final as Luna. Nemo has had some difficulty in some areas throughout the stage. Unlike Luna, he has not always easily passed the mid-term and quizzes, so he must study. Nemo studies the review material as much as he can. Despite his effort, he makes an unsatisfactory mark on the final. Nemo’s teacher says that he must work harder in class, and try harder on the next test.

The issue is obvious. Luna has been rewarded without putting in hours of time to review the material for the final. While she should be praised for her ability to do well, her way of going about preparing for a test should not set on the top of the list. Nemo has done the best he can, and put in the time to prepare for the final, but unfortunately was not able to turn it out. Luna will continue to be motivated to succeed putting the least amount of effort as possible, meanwhile Nemo will begin to believe no matter how studious he may be, it will never be enough. Praise and feedback should be focused on the process in which you employ, not the result that you turn out. Alternatively:

A: Luna is completing her stage one final test. She has yet to have any problems on the mid-term and periodic quizzes throughout the stage, so she did not complete the optional review. Luna takes the final, and passes with flying colors. Luna’s teacher says to her “great job, I am pleased to see that you understand the English material quite well!”

B: Nemo is taking the same stage on final as Luna. Nemo has had some difficulty in some areas throughout the stage. Unlike Luna, he has not always easily passed the mid-term and quizzes, so he must study. Nemo studies the review material as much as he can. Despite his effort, he makes an unsatisfactory mark on the final. Nemo’s teacher says “I can see that you worked very hard to do your best on this final, I know that if you continue exerting this effort you will continue to improve!”

Now Luna is being praised for her understanding and knowledge of the material, rather than her results, and Nemo realizes that if he continues to be studious that he will be praised, and now has someone believing that he can improve next time. This is a subtle difference in teaching style that may be beneficial to an educator.

To conclude, insightful investigation into praise and recognition goes a lot further into the subject, and the BSP model of acclaim (Behavior-specific, Student-specific, Positive praise) is very mainstream in instructive talk right now. There's a lot of exchange about the fitting proportion of commendation to analysis, normal measure of applause every hour and explicit acclaim related targets. However, don't get stalled. The significant thing is essentially building up a study hall culture in which commendation fortifies great conduct as opposed to great outcomes. Keep in mind that all students are extraordinary, and that everyone is roused by various things. There's no enchantment propelling procedure or subject that will work inevitably, consistently. Yet, with some thought and tolerance, figuring out how to utilize the understudies' intrinsic motivations can remarkably affect their learning experience.