With so many attractive alternatives competing for students’ attention, motivating them to focus and perform is increasingly difficult. Facebook and other computer games remove the attention of students in their studies. A great challenge for the teachers, they need to think of some techniques to catch the students’ interests.
With these in mind, as a Mathematics teacher, I wish to implement ways to motivate my students. One is to engage students in settling learning goals. Not teachers alone. Make them the centre of the learning process. Goals should be challenging but achievable. In this way we encourage students to take ownership for their learning and reflect on what they have learned and accomplished. The second way to motivate them is to make real world connection. In this way, we help students see how skills they are learning can be applied to their real world, to their everyday living. We should use technologies. Computer Assisted Instruction is one of the best examples. Since students nowadays are literate in computers.
Teachers should also recognize individual differences. Teachers already knew that time immemorial but sadly seldom applied. Teachers should keep in mind that not every student will be motivated by the same thing. Give students individual feedback. We should remind them that success often requires persistence and a willingness to overcome obstacles.
Let us reward our students with care. Students who are motivated only to avoid failure or to earn passing grade rarely exert more than the minimum effort to meet their goal. Let us give prompt feedback and praise good work to build students’ self- confidence.
It is in our hand dear fellow teachers, if only we could properly motivate our students… They would choose learning and be in our class rather than playing computer games.
By: Ms. Amalia Cortez | Teacher II-Dr. Victoria Roman Memorial High School
