From the role-play in previous meeting, I got a description where a shy student is challenged by a teacher to be the main character in a role-play performance. At the beginning, she wanted to refuse it because she knew that she was not capable in doing that kind of assignment. However, the teacher kept motivating her and telling her that she could do that. From the practicing process, time to time, she became able to give her best in doing the role play. She could put her shyness aside .
The scene that I saw above showed how students can be motivated through a challenge-task. The teacher’s encouragement played an important role there. She was sure that the student could do it. The shy students became challenged by the task, tried to practice, then she could perform well. The task that she thought as the inappropriate one for her character could take her to diminish the shyness and give her best effort.
Teachers should make the students used to doing challenging tasks in order to build their self-efficacy too. The students who can accomplish a challenging task will have a high self-efficacy. They believe that they have a good capability in accomplishing that kind of task. The challenge-task could be in various forms, such as role-play, games, group discussion, and any other activities that trigger students’ thinking skill and creativity. Killen (2006) state that students should be engaged in trying and mastering challenging tasks to achieve their best ability.
Although teachers should keep giving a challenge task comprehension for students to guide them in improving their abilities, they are not suggested to take any challenging tasks randomly. The important point should be considered in selecting tasks is teachers’ measurement of a challenging task that was appropriate for particular students since students in one class can have various comprehension levels, abilities, or styles. In my experience when I was in high school, it was very helpful for me when I can apply my learning styles in accomplishing challenge-tasks, such as making speech and performing drama. They did not burden me and I could enjoy the learning process. Miller & Meece (as cited in Perry, Turner, & Meyer, 2006) through their research find that students are motivated by high-challenge task that are suitable for their learning styles.
References:
Killen, R. (2006). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from Research and Practice. New Zealand: Cengage Learning Australia.
Perry.N.E, Turner, J.C., & Meyer, D.K. (2006). Classrooms as contexts for motivating learning. In P.A. Alexander & P.H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology. (pp.327-347). New Jersey: Routledge.
As usual, the activity like 2-stray-2-stay is interesting for me. It is because of the opportunities to share knowledge of various topics with my friends. In the previous meeting of MMSEL class, I came to the booth where self-regulated learner is discussed. I was attracted by this topic because I could see many points that also happened in my learning experience.
Self-regulated learning involves thoughts, feelings, and actions that are controlled to create a maximal outcome (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2009). From the explanation I got in the booth, learners can be said as having self-regulated learning skills when they can plan, control, and monitor the time and their effort to do tasks. I totally agree with my friend’s explanation. I have experienced how it was disastrous when I could not control my schedule in doing tasks, especially in arranging the time. It made the result unsatisfying too. On the other hand, by applying self-regulated learning, I learn to be more responsible to my tasks. That responsibility leads me to motivate myself to give my best effort to get good results.
I also got the information from the presentation that learners’ self-regulated learning skills can get increase as the learners get older. Snowman, McCown, & Biehler (et al.) find that in spite of the fact that age can affect learners’ self- regulated learning skills, the consistency of using those skills may not always happen to every learner. They said that learners may face difficulties in measuring the appropriate strategies they can use in accomplishing different tasks. That is why as the teacher candidate, I think I should learn how to motivate my students in the future to be self-regulated learners. I should help them to arrange their schedule in studying and to find the best strategies in doing tasks. I can reflect from my experience too. Some of the examples are how to arrange the time in studying continuously and to make priority in doing tasks by looking at the submission deadline and the types of the task. For the strategies, I can teach them how to make mind-map, effective summary or notes, and any other tactics.
Another important thing is I should also consider about my students’ interest and their learning styles. Knowing those factors is very helpful to motivate them to be self-regulated learners. Besides always trying to help my students build those skills, I should also keep myself as a self-regulated learner. It is because teacher is a learner and self-regulated learning skills are needed in doing teacher’s duties too.
Reference:
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Source for picture:
Retreived November 26, 2011, from http://charmaineym.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post.html
Self-regulated learning involves thoughts, feelings, and actions that are controlled to create a maximal outcome (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2009). From the explanation I got in the booth, learners can be said as having self-regulated learning skills when they can plan, control, and monitor the time and their effort to do tasks. I totally agree with my friend’s explanation. I have experienced how it was disastrous when I could not control my schedule in doing tasks, especially in arranging the time. It made the result unsatisfying too. On the other hand, by applying self-regulated learning, I learn to be more responsible to my tasks. That responsibility leads me to motivate myself to give my best effort to get good results.
I also got the information from the presentation that learners’ self-regulated learning skills can get increase as the learners get older. Snowman, McCown, & Biehler (et al.) find that in spite of the fact that age can affect learners’ self- regulated learning skills, the consistency of using those skills may not always happen to every learner. They said that learners may face difficulties in measuring the appropriate strategies they can use in accomplishing different tasks. That is why as the teacher candidate, I think I should learn how to motivate my students in the future to be self-regulated learners. I should help them to arrange their schedule in studying and to find the best strategies in doing tasks. I can reflect from my experience too. Some of the examples are how to arrange the time in studying continuously and to make priority in doing tasks by looking at the submission deadline and the types of the task. For the strategies, I can teach them how to make mind-map, effective summary or notes, and any other tactics.
Another important thing is I should also consider about my students’ interest and their learning styles. Knowing those factors is very helpful to motivate them to be self-regulated learners. Besides always trying to help my students build those skills, I should also keep myself as a self-regulated learner. It is because teacher is a learner and self-regulated learning skills are needed in doing teacher’s duties too.
Reference:
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Source for picture:
Retreived November 26, 2011, from http://charmaineym.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post.html
‘I Not Stupid’ is the first Singaporean movie I have ever watched. I am amazed by the story which is very entertaining yet educative and motivating. There were also many scenes that made me nod my head because I realized that they were similar to my experiences. In this reflection, I want to discuss about Kok Pin’s experience.
Kok Pin, who has a personal interest and is very good at drawing, does not get a support from his parents to explore his talent. He is also burdened by the fact that he has to get good scores in math, the subject where he is not interested in. It makes him hard to learn the material. This story’s part reminds me how interest has a big influence on motivation to learn. It is an indicator of intrinsic motivation that affects someone’s sustained attention (Reninnger, in Mayer & Alexander, 2010). Reflecting to most people that I met, I can also see that the perception of intelligence from them is very narrow by relating only particular subjects to intelligence. My father says that most people even get it wrong by measuring your success from how much money you can get from your job.
The only thing that makes Kok Pin study hard is his mother. He wants to make her proud of him although it is hard for him to understand the subject. I remembered how one of my friends became very sad because of getting many bad scores for some subjects in our school. She is a friendly person with good ability in forming a relation with other people. She is also good at singing. However, it seemed like she did not care about it because she just want to make her parents proud of her by getting good scores. She also wanted to be appreciated by her friends who are always mock her. Kok Pin’s and my friend’s experience show how their motivation is affected by social goals. One of which is gaining people’s approval (Santrock, 2009).
To make his mother proud, Kok Pin studies hard every day for that subject. However, he always fails in doing the test. One time, he gets a bad score and becomes frustrated then tried to suicide. Here, emotion has a relation with his motivation to learn where the failures make him discouraged (Sheppard & McNulty, in Santrock, et.al). The worse thing is his mother punishes him physically every time he faces difficulties in learning or gets bad scores in tests. It affects his emotion and motivation to learn. Through some studies, Saunders & Goddard (2010) finds that children see physical punishment as a block for them to develop and learn.
It makes me think about the importance of understanding the influential factors of someone’s motivation. I hope this knowledge is useful to make me able to understand my students’ motivation in the future.
References:
Mayer, R.E. & Alexander, P.A. (2011). Handbook of research on learning and instruction. New York: Routledge.
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational psychology (4th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2010). Physical punishment in childhood: The rights of the child. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kok Pin, who has a personal interest and is very good at drawing, does not get a support from his parents to explore his talent. He is also burdened by the fact that he has to get good scores in math, the subject where he is not interested in. It makes him hard to learn the material. This story’s part reminds me how interest has a big influence on motivation to learn. It is an indicator of intrinsic motivation that affects someone’s sustained attention (Reninnger, in Mayer & Alexander, 2010). Reflecting to most people that I met, I can also see that the perception of intelligence from them is very narrow by relating only particular subjects to intelligence. My father says that most people even get it wrong by measuring your success from how much money you can get from your job.
The only thing that makes Kok Pin study hard is his mother. He wants to make her proud of him although it is hard for him to understand the subject. I remembered how one of my friends became very sad because of getting many bad scores for some subjects in our school. She is a friendly person with good ability in forming a relation with other people. She is also good at singing. However, it seemed like she did not care about it because she just want to make her parents proud of her by getting good scores. She also wanted to be appreciated by her friends who are always mock her. Kok Pin’s and my friend’s experience show how their motivation is affected by social goals. One of which is gaining people’s approval (Santrock, 2009).
To make his mother proud, Kok Pin studies hard every day for that subject. However, he always fails in doing the test. One time, he gets a bad score and becomes frustrated then tried to suicide. Here, emotion has a relation with his motivation to learn where the failures make him discouraged (Sheppard & McNulty, in Santrock, et.al). The worse thing is his mother punishes him physically every time he faces difficulties in learning or gets bad scores in tests. It affects his emotion and motivation to learn. Through some studies, Saunders & Goddard (2010) finds that children see physical punishment as a block for them to develop and learn.
It makes me think about the importance of understanding the influential factors of someone’s motivation. I hope this knowledge is useful to make me able to understand my students’ motivation in the future.
References:
Mayer, R.E. & Alexander, P.A. (2011). Handbook of research on learning and instruction. New York: Routledge.
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational psychology (4th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2010). Physical punishment in childhood: The rights of the child. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
“Why don’t you just apply and work here as our teacher, ms.?
That was the expression from the students when I said that it was the last day I came to that class as their teacher. I just laughed because I did not know what to do and what to say. Fortunately, I could make the situation more relaxed by chatting and having discussion with them about anything. Setting a free-time class that day was very advantageous to end my teaching practice in the school.
During the discussion, some of them said that they wanted me to teach them about writing in English. They wanted to improve their skill in that area. Some of them showed the anxious expression. It seemed like they had a problem with it. I knew that I did not have more time to share the knowledge about it. So, I decided to ask each of them to write their email address. I said that I would try to help them by sending any articles, e-books, or any materials related to writing skill. Their expression changed then. They smiled and wrote the address quickly on the paper I had provided.
I felt that two weeks were too short for me to be with them. Nevertheless, I realized that being with them does not always mean accompanying or teaching them directly in class. I can still be their friend and teacher by helping them outside the class. I hope I can search for and send the effective materials to them. I can motivate them to keep learning and believing that they can learn English for all aspects and skills easily.
That was the expression from the students when I said that it was the last day I came to that class as their teacher. I just laughed because I did not know what to do and what to say. Fortunately, I could make the situation more relaxed by chatting and having discussion with them about anything. Setting a free-time class that day was very advantageous to end my teaching practice in the school.
sharing moment
I felt that two weeks were too short for me to be with them. Nevertheless, I realized that being with them does not always mean accompanying or teaching them directly in class. I can still be their friend and teacher by helping them outside the class. I hope I can search for and send the effective materials to them. I can motivate them to keep learning and believing that they can learn English for all aspects and skills easily.
I was happy when I knew that I would have teaching experience in my senior high school. At the first day, I arrived there to have an observation. I met my favourite English teacher, who gives me an image of a good teacher. I also felt more motivated when I knew that he was also chosen to be my master teacher. My friends and I thought that I was very lucky and everything was going to be easy for me. Surprisingly, I faced some situation that I did not expect before.
I was going to enter my class, XI science 1 to observe. Many teachers there said that it was one of the best classes with clever students. I predicted before that it was the same as the one in my batch: smart, serious, and cool students are ready to study. When I came there to do observation, I felt like there was a light stroke my head. Boom!!! I found such a noisy class with talkative students, even when the class already started. It made me force myself to think about the teaching methods and strategies that I had to use the next day.
It was the first time I had to teach my class. My master teacher told me to prepare them for the test that was going to be conducted on Friday. He gave me the reading material on the textbook. He said that he had to use it for the test because he was assigned to do so by the foundation there. I looked at it and found that it was a literature text with some high-level vocabularies. Then, I told the students to read and learn about the text. I was not surprised when one of them said that it was too difficult and she did not understand what the story talks about. Once one of them said so, the others followed. They became nervous and the class became noisy again.
Because I already knew what the questions would be like from my master teacher, I informed them that the test would not be hard. I gave them guidelines to focus on some points on the story. I also opened the discussion about the story. They asked some questions and learned about it. I said that they should relax because the test would not be hard. I mentioned the word ‘easy’ many times. I hoped it could motivate them to learn and try their best for the test.
I believe that words are very powerful. It made me repeat motivating statements for couple of times. I also gave them guidelines as the reading strategy. I made it as one of the motivation strategies too where they would feel ‘more safe’ because of finding the way that made it easy for them to read it. Then, it would decrease their anxiety. After the anxiety decreased, they would believe that they could accomplish the test easily.
I think the title above does not only work for my students, but also for me when I was nervous about this teaching practice. Just relax, it would be easy!
There are many ways to motivate our students. We just need to be sensitive to decide which way we want to take.
I was going to enter my class, XI science 1 to observe. Many teachers there said that it was one of the best classes with clever students. I predicted before that it was the same as the one in my batch: smart, serious, and cool students are ready to study. When I came there to do observation, I felt like there was a light stroke my head. Boom!!! I found such a noisy class with talkative students, even when the class already started. It made me force myself to think about the teaching methods and strategies that I had to use the next day.
It was the first time I had to teach my class. My master teacher told me to prepare them for the test that was going to be conducted on Friday. He gave me the reading material on the textbook. He said that he had to use it for the test because he was assigned to do so by the foundation there. I looked at it and found that it was a literature text with some high-level vocabularies. Then, I told the students to read and learn about the text. I was not surprised when one of them said that it was too difficult and she did not understand what the story talks about. Once one of them said so, the others followed. They became nervous and the class became noisy again.
Because I already knew what the questions would be like from my master teacher, I informed them that the test would not be hard. I gave them guidelines to focus on some points on the story. I also opened the discussion about the story. They asked some questions and learned about it. I said that they should relax because the test would not be hard. I mentioned the word ‘easy’ many times. I hoped it could motivate them to learn and try their best for the test.
I believe that words are very powerful. It made me repeat motivating statements for couple of times. I also gave them guidelines as the reading strategy. I made it as one of the motivation strategies too where they would feel ‘more safe’ because of finding the way that made it easy for them to read it. Then, it would decrease their anxiety. After the anxiety decreased, they would believe that they could accomplish the test easily.
I think the title above does not only work for my students, but also for me when I was nervous about this teaching practice. Just relax, it would be easy!
There are many ways to motivate our students. We just need to be sensitive to decide which way we want to take.
A belief is a powerful element that affects students’ motivation. It comes subconsciously but can help them learn many things and achieve their goals. There are some kinds of beliefs that could come from each individual. Beliefs about future outcomes, intelligence, capability, value, and causes of performance are the ones that influence students’ motivation. It makes them important to be learned by teachers too.
Although it is true that beliefs can build motivation, it cannot be placed as a guarantee to get a good result. In some cases, students might have expectations which do not meet the goals. It could be caused by many other factors. One of the examples is students who have expectations in doing a test tomorrow will have a motivation to study the day before to get a good result. On the day they do the test, they misinterpret the question and give incorrect answers. Then, they get an unexpected result without knowing or realizing what their mistakes were. Usually, it becomes a bad effect for the students. It can make them feel down and do not believe themselves to accomplish this kind of test. It means they look at their past experience, which is a main factor influencing expectation (Santrock, 2009). I also experience it when I was in junior high school. When I had faced a failure in doing a test, I became nervous to accomplish the similar one and doubt myself to reach success. This is actually a challenge for teachers to give students explanations, and motivate them to take it as an experience and learn it in order to avoid the same mistakes.
My experiences in SSE influence my belief about future outcomes. Although I have been dreaming to be a teacher for a long time, but my experiences in the campus strengthen it. I learn many new things that increase my knowledge and teaching ability, including how to motivate my students. Having experiences in applying creative, innovative, and effective teaching methodologies also makes me more confident to teach. I believe that all of those things can guide me to be a good teacher in the future.
Reference:
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational Psychology (4th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Image Source:
http://dorkmuffin.com/2008/09/poem-the-road-not-taken/ via bing.com
Although it is true that beliefs can build motivation, it cannot be placed as a guarantee to get a good result. In some cases, students might have expectations which do not meet the goals. It could be caused by many other factors. One of the examples is students who have expectations in doing a test tomorrow will have a motivation to study the day before to get a good result. On the day they do the test, they misinterpret the question and give incorrect answers. Then, they get an unexpected result without knowing or realizing what their mistakes were. Usually, it becomes a bad effect for the students. It can make them feel down and do not believe themselves to accomplish this kind of test. It means they look at their past experience, which is a main factor influencing expectation (Santrock, 2009). I also experience it when I was in junior high school. When I had faced a failure in doing a test, I became nervous to accomplish the similar one and doubt myself to reach success. This is actually a challenge for teachers to give students explanations, and motivate them to take it as an experience and learn it in order to avoid the same mistakes.
My experiences in SSE influence my belief about future outcomes. Although I have been dreaming to be a teacher for a long time, but my experiences in the campus strengthen it. I learn many new things that increase my knowledge and teaching ability, including how to motivate my students. Having experiences in applying creative, innovative, and effective teaching methodologies also makes me more confident to teach. I believe that all of those things can guide me to be a good teacher in the future.
Reference:
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational Psychology (4th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Image Source:
http://dorkmuffin.com/2008/09/poem-the-road-not-taken/ via bing.com
Could all students be treated in the same way?
Attributional functions deals with how teachers give comments to the students when they face a particular situation to do a performance, or in order to perform well. I agree with the article that says it is motivating when the teacher says, “Keep trying. I know you can solve this problem.” I experienced this thing when I was in school. Although I did a difficult assignment, this kind of statement could motivate me. It was because I felt that my teacher trusted me to do it, then why did not I?
The next factor is praise and criticism. The interesting point, like what is written on the article, is teachers need to be careful to give students a praise or criticism to avoid their motivation getting lower. I think different students may also have different perception. In one case, one student may be more motivated by getting praise, while the other may not. If I reflect to myself, there should be praise to increase my motivation level because criticism only will not work for me. I will still feel uncomfortable if a teacher only says, “You can do a better work than this.” Although it could be good for other students, it is not motivating enough for me. On the other hand, I will feel that I do the assignment in vain because it seems the teacher does not appreciate it.
So, what should a teacher do, especially to motivate students with various characters? In my opinion, there are three ways to help teachers motivate them. The first way is: teacher should believe that their students can give a good performance. It will help teacher to give positive comments like the one on the first paragraph. The second one is: the teacher should know the students’ culture, not only looking at their origins, but also observing each individual’s characters. It will help teachers to choose an appropriate way to motivate them. The third one is: the teacher could keep the praise and criticism in balance. While criticism or praise alone may not work for particular students, teacher can choose a save way, such as giving both elements for the students. The example of teacher’s statement is: “It is great to know you can do this. However, looking at your ability, I am sure that you can perform better.” It could be better than just saying: “You can do better work than this”.
How about you, guys? Do you have any other strategies to increase students’ perception of their competence?
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