Motivating Students

When it comes to teaching students, many teachers often find the biggest challenge is not teaching the finer points of algebra or the intricacies of social behavior in the Greek civilization but keeping their students constantly motivated to forge ahead.
But considering the importance of the role of motivation in encouraging children to do better, there isn’t a lot of information or resources available to help teachers do this. Motivation for students involves a lot more than a pat on the back. Motivating students involves proper presentation of the learning material and the manner in which the knowledge is presented to the student. A teacher will have to be mindful of the way she interacts with students. Students need to be given some amount of control over their choices and their learning processes as opposed to being dictated to all the time. A comfortable and conducive learning environment is key, and students need to have a great personal rapport with the teacher. A teacher who cannot forge an emotional bond with the students is highly unlikely to motivate them.

More Ways to Motivate Students

A teacher can also make use of these short and efficient time proven methods to give students a motivational boost.

•	Make sure that learning materials, tests and assignments are not too easy and not too difficult. Students need to be challenged to do their best, but are likely to feel frustrated if the assignments are beyond their capabilities.
•	Make sure that feedback is immediate. If a student has performed well, offer praise and encouragement as soon as possible. Likewise, if results are not satisfactory, the motivational process should not be left too far in the future.
•	Encourage participation in the classroom. Don’t lecture student’s, instead draw them in to participate in the process by asking their opinion or approaches to problems.
•	Let them know how they can improve their abilities. This cannot be accomplished by merely telling the student he needs to do better, but by offering him suggestions on how to improve.
•	Don’t pit students against each other. A certain amount of healthy competition will always exist, but avoid creating a breeding ground for hostility and open rivalry. It drains a student’s energies and mental faculties.
•	Be passionate about the subject you’re teaching. Students catch on very easily when they sense the teacher is bored or disinterested in the material. A teacher who’s enthusiastic about her subject will always get better responses than those who display a lack luster approach to the topic.
•	Set realistic expectations of your students. This does not mean that you should constantly expect the lowest performance, but don’t set your goals so high that students find it difficult and frustrating to reach them.
•	Give them more choices to make in their education. They can choose from two sets of assignments, may be make a choice about a school project. Anything done from personal choice is always more motivating than something you’ve been ordered to do.
•	Be careful when you react to poor performance. A student with failing grades is always a challenge to motivate. Make it clear that his grades are not a reflection of him as a person. At all costs, avoid berating him and putting down his performance.
•	Ask more questions in the classroom. Instead of merely distributing information that they can get from their textbooks anyway, present students with open ended questions that encourage them to think about the problem instead of memorizing answers.
•	Try not to misuse the all important grading system. When lowered grades are used for non academic activities, for instance, playing hooky from school it demotivates students. Grading in any case should be used judiciously. Its importance should not be the be all and end all of the students’ learning experience. Emphasize learning over grades.
•	Vary the intensity of the learning material as the class progresses. Start off with easier material and then once the students have been able to familiarize themselves with it gradually increase the difficulty so they continue to be sufficiently challenged.
•	Make use of a variety of teaching methods to boost morale. Debates, brainstorming sessions, case studies and projects can be used to emphasize learning and get students more charged about the learning process.

Motivating factors can be different for different people. But it’s an infallible truth that individuals will need some motivation to pursue their goals. Whether it’s an employee in the workplace, or a student trying to better his grades, or a couple trying to make their relationship work, a desire for the result is the driving factor behind human behavior.