Motivating students - resources, tips, considerations

It is the week after spring break, the halfway mark for the spring semester, and campus is back in the swing of things.  Well, everyone is back, but the level of motivation might not be what is was at the beginning of the semester.

In looking around for some suggestions for instructors on motivating students in the middle of the semester, I first stumbled on a wealth of advice and thoughts on the "mid-semester slump" geared towards students.  So, instructors, the first thing to keep in mind is that the lower level of motivation and enthusiasm that you are sensing in the classroom midway through the semester may be much more general than it feels initially.  Don't take it personally!  The middle of the semester often coincides with a change in the weather and, in the case of the weeks following spring break, the challenge of transitioning back to a more regimented schedule when summer is just weeks away.  

There are a number of great suggestions out there for instructors who want to make adjustments in an effort to improve students' motivation.  However, much of this advice is best suited for the beginning of a new semester.  The Center for Teaching + Learning at University of Texas, for example, offers some excellent advice for motivating and engaging students; Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth F. Barkley is another great resource.  Unless your class is facing a dire situation, however, modifying core, foundational details of the course (how grades are determined, learning objectives, etc.) is more likely to lead to frustrated rather than motivated students.

So what is an instructor to do when it is the middle of the semester?

Here are a couple of resources that may be helpful at any point during the semester:

"Solve a Teaching Problem" tool from the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon

In Step 1, a list of possible issues is presented; the top of the list focuses on issues related to attitudes and motivation.  Clicking on any one of the options will produce a list of possible reasons for what you are observing (Step 2) which then leads to some ways of addressing the problem (Step 3).  For example, does it seem like students lack interest or motivation?  One possible reason (out of six that are provided) is the variety of other priorities that compete for students' attention.  These selections lead to four possible strategies in Step 3; out of these strategies to explore, at least three, if not all four, can be reasonably implemented in the middle of the semester.

"Motivating Students" from the Teaching Effectiveness Program at University of Oregon

This list of FAQs includes a number of inquiries that coordinate with what we see in the classroom in the middle of the semester including some suggestions for working with groups are no longer collaborating successfully, elevating student interest in the material, and increasing the odds of students reading or preparing prior to class meetings.

Hopefully one of these tools will provide you with an idea worth implementing as you attempt to counteract that mid-semester slump!  

  

Reference

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Staying on the perimeter to stand with the class

A number of our active learning classrooms have the teacher station located in the middle of the classroom.  The sketch below, for example, shows the basic layout of the classroom I am teaching in this semester:

Five out of the nine Active Learning Classrooms have the teacher station situated in the middle of the room.

I now make a conscious effort to stay on the perimeter of the room when students are sharing, reporting out, etc.  Ideally, I even try to locate myself on the opposite side of the room from the student who is sharing.  Staying on the perimeter has made a noticeable difference.  For one, no student is located behind me; everyone is included in what is happening in the room.  Plus, the students seem to project so that at least the instructor can hear what they are saying, so when I remember (or am able) to locate myself on the other side of the room from the student, it is easier for everyone to hear the information being shared.

This particular classroom is spacious, and at first, I reveled in the fact that I was in the middle and could move about the room so easily.  A very different experience from the classrooms I am used to.  The more traditional classrooms always left me feeling stuck in one part of the room, like the rows of desks created a barrier between me and the students.  Even if we rearranged the room for small groups or an activity, the fact that so many desks were packed into the rooms left very little space for accessing different parts of the classroom.  So, being centrally located in the active learning classroom and having the ability to move around freely is awesome.

So it wasn't until a few weeks ago when a colleague shared his approach of standing with the class on the perimeter of the room that I even thought to pay any attention to where I locate myself when students are speaking.  At the beginning of the semester, I was simply following my instinct to move closer to the student.  Reflecting back, I suppose I did this as a way to acknowledge the student's contributions and, sometimes, to hear someone more clearly.  I admit that I am taken aback by both the simplicity of the suggestion to stay on the perimeter and the fact that I hadn't considered how my actions or location might be impacting the classroom environment, especially as students are speaking up as part of Q&A sessions or whole-class discussions.

I am grateful that a fellow instructor shared this insight with me while there is still time left to try it out this semester, so I am now sharing the tip with all of you.  The freedom to stand with the class when someone is speaking is now one of my favorite things about the active learning classroom.

Checking course resources & welcoming students

One week to go!  Summer always seems to accelerate as the start of the semester nears.  Good intentions are not always enough... I am combining the recommendations for two weeks and one week until the first day of class here - the days just got away from me.  Curious as to what I had potentially glazed over at the two week mark, I am relieved to see that the recommendations from McKeachie's Teaching Tips includes checking resources and starting a teaching portfolio or journal.  (I admit I had a slightly adverse reaction to the second recommendation until I realized that these blog entries could count as a journal of sorts.)  

Checking Resources

This is a good time to double-check the availability readings, video clips, etc. that students will need to access this semester.  I am also a fan of the suggestion to visit the classroom(s) in advance.  The visit will provide an opportunity to see the physical layout of the room, whether or not the tables and chairs are able to be moved, and to try out the technology (at the teacher station, for example) to make sure it is working as expected.  The advance visit can be important even for those of us who are scheduled for the same classrooms every term because room details can change.  One of my go-to classrooms, for example, received an upgrade this summer, and I will be making a trip over to see the new setup this afternoon.   

A welcome message greeting students in D2L.

Welcoming Students to the Course

A welcome message of some kind can help to set the stage for the upcoming semester.  The welcome message can be posted as an announcement in D2L (or whatever your LMS or online course environment happens to be) or sent via email.  A friendly tone goes a long way, and if you have any expectations for how things should happen at the start of the semester, this is an opportunity to communicate those expectations with students.  If D2L or the online environment will be used throughout the semester, setting up a discussion area, for example, and prompt that encourages students to introduce themselves is also an option.  According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010):

"Social presence, that is, getting to know each other as three-dimensional people, is the foundation of building trust and presence for the teaching and learning experiences.  Getting acquainted at the social level creates a trusting and understanding environment for reaching out and risking beliefs in the content discussions" (p.51).

Even though the authors are speaking explicitly to the beginning of an online course, I tend to agree with this outlook for teaching and learning in any course whether it is online, face-to-face, or hybrid.  Building this social presence and foundation of trust is one of the things I am constantly working on as an instructor; it requires balancing a variety of things, but I keep working at it because I believe that it adds a great deal of value to the learning environment.

References

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

 Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Planning for the first day of an active learning class

I have long believed that the first day of class is an opportunity to set the tone for the upcoming semester.  Ideally, the class environment will be one that fosters collaboration, discovery, and deep, meaningful learning.  Even with this outlook in place, figuring out what to do on that first day is often a challenge.  Sometimes there can even be a couple of hurdles to overcome. Class enrollment, for example, is often still in flux as students drop and add classes at the beginning of the term.  Student expectations can be another - how many of them will show up with the hope that they can hear a little bit about the syllabus and then leave?

An advanced apology to any of those students enrolled in my class this fall; it is highly unlikely that I will be reading the syllabus to you on the first day of class.  Will we take a look at it?  Probably.  If we do, it will likely be as part of an activity that asks you to work as part of a team.  A scavenger hunt-type activity, perhaps.  But there is a word of warning that comes along with that too.  You may have to generate your own list of things to look for first.  (I used to try to anticipate students' questions in designing this sort of activity, but doesn't it make more sense for students to get their actual questions answered?)  Hopefully the activity ends up sparking some discussion - maybe even some revisions to the syllabus too - which is perfect because the rest of the semester is likely to follow suit.

Sharing information about the course and addressing any potential anxieties related to expectations are both important for the first day, but I will probably kick things off with a different type of activity.  I prefer to pull out the syllabus later on after we have had a chance to break the ice and get a start on building community.  This is the tough part for me.  While others can pull off the light-hearted, sometimes silly, icebreakers, my heart just isn't in it, and I have no doubt the students can tell.  Instead, I am on the hunt for an activity that breaks the ice but also has a strong connection to the class.  Sometimes I try out an activity that connects with a key course concept, like the Candy Trading Game for an introductory-level economics course, but I may focus more on the learning environment this time around.  For example, I am interested in trying something similar to the Rainbow Mixer Little Idea for Teaching (LIFT) from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Illinois State.  It reminds me of the Reciprocal Interview activity outlined in Teaching at its best by Linda B. Nilson but with the added encouragement for students to meet and chat with others located elsewhere in the classroom (that is, outside the groups they are already seated in).  Either activity provides the students with an opportunity to provide input about and influence the class environment, which is what I am most interested in.  It may even provide us with a decent segue into the brainstorming session for the syllabus scavenger hunt.

Both of the activities outlined above could easily fill a 50-minute class meeting, but I am hoping to streamline things and reserve the last 5-10 minutes for an exercise that highlights - and gets us started with - the applicability of the course material.  We'll see how things go!  Overall, I will be pleased if we can accomplish the following on the first day: breaking the ice, exchanging information, and building community; the three provide a solid foundation for what is to come this semester.

References:

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.