Identify Strategies to Promote Student Motivation and Success

1. Identify Strategies to Promote Student Motivation and Success “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn-” Benjamin Franklin

2. Reflect • What do I know about this topic? • What do I want to know at the end? • What did I learn?

3. Rationale • Champions of Diversity • Program that offers eligible high school seniors scholarships begin their first year in college. • Students are first person in their family to graduate from high school, first generation college students and over 85% of students are of Latino background • Is it enough to motivate students with scholarships? • How can we motivate students to begin college and succeed in it?

4. Statistics • According to Tuckman and Kennedy, 2011 “Teaching Learning Strategies to Increase Success in First -Term College Students,” 55% of students choose community colleges because of their low cost, accessibility and broad course offerings, however, about 50% remain in school after one year. • Champions of Diversity has a Fall to Spring retention of 82.7%, while Fall to Fall retention rates averaged 57.6%

5. Identifying strategies • When we are identifying strategies, we are thinking about • What are the best forms to motivate students to remain in school and be successful in their classes? • What can we do to help students succeed and keep them motivated. • Thoughts…. • Classroom Support • The role of the teacher • Academic support • Advising • Tutoring • Financial assistance • Extra-curricular activities

6. Brookfield: The core assumptions of Skillful teaching Chapter 2 • “Skillful teaching is whatever helps students learn,” • “Skillful teachers adopt a reflective stance towards their practice,” • “ Constant awareness from educator on how students are experiencing their learning,” (Brookfield, 2011, pg. 17).

7. As educators: • We can influence student motivation and success in our classrooms if we reflect on Brookfield’s core assumptions for skillful teaching. • As educators we must do whatever it takes to deliver the information in a form where students will learn, not only to pass a test, but to give them the skills to apply it in future classes so that they can be successful. • Learning can be seen as an analogy of a snowball. All students begin in an introductory level course, which is often followed by a sequence of other courses, when learning begins from the introductory class, the foundation of the skills necessary to be successful in other classes are engraved in that foundation. • If learning doesn’t occur from the start, the likelihood that the student will succeed in the rest of courses in that sequence is minimal.

8. As educators: • Taking a reflective stance on our own teaching. • What are we doing to create a learning environment in which students will succeed? We can create a “Natural Critical Learning Environment” “What the Best College Teachers do,” Bain, 2004 Explains that creating this type of learning environment gives, • Control to the student for their own learning • Students experience collaboration • Tasks that will have the student rethink assumptions and challenge ideas.

9. As educators: • Being aware of how our teaching is reflective on student learning, • Reflect on our own learning style and see how that is being reflective in the form we are teaching. • Take into consideration students learning styles, • Visual • Auditory • Hands on • Implement in our courses a little of all three.

10. The Strategies for Achievement Approach (Tuckman and Kennedy, 2011). TABLE 1 Strategies and Substrategies in the Strategies-for-Achievement Approach Strategy Substrategy Take reasonable risk • Set goals • Break tasks down into bite-sized pieces Take Responsibility for your outcomes • Focus your thoughts on self and effort as causal explanations • Plan Search the environment for • Ask questions Information • Use visualization Use feedback • Self-monitor ___________________________________ • Self-instruct________________________ (McClelland, 1979, Tuckman, 2002, 2003; Tuckman, Abry, & Smith, 2008)

11. Helping students succeed • Tuckman and Kennedy, 2011 • The strategies listed enable students to produce skills that will help them… “with overcoming procrastination, building confidence, becoming more responsible, managing their daily responsibilities at home and school, and learning from lectures, texts, preparing for tests,” (Tuckman & Kennedy, 2011,pg. 483).

12. Take Responsibility for your outcomes • Getting students to take responsibility for their own learning. • “faculty aim to create environments where without or fewer rules and requirements students do what they need to learn effectively and develop themselves further as learners,” (Weiner, 2002, pg.98).

13. Search the Environment for Information • How do students use the environment to learn? • Different cognitive processes may be used for students to be successful in learning, • “visualizing problem solving techniques • Question-asking approach to have students extract meaning from context • Learning from text by outlining” (Wolters and Benzon, 2013)

14. Motivation Strategies Wolters and Benzon, (2013)“Assessing and Predicting Students Use For The Self-Regulation of Motivation” Three aspects of self-regulation for motivation • Knowledge of motivation • Monitoring of motivation • Control of motivation

15. Knowledge of Motivation • What helps students become self motivated towards their classroom assignments, tasks, or goals? “Knowledge of motivation includes student’s beliefs of the topics, domains, or tasks they find interesting, enjoyable or intrinsically motivating,” (Wolters and Benzon, 2013,pg. 200). Are the topics taught in class able to motivate students to learn. • Class description • Demographics of the class • Subject topics • Tools use to teach the class and use by the students

16. Monitoring Motivation • Monitoring students level of motivation • “ Students management of motivation is dependent on their awareness and ability to observe and gather feedback on their ongoing motivation towards an academic activity,” (Wolters & Benzon, 2013 pg. 200).

17. Control of Motivation • “ The action to intervene and control one’s own motivation, effort and persistence,” (Wolters & Benzon, 2013, pg. 200). • Wolters & Benzon (2013) states that there are numerous strategies employed by students for motivation, • The strategies are based on beliefs regarding achievement goals, self-efficacy, task value, and interest in tasks.

18. What did I learn?

19. References • Bain, K. 2004. What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press • Brookfield, S. D. 2011. The skillful teacher on technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom, 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. • Tuckman, B. W., and Kennedy, G. J. 2011. Teaching learning strategies to increase success of first-term college students. The Journal of Experiential Education, 79, 478-504. DOI: 10.1080/00220973.2010.512318 • Weiner, M. 2002. Learner-Centered teaching, 1st Edition. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. • Wolters, C. A., and Benzon, M. B. 2013. Assesing and predicting college students use of strategies for self-regulation of motivation. The Journal of Experiential Education, 81 (2), 199-221. DOI: 10.1080/00220973.2012.699901