7 Effective Student Motivation Techniques That You Should Know
Posted by: Honey Krumholz in Education, tags: EducationA teacher must be able to motivate his/her students to have them maximize their potential. Motivating your students is essential so that the learning process becomes an interesting, gratifying and continuous experience.
Teachers must keep the motivation for learning alive and growing in their students. From a very early age, children have that curiosity to explore everything around them. Teachers have a responsibility to their students to motivate them and develop that curiosity into a desire for knowledge.
Teachers each have their own methods and techniques for trying to motivate their students. Here are 7 of my favorites that have been very beneficial to me and my students.
1. Establish a strong teacher-student relationship by showing your students that you care about them and are interested in what they do and accomplish. Respect them and hopefully they will respect you. Develop an atmosphere of trust in a positive learning environment.
2. Allow your students to make as many of their own decisions and have control over what they do and the way they do it as possible. We all like to have a say, make our own decisions and have control of our own lives, so treat your students in this manner as well. (Obviously, you still have the final say). Believe me, this is a great motivational technique.
3. People in general and young students in particular need to feel that whatever they’re learning has a useful application in life. So, keep your students motivated by trying to associate anything you teach, class projects, assignments, etc. to a real life situation. The advancement of computer technology,the Internet and applications such as Powerpoint should provide many opportunities to keep your students motivated, involved and attentive.
4. A reward system is a terrific motivator for your students and can be of great benefit to you as well. Everyone wins. Introduce a reward system and allow your students to win simple and inexpensive prizes that you can buy at the dollar store. You can also offer other classroom awards such as giving “free time” or having classroom parties. You’ll need to adjust the rewards but all your students young and older will love it. You win by keeping your students motivated (at least by the prizes). Be sure to reward your students only if they finish their work, assignment, project,etc. and not just for taking part.
5. Use classroom meetings to discuss hobbies, vacation plans, trip, etc. and playing games as team building exercises to develop and enhance the relationships between you and your students and friendships between students. You’ll find that this will motivate your students to participate. This applies to even those students who are unmotivated and do not usually join in. Participating also builds a student’s self-esteem.
6. Another WIN-WIN for both teacher and students, is allowing them to help you out with many of the classroom jobs. Young and older students love to help the teacher and offering this as a reward, motivates them to try harder and do better with their work. It’s a bonus for you too, since there’s less for you to do.
7. Classroom displays help to make your classroom a stimulating and motivating environment in which to learn! Displaying their work for others to see, motivates students to learn, work and provide good quality results. Remember too, that it is important that students play a important part in decorating the classroom. When students feel ownership of their classroom, it motivates them and creates a positive learning environment.
Two important thoughts to keep in mind as you finish reading this article. Always display care, concern and encouragement for your students, and never give up on any unmotivated students or they will give up on themselves. It’s a WIN-WIN for everyone involved!
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