To motivate students
Today college students frequently ask “Why are we learning this? Why do we need to know this? Why are we spending so much time on this? Why do we have to do this?”
By explain the reason why and what they need to know, professors can maintain students' interest and motivate their learning. The days of students sit quietly to listen for professors to deliver a long lecture is long gone. Today learning environment is more dynamic and requires a frequent exchange of information between professors and students. Moreover professors should discuss the learning objectives and goals with students. Students need to know why learning these materials will be important for their future careers.
In the first day of the course, I often discuss the purposes of the course and how they are relating to the industry's required skills and their career in the future. By explain the learning goals students know what they will learn when they complete the course and what skills they will develop when they complete homeworks, quizzes, and tests. By letting students know about the purposes, the goals and benefits of completing the course, students will motivate to learn.
For each lecture, I also explain how those materials could helps students to acquire certain knowledge. For each weekly homework assignment I explain to students on how it relates to the course learning goals. How will reading assignment help them obtain certain knowledge. What should they be able to do after completing the weekly test? Why this week's homework is chosen to achieve certain learning goals. When students understand what the professors ask of them that can help them to develop certain skills, they will see lecture, homeworks and reading assignments as meaningful exercises than something that they must do to pass the course.
I like to start each class with a simple discussion that answers three questions: What, Why, And How. To get students attention and motivate them to learn I would pose questions to the students such as “What are we doing in this class and what questions we try to answer? Or what concepts we learn today and what activities we must do to apply this concept” By discuss with the students we let them know about the class content and what they need to know. Then I pose the next questions such as “Why are we studying this; how are activities in this class tied to the course learning objectives. What should students be able to do after today's class? How can the information and skills be used in everyday life?” By answering these questions, students understand the reasons why they need to apply the knowledge to accomplish something. After discuss with them, I would pose the last questions such as “How are we going to do it? How will learning take place?”
When students understand the value, purpose, course activities and the logic by which teachers teach, they are more likely to see the value of what they are being asked to learn and consequently will participate more actively in the course.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
