Motivating People to Learn
...and teachers to teach
by
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But there is a general consideration that one can always apply when giving feedback, to ensure the best results in the long run. And this is: to try to keep your feedback focused on the images expressed by the learner. To illustrate exactly what this means, let’s look at the following example :
Andrew : I’d really dig to have one of those
new BMW’s.
Belinda: (three possibilities)
- What do you like about them?
(She is focusing on the image that Andrew expressed.)
- So, you’re a materialist, after all.
(She is focusing on her image of Andrew.)
- I couldn’t get excited about a car.
(She is focusing on her own image of the subject that Andrew introduced.)
In everyday conversation, we can expect to encounter at various times all three types of response. However, in a teaching situation, it is highly advisable to restrict oneself to the first kind: to focus on the student’s image. Let’s look at the three possibilities a bit more closely to see why:
a. If you show interest in the student’s image, he will be encouraged to elaborate on it. By talking more about his image, he will reveal to himself, as well as to you, the connections between that image and the rest of his mind-map. If some of those connections are not very convincing, there is a chance that he will detect that, and voluntarily modify his image in the direction of greater consistency for his overall mind-map. Put very plainly, if he hears himself talking rubbish, he might realise that his views don’t hold water, and begin, in however small a way, to question them.
The process is exactly the same as when you try to write down your thoughts. When the words are on paper, you can see them separately from the web of connected images that is in your mind. You can then ask yourself: “Is that really what I think?” And if you find it isn’t, or your description of your image doesn’t look convincing, you can go back to looking at your mental images and modify them.
Psychologists use this method too, when encouraging clients to talk about their feelings. If a client says: “I was so angry with my husband yesterday!” the psychologist will usually say something like: “You were very angry?”. This encourages the client to elaborate on her circumstances and her feelings. The psychologist is unlikely to say anything that takes the focus off the client’s feelings.
b. If you show a reaction to the speaker,
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About the Book
A frank and plain-spoken account of how to make use of intrinsic motivation to power the learning process – at all levels of education, for students of any age.
Using examples from many different educational settings, the author describes in detail these twelve powerful strategies that will help any teacher or trainer make significant improvements to their students' motivation for learning:
· Starting with the learners’ questions
· Making use of constructive competitiveness
· Giving students the right level of challenge
· Getting students to interpret original data
· Making the learning experience hands on
· Allowing students the maximum freedom to play with ideas
· Shattering students’ complacency
· Giving constructive feedback
· Giving learners the opportunity to excel
· Providing students with the means to judge their own progress
· Co-operative learning techniques, and
· Exposing students to motivated people.
About the Author
Gregory Pastoll has been teaching for more than 30 years. All that time he has been fascinated by how people learn, and he has been a keen observer of how teaching sometimes does, and sometimes doesn't assist people to learn.
He is currently in his ninth year of teaching basic mechanical engineering, and has also taught English as a foreign language in South Korea and Austria. For brief spells in other schools, he has also taught mathematics, physics, art and woodwork.
For 14 years he was a consultant on tertiary teaching at the University of Cape Town, where he studied the teaching methods of academics and the methods used in tutorials. This work led to the publication of his book 'Tutorials That Work' in 1992. He has a PhD in Higher Education, and has run seminars for academics at 3 other universities in South Africa.
In his own teaching, Greg is passionate about promoting self-reliance, will-power, and exuberance about being human. He is continually developing materials and apparatus, and designing learning events to make his students feel for themselves the intrinsic excitement of mastering the material.
Greg believes that the important thing about learning is not so much what you study, but the characteristics you develop as a result of engaging with the material.
He has many interests, among them painting, violin-making, and writing childrens' stories. One of his children's musicals was performed for the first time in 2007, and his first children's book appeared in 2008. He has also designed, produced and marketed a board game to promote the sport of cricket.