Comments on: Motivating All of Our Learners

By: Elizabeth Stein

Elizabeth Stein — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:38:13 +0000

Yes, Sharifa–Thanks for adding your voice to the discussion! Check out this link, which is at Larry’s blog, which will definitely support and extend your thinking…
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/03/31/heres-a-goal-tracking-sheet-im-giving-to-students/
Enjoy!

By: sharifa

sharifa — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:19:02 +0000

Teacher’s behavior and teaching style, the structure of the course, the nature of the assignments and interactions with students all have a large effect on student motivation. Motivation does not only depend on teacher’s behavior and instruction, but also depends on students to motivate themselves; for example by writing personal goals, and remind themselves of what they want in life to succeed.

By: Elizabeth Stein

Elizabeth Stein — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:41:14 +0000

Yes, yes! There is such a fine line between engaging and motivating. And then, of course there’s the sub topics of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. If extrinsic motivation is the source of learning–I think those are the for the moment kind of learning–and can be extended with the right balance of engagement and intrinsic variables.
I’ve seen students lose their true inner drive when the emphasis on learning was grades and other external motivating factors. Yet, I’ve seen those same students regain their momentum for learning when given the opportunities to make mistakes, learn from them, and build upon them…then thrive! The focus in these situations was on intrinsic motivation and engaging through a meaningful process of learning.
Thanks, it’s great to share thoughts with you!

By: Deborah Owen

Deborah Owen — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:44:30 +0000

Yes, Elizabeth; active learning certainly helps to increase motivation. Since this initial discussion I have had some further thoughts. Engagement is great, but it tends to be an outward expression of interest, and perhaps exists in the moment, as you allude to above. It can be described as the student being engaged in whatever is going on around them, or whatever activity the teacher provides. In contrast, I think that motivation is truly an inner drive (as Dan Pink might say), most often without any external assistance.

For instance, my 16-year-old son may be engaged in watching a movie of some sort for a while, whereas he is often motivated to watch a particular video because it will teach him something new about his hobby (mixing electronic music) that he will then work on for hours. One is in the moment; the other extends over time.

By: Elizabeth Stein

Elizabeth Stein — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:58:54 +0000

Hi, Erin,
Yes, these books are geared toward any teacher, any grade, any situation. Richard Lavoie’s books and videos help teachers and parents to see the world through the eyes and emotions of the student. It is really a mind blowing experience in regards to raising awareness and sensitivity to sensing what kids go through and knowing and doing what they need.
Larry’s book is the perfect resource for the teacher who wants to build a community of life-long learners. Check out Larry’s website and be prepared to get really motivated! Here’s the link. Thanks for your post.

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/01/17/heres-the-table-of-contents-link-to-pre-order-my-upcoming-book/

By: Elizabeth Stein

Elizabeth Stein — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:37:00 +0000

Hi, Deborah. Thanks for sharing the link to your blog–I’m excited to check it out! It sounds like a perfect fit to our discussion here. I know what you mean; it’s always exciting to connect our ideas to the ideas of others. I think one main difference between engaging and motivating rests in helping students to take ownership for the process of learning. When they can connect to the learning personally, meaningfully, and actively, it creates a motivating and engaging experience that lasts beyond the moments of teaching. When the students take part in the learning that is motivating–it may only last for those moments.
What do you think?

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:19:51 +0000

I was curious if these books are geared towards a specific age group. I have found that most books talk about the elementary student and the same strategies don’t always work for middle school. Also, I am wondering if the strategies would also work for at risk students from extremely low income and low skills at the middle school level. Thanks for your post. It was motivating:)

By: Deborah Owen

Deborah Owen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:58:33 +0000

Thanks for reviewing Ferlazzo's book. Great ideas for practical applications. Your review came out at just the right time for me because I had partly composed a blogpost about the difference between "engaging" and "motivating", and your description of Ferlazzo's book was very useful. I've now ordered the book so I can read it myself! As I state in my blog post, http://convergenceinthecommons.com/, I do think there is a difference between engaging and motivating, and people like Ferlazzo and Dan Pink give us great ideas that we can hopefully use in our classrooms.

By: Engage students or motivate them? » Convergence in the Commons

Engage students or motivate them? » Convergence in the Commons — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:36:54 +0000

[...] new book, Self-driven learning; teaching strategies for student motivation, is summed up well in this blog post by Elizabeth Stein at MiddleWeb. According to Stein, Ferlazzo asks teachers to consider why students would want to learn what we [...]

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