Higher Hi h Ed Education ti Learning L i Problems P bl H.E.L.P.! is produced by the Educational Development Centre (EDC) of The Hong Kong bulletin focuses on understanding and addressing a teaching and learning problem that a teacher has brought to EDC and which teachers commonly share. Why Students might Fail to Engage Sometimes, despite your best effort to captivate students, some may still appear to be disinterested. If this is the case, you might try finding out: 1. What's the background of these students? Do they have sufficient foundations to build on? 2. How do they see themselves as learners? Is it possible that they fail to engage because they are scared of failing? 3. Why did they enrol? Was this programme their first choice? Problems related to the first two sets of questions may be easier to address than the third. If students really have no interest in the subject, the challenge lies in containing them so that they don't disturb those students who really want to learn. "Help! Some of my students are totally unmotivated. I feel upset and frustrated when I look at their bored faces. They don’t seem to care enough to ask questions or offer opinions in class. They seem happy getting by as long as they get a pass. How can I stimulate them to be enthusiastic about the subject and their learning?" A. Teacher In this bulletin we: • Explore why students fail to engage in their work. • Identify the behaviour and characteristics of teachers who students say motivate them. • Share some teaching and learning activities that capture students’ interest. • Consider what you can do to build students’ confidence to try and succeed. Teaching that Motivates When excellent teachers are asked what they do to motivate students, and when students are asked what sort of teaching motivates them, a common list of characteristics emerges. Amongst other things, teachers who motivate: Display enthusiasm. Teachers motivate through their enthusiasm for their discipline and subject, and through their enjoyment of teaching. Make the relevance explicit. It is important for students to know that what they are learning will help them with their current studies and their future careers. Draw on examples that students can relate to. Most students say what motivates them most is not factual information from the textbooks but rather examples from personal experience, real-life cases and workplace practices. Use a variety of active learning approaches. It is hard to hold students’ attention with a single approach. Hold high but realistic expectations. Teachers need to pitch work for students at a challenging but achievable level. Develop rapport, trust and respect. Students respond to teachers who treat them respectfully and who they perceive have something important to say. Provide feedback. As well as clearing up misconceptions and steering students in the right direction, prompt and constructive feedback validates students’ efforts and provides them with the confidence to keep trying. Read how excellent teachers at Chinese University of Hong Kong motivate their students in Excellent University Teaching [LB2331.E935 2006] ©2008 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Polytechnic University. Each Activities and Strategies to Motivate Learners Capturing Students’ Interest Try these two activities. You will be surprised how much interest they generate! Newspaper Clippings Local and international current events can fuel students’ interest: • Konstantine Kouros displayed a slide of “a garment shown last week in Milan” to his first class of 100+ Institute of Textiles and Clothing students. • A computer scientist gave his students a cutting to read about internet fraud before tackling ethical questions about the topic. • An engineer started a lecture with a photo from that morning’s newspaper of buildings that had just been devastated by an earthquake. Inspiring or important real-world events are motivating. What can you find to capture your students’ interest? Graduate “Expert” Panel Who better to motivate your current students in your subject and give credibility to what you are teaching than your former students? Before their visit • Announce to your students that the graduates will be attending the next class. Provide the class with a brief profile of the graduates including their current employment. • In groups, get the students to design questions to put to the panel. You may want them to be broad, or you may want to confine the questions to a current topic and reading. On the day • Have representatives from each group take turns to ask a question. ©2008 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Building Students’ Confidence Set realistic and achievable goals for your students so that they feel more confident to succeed. It helps when you: • Provide opportunities for students to succeed at the beginning of the semester. You can increase the difficulty level as the semester proceeds. • Break complex tasks into manageable chunks and provide clear instructions. • Praise and give positive feedback to students on their accomplishments. • Ask students to evaluate their own progress. Help them focus on their continued improvement rather than their grade on any one test or assignment. Demonstrating Relevance Overheard... “The subject just isn’t interesting. Why do I have to learn this boring stuff?” Rather than starting off your class with a dry overview, think of ways that will create a “need to know” for your students. You might do this with: • A demonstration • A problem • A case • A photographic image • A video. Go to http://youtube.com to find something that relates to your lesson. Life and Death! The following true anecdote is a good reminder of the danger in making an assumption that students understand the importance of a topic. When a visitor to an engineering class asked a clearly bored student what the point of the day’s lecture was, he replied that he didn’t have a clue. When the lecturer was asked the same question, he replied, “If you don’t understand this, wings can fall off aeroplanes.” Read online at: http://edc.polyu.edu.hk/help Contact Us Educational Development Centre The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon Phone: 2766 6292 Fax: 2334 1569 Email: [email protected] This issue of H.E.L.P.! was written by Adele Graham and Sam Graham. EDC ref 02