Why isn't Ahmet coming to class?
Why does Ceren come to class and do nothing?
Why is Hakan so confident of passing when he’s done so little work?
Why does Zeynep think she’ll fail when she’s working so hard?
Why is Mustafa talking about IELTS when this is a TOEFL preparation course?
Does Tanju even want to be in this room?
It feels like Hazal is trying to fail this course… why would she?
Do any of these questions look familiar to you?
How many of them have you uttered yourself?
Are you utterly perplexed by a student’s lack of interest in your marvelously prepared classes?
Well, it’s time for you to take stop worrying and understand that there is always a good reason why a given student is not motivated to perform to their peak in your class. It might not always be an obvious reason, but it is invariably a good one.
I’m currently part of a task group looking into what motivates our learners, and over the next two days I’ll pose questions so you can reflect on instances when you’ve encountered students who ‘weren’t into it’.
For the next ten days I’ll be introducing contemporary motivation theories and explaining how they affect students. As you read, I’d like you to consider the cases of unmotivated students you’ve encountered in the past and think if their situation is more understandable when you put it in the context of what the research says.
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Adam,
while reading your questions, I thought that howcome the names are also familiar to me...
I asked to myself and sometimes tried to find solutions for the motivation problems, On the other hand sometimes I saw the colleagues who stop thinking about these problems since they think that it was a hopeless case.
I am looking forward to your posts, that would be what I am looking for these days actually,
Thanks for pointing out that issue, have a super weekend :)
Excepting Hazal & Mustafa - since I am a teacher of grade 8 students in a national (private) Turkish school, the answer to your questions is simple - and the same every time: SBS
Excepting Hazal & Mustafa - since I am a teacher of grade 8 students in a national (private) Turkish school, the answer to your questions is simple - and the same every time: SBS
Yeah, the 'Hazal' case is the really interesting one. You see such students when you get to my context - uni prep classes. Before I started reading up on motivation theories, it seemed crazy that anyone would deliberately try to fail a course of study. Nevertheless, it happens and there is a really good reason for it. I'll get to that later in this series of posts, though.
BTW Thanks for all your comments, Karin.
Looking forward to reading the theories Adam. As teachers we all get stuck in similar situations. Hope we can find some answers to this problem.
Why isn't Ahmet coming to class? There is no fun during the lesson. He is a university student. He can not get the relationship between English and his own major, engineering.
Why does Ceren come to class and do nothing? Because of her background, she thinks she has to show respect to the teacher by coming to class. To be honest, she is bored.
Why is Hakan so confident of passing when he’s done so little work? Hakan is not objective, because his teacher does not give him feedback and the rubric is not clear, so he does not analayse himself clearly.
Why does Zeynep think she’ll fail when she’s working so hard? Prejudices. The teacher is not aware of her personality. If she were, she would bring some articles about prejudices to help her or the students like her. So the materials are not for the needs of the students.
If the teacher is well-motivation and motived herself intrinsically, she could reflect this to the students and they become motivatd extrinsically.
Thanks, Gulnur. These are all things I've observed, too. I think you have a point about teachers needing to exhibit their own motivation. If a teacher isn't motivated to teach a particular aspect of the language, the students pick upon it immediately.
hi colleque, I think you are a little pessimist (maybe you are not),but this is normal. There are always a few students who liten and learn well. That's enough I think. (polyanna :-)) enjoy your work.. thanks for your blog...
babakartal, I wouldn't agree that I'm a pessimist, in fact I'd say I'm the opposite! By identifying why students are acting in this way, we can look beyond the *negative* behaviour and start to see the good person who is being affected by a particular kind of motivation.
Please join me again today for another overview.
excuse me, misunderstanding. Thanks for your concerning excitation