In Ken Robinson's (2013) TED Talk entitled, "How to escape education's death valley", he discusses the dropout crisis and disengaged students in the United States. He attributes the dilemma in U.S. education to 3 main reasons: 1) policy, 2) curiosity, 3) creativity.
Reason #2) curiosity, relates to poor student motivation: Robinson says that teachers need to light the spark in their students in order to facilitate learning, however, we have become too focused on testing. He says that the test should be used as a diagnostic and not something that obstructs the learning process. He says that because of the increased emphasis on teaching, we have created a "culture of compliance". As a former science teacher, I created lessons and labs that were hands-on and inquiry-based in order to light that spark and motivation to learn in my students. Although it worked for many, there were still some who had the attitude of, "Why do we need to know this?" or "Is this going to be on the test?" I agree wholeheartedly with Robinson; we need to figure out a way to inspire curiosity and a passion for learning to learn in our students, but easier said than done.
Reason #2) curiosity, relates to poor student motivation: Robinson says that teachers need to light the spark in their students in order to facilitate learning, however, we have become too focused on testing. He says that the test should be used as a diagnostic and not something that obstructs the learning process. He says that because of the increased emphasis on teaching, we have created a "culture of compliance". As a former science teacher, I created lessons and labs that were hands-on and inquiry-based in order to light that spark and motivation to learn in my students. Although it worked for many, there were still some who had the attitude of, "Why do we need to know this?" or "Is this going to be on the test?" I agree wholeheartedly with Robinson; we need to figure out a way to inspire curiosity and a passion for learning to learn in our students, but easier said than done.
In James Marshall Crotty's (2013) article in Forbes magazine entitled, "Motivation Matters: Over 40% of High School Students Chronically Disengaged From School", he states that despite the fact that student motivation is one of the biggest determiners of success, schools are focusing more attention on testing, curriculum and standards, school improvement, and teacher development and evaluation. He says that "students who are motivated to learn have higher achievement, show better understanding of the concepts they are taught, are more satisfied with school, and have lower dropout rates" (Crotty, 2013). Clearly, the fact that 40% of students are unmotivated in school is a problem for many reasons. Unmotivated student tend to not only have low performance in class, they tend to easily distract other students and in turn, affect their performance. Unmotivated students also puts more stress on teachers. At times I felt that no matter how engaging or interesting my lesson plans were, certain students would downright unwilling to learn or participate (despite many efforts and strategies). One strategy that could potentially be helpful for motivating students continually throughout lessons is suggest by Daniel T. Willingham's (2009) book, "Why Don't Students Like School?": "teachers should reconsider how they encourage their
students to think " (p. 3). He suggests that teachers
should not only pose interesting questions to students at the beginning of
units or lessons (providing them with a “hook”), but also to do it throughout
lessons and units to keep them engaged and interested. This is one of many suggestions on how to potentially increase student motivation that I wish I had employed better in my classroom.