Motivating Students to Learn: One of Challenging

Motivating Students to Learn:

One of challenging and difficult tasks for teachers and parents is motivating students to complete their classes with a sense of pride, achievement and graduate with their peers. This task is particularly challenging for students who are have been unenthusiastic over time and those who are struggling. As a result of the lack of motivation and prevailing struggles, such students start to demonstrate learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is where students regard themselves as failures and don't see the reason for attempting to improve and better themselves. While such students also feel that they are lost and have no thought of achievement, teachers and parents can make a difference in motivating these students (Belcher, 2011).

Best Ways of Motivating Students:

As previously mentioned, motivating students is a daunting task for many teachers and parents alike. Teachers face huge difficulties in motivating students because each classroom is made of a variety of students with divergent interests, life experiences, and learning styles (Durand, n.d.). While these factors contribute to the uniqueness and exceptionality of every classroom, they play a critical role in the motivation of students. Teachers can use various ways and strategies to tap into these individual learning styles and divergent interests to make learning more meaningful and exciting at the same time.

The level of student motivation in a particular classroom is dependent on the various occurrences in the classroom environment. This is largely because today's classroom environment is characterized with various distractors that require teachers to maintain the focus that stimulated students to choose the course. Despite of the great need for teachers to motivate students, there is no single procedure or recipe for motivating students. Notably, student motivation is hugely dependent on both the student's and teacher's attributes.

There are two basic categories of motivation i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as identified by educational psychology. A student's intrinsic motivation emanates from his/her desire to learn a specific course because of its inherent interests that contribute to self-fulfillment and excitement to achieve mastery of the subject. On the contrary, extrinsic motivation is regarded as the enthusiasm to perform and success for the purpose of achieving a particular result (Kirk, 2011). Some factors that contribute to intrinsic and extrinsic student motivation include the student's interest in the topic, self-confidence, self-esteem as well as the teacher's teaching style, behavior, and informal interactions. Some of the best or most suitable ways of motivating students to complete their classes successfully include & #8230;

Creating a Positive Atmosphere:

One of the major ways of motivating students to complete their classes successfully is through the creation of an open and positive learning atmosphere in the classroom environment. Teachers can create such a classroom by helping students to feel that they are integral and valued part of the learning community and environment ("How to Motivate Students to Learn," n.d.). These teachers help in creating a positive learning atmosphere by failing to accuse students of laziness through the realization that students need support as they experience learned helplessness.

An open and positive learning atmosphere is also helpful in establishing a sense of belonging, which is an essential need for individuals to feel connected to each other. When students feel a sense of belonging, they not only have a higher level of intrinsic motivation but an increased academic confidence also.

Teaching Inductively:

Students are normally robbed of the joy of discovery when teachers present conclusions first followed by examples. According to the findings of various analyses, beginning with stories, examples, evidence before reaching conclusions later can help in preserving a student's interest and increase his/her motivation. Furthermore, teachers can motivate students by teaching analysis and synthesis skills through presenting examples and asking students to analyze and draw conclusions from them.

Student Engagement and Supportive Teaching Style:

The other best way of motivating students to complete their classes successfully is through the active involvement of students in their own learning (Harris, 2010). Rather than providing mere lectures in front of the classroom, teachers should actively engage students in learning activities like group problem-solving exercises. In addition, teachers need to adopt a supportive teaching style that permits student autonomy in the learning process. A supportive teaching style increases student's enjoyment, interest, motivation, involvement, and performance. This style is exemplified through showing empathy for students and caring for the well-being of the student.

Making the Learning Experience to be Real:

A student's intrinsic motivation is enhanced by efforts to develop learning activities that are dependent on topics that relate to the student's lives. Generally, a real learning experience that is relevant to students can be created by linking the topic to the student's interests, culture, and social lives.