Motivating+Students

=**Motivating Students**=

I've compiled my Top 10 Ways to Motivate Students into a word document.

However, below are generalities that I believe in (basically, less reading for the same meat).

Students do not come to you tabula rosa (blank slates). They come to you with their own ideas about how the world works (read: how math works). This isn't a bad thing; on the contrary, this means that they are interested in learning about the world. However, as educators, it is our job to create a disequilibrium in their minds when it comes to concepts and ideas. For example, all students come to you knowing what natural numbers are ("counting numbers") but maybe they don't know that numbers exist in between natural numbers (rational numbers, "fractions"). If you have three apples and want to split them to five people, how much does everyone get?
 * Misconceptions **

Going with this idea, students take up information two ways: //assimilation// and //accommodation//. They either add it to their own knowledge (what teachers often strive to get them to do) or they modify their own knowledge to incorporate the new concept (what usually happens and which is much harder to anticipate). Which do you think is healthier for a child's development?

Addressing misconceptions appeals to the accommodation vs. assimilation problem many students have according to Piaget.

**Minds On ** Sometimes Minds On can be videos: "Ma and Pa Kettle" [] These should be short and sweet. It should get them thinking about today's lesson or the lesson previous. It "gets the juices flowing" - especially good on a Monday! Some examples: · Show them a cool picture and ask them a question about it   · Show them a video · Read/Tell a story · Brain teaser · Difficult question/challenge

It's not too hard to come up with these. Basically, a Fermi problem is one where very little information is given. The answer is much less important than the process at arriving there. A Fermi problem requires students make logical assumptions that can be defended and then manipulate those numbers in a concise way. There is no right or wrong in Fermi problems. Some examples are:
 * Fermi Problems**
 * 1) How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?
 * 2) How many jellybeans would it take to fill a 1L pop bottle?
 * 3) How much pizza does our class eat in one year?
 * 4) How many revolutions will a wheel make on the school bus as we drive to Montreal for our class trip?

**Is Homework Useful? ** [] In short, not really. The research says it doesn't help until high-school and above. So when you give homework, really ask yourself why you're doing it. Is it to keep them busy? Do they really need 15 questions to see if they get it?


 * Problem Based Learning (used extensively at McMaster University) **

· Learning is driven by challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured problems. · Students generally work in collaborative groups. · Teachers take on the role as "facilitators" of learning. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">PBL is something that is hard to really to implement despite how awesome it sounds! After all, this is the ultimate way to get children to really learn from a constructivist understanding. When utilizing a PBL, be sure to keep Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development in mind.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">That is, you need to really help students with their PBL assignments or they just won't grow at all. It's a difficult balance considering constructivism's views**.**

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When you give out tasks or assignments, give the students a choice of what they can do. Offer them the lowest tier (provincial standard), one that's harder, and then and even harder questions. Students will usually pick the challenge that is most appropriate for them. There are a few pitfalls:
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Choose Your Choice **
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Don't tell them that these are "easy, medium, and hard" but instead require different thinking strategies
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Really watch out for the students who can't achieve the "easiest" problem
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Most students won't try to abuse the system but some will just keep doing the easiest problem despite their ability; encourage these ones!

**Rewards as Punishment** <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">Book written by Alfie Kohn about how if you reward someone, they are less likely to do it (this is well documented). In addition, when you punish someone, they are MORE likely to do it again! Nathan has actually seen this in the classroom ; in short, a teacher has an incentive program where if a student is done work early, they can pick up a brain teaser/challenge question from the back for extra marks - but only the first person who does it. So naturally, when a student goes back, finds a question they really like, they will almost always put it back if they won't get marks for it. It totally kills their curiosity.

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**...But is Alfie Kohn correct? (<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">Daniel Willingham )** There is no point in summarizing Willingham's arguments. However, the real take-home message here is that Kohn's work (just like anyone else's) should be taken with a grain of salt. This leads back to a discussion that other teacher candidates and I have had about rewards and punishments: ultimately, you do what you're most comfortable with. Myself, I'm comfortable cutting out rewards completely. Or at least, as much as I possibly can. If you're interested, here is Kohn's <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">reply to this article, reinforcing his earlier statements. After reading both, I still agree with Kohn's overall message.

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 * Motivation: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us**

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 * Do Schools Kill Creativity? **