This document discusses strategies for motivating learners. It defines motivation as dynamic and based on factors like energy, wants, feelings, and obligations. Motivation can be intrinsic, from inherent interest, or extrinsic, to achieve outcomes like grades. Suggestions to motivate learners include giving positive feedback, ensuring opportunities for success, helping students find personal meaning, and creating a positive atmosphere where students feel valued. The document emphasizes establishing a sense of belonging, making the material relevant, going beyond grades to address students' needs, and being enthusiastic about the subject.

1. Motivating Learners

2. What is motivation?
• Cannot be measured
• Dynamic: it changes in a moment!
• Based on
– Energy
– Immediate wants
– Feelings
– And all other obligations

3. Two types:
• Intrinsic:
– Learn for inherent interests, for self-fulfillment,
enjoyment and to achieve a mastery
• Extrinsic
– Learn in order to perform and succeed for the
sake of accomplishing a specific result or
outcome. (Grades)

4. Suggestions
• Give frequent, early, positive feedback that supports
students' beliefs that they can do well.
• Ensure opportunities for students' success by assigning
tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult.
• Help students find personal meaning and value in the
material.
• Create an atmosphere that is open and positive.
• Help students feel that they are valued members of a
learning community.

5. Reference
Most of the content in this
presentation comes directly
from this book.
Davis, B. G. (1993) Tools for
Teaching. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey Bass.

6. Establish a sense of belonging
• Students respond to an instructor that
• demonstrates warmth and openness,
• encourages student participation,
• is enthusiastic,
• friendly and helpful
• organized and prepared for class
Make it relevant
• Use current news events, pop culture, technology

7. Go beyond grades
Capitalize on students' existing needs. Students learn best when incentives
for learning in a classroom satisfy their own motives for enrolling in the
course. Address needs that satisfy a need to
– learn something in order to complete a particular task
– seek new experiences
– perfect skills
– overcome challenges
– become competent
– succeed and do well
– feel involved and to interact with other people.
• Design assignments, in-class activities, and discussion questions to
address these kinds of needs.
(p. 194)

8. Make students active participants
Students learn by doing, making, writing,
designing, creating, solving.
– Pose questions. Don't tell students something
when you can ask them.
– Encourage students to suggest approaches to a
problem or to guess the results of an experiment.
– Use small group work.
(p. 194)

9. Ask students what motivates them
E.J. Sass, in Motivation in the College Classroom, reports that students
identify eight characteristics as major contributors to student motivation:
1. Instructor's enthusiasm
2. Relevance of the material
3. Organization of the course
4. Appropriate difficulty level of the material
5. Active involvement of students
6. Variety
7. Rapport between teacher and students
8. Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples
(p. 194)

10. Hold high but realistic expectations for your
students
– high enough to motivate students to do their best
work but not so high that students will inevitably be
frustrated in trying to meet those expectations
– provide early opportunities for success
Help students set achievable goals for themselves
– Encourage students to focus on their continued
improvement, not just on their grade on any one test
or assignment.
– Have students submit self-evaluation forms with one
or two assignments.
(p. 195)

11. Be clear about what is expected
• Tell students what they need to do to
succeed in your course.
• Provide suggestions for how they can
learn the materials
• As how you can help

12. Strengthen students' self-motivation
• Use language that emphasizes their autonomy, such as "I
think you will find. . . " or "I will be interested in your
reaction."
• Avoid language that emphasizes extrinsic rewards such as
"I require" or "you must”
– These statements emphasize grades rather than
learning.
(p. 195)

13. Avoid intense competition
• Competition produces anxiety, which can
interfere with learning.
• Reduce students' tendencies to compare
themselves to one another.
• Students learn better through cooperative
group learning
• Avoid public comments about any student’s
performance
p. 196

14. Be enthusiastic!
• Enthusiasm in your subject is a crucial factor in
student motivation.
• Try to devise examples, case studies, or
assignments that relate the course content to
students' interests and experiences.
• Explain how the content and objectives of
your course will help students achieve their
educational, professional, or personal goals.
p. 196

15. Student Choices
Let students have some say in choosing what
will be studied.
• Give students options on assignments
– Let students choose their topics or approach for
fulfilling the assignment
– Provide choices of assignments that meet the
same objectives
p. 196

16. Increase the difficulty of the material as the semester
progresses.
• Give students opportunities to succeed at the beginning of
the semester.
• Once students feel they can succeed, you can gradually
increase the difficulty level.
Vary your teaching methods.
• Incorporating a variety of teaching activities and methods
in your course: role
playing, debates, brainstorming, discussion, demonstration
s, case studies, audiovisual presentations, guest
speakers, or small group work
p. 197

17. De-emphasize grades
Emphasize mastery and learning
• eliminating complex systems of credit points;
• Avoid using grades to control nonacademic
behavior (for example, lowering grades for
attendance)
• assign ungraded written work,
• stress the personal satisfaction of doing
assignments, and
• help students measure their progress.
p. 197

18. Test what you want students to learn
• Do they only need to memorize, recall, identify
facts?
• Or do you want them to synthesize and evaluate
information?
• They will prepare for the test, so have them prepare
for what you are seeking.
Avoid using grades as threats.
– It leads to unproductive behaviors in many
– Only those who seek extrinsic rewards respond
p. 197

19. Give students feedback as quickly as possible.
• Return tests and papers promptly, and reward success
immediately.
• Be specific in your feedback – tell them why it was good or
how to improve
Reward success.
• Research consistently indicates that students are more
affected by positive feedback and success.
• Recognize sincere efforts even if the product is less than
stellar.
• If a student's performance is weak, let the student know that
you believe he or she can improve and succeed over time.
p. 197

20. Share examples
• Share the ideas, knowledge, and
accomplishments of individual students
• Make available copies of the best papers and
essay exams from previous semesters.
• Provide class time for students to read papers or
assignments submitted by classmates. Have
them peer review.
• Honor a student’s experience or work by inviting
them to be a “guest speaker” in your current
course.
p. 197

21. • Give students time to complete the
reading assignments.
– Try to pique their curiosity about the reading:
"This article is one of my favorites, and I'll be
interested to see what you think about it
• Assign study questions.
– To provide extra incentive for students, tell
them you will base exam questions on the
study questions.
p. 199

22. Invite students to turn in brief notes on the
day's reading that they can then use during
exams.
– You review them, initial them, and return them to
students at the time of the exam. Those who
submitted them have the extra help.
• Challenge students to synthesize the reading
– Have them write just one sentence
– Or, an alternative - give them a word limit, then
cut it in half. Then half it again. And again! (40
words, then 20 words, then 10, then 5…)
p. 199

23. Ask nonthreatening questions about the
reading.
– "Can you give me one or two items from the
chapter that seem important?"
– "What section of the reading do you think we
should review?"
– "What item in the reading surprised you?"
– "What topics in the chapter can you apply to your
own experience

24. Reference
Davis, B. G. (1993) Tools for Teaching. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.