How Can Teachers Motivate Students?

In this article we are going to talk about the How Can Teachers Motivate Students? Schools and Colleges are like our second home. They’re the places we spend the most amount of time, after our homes. These places play a huge role in our growing up process. We meet a lot of people here and make a lot of memories. Why we go to these places is to study and obviously we can’t study without teachers. We learn so much from our teachers; they are our role models and the way they are with students affect our own way of thinking. So being a kind of person whom students can look up to is what every teacher wants. So teachers should always motivate students to perform better in life.

Top 10 things teachers can do to motivate students

Teachers play a huge role in the kind of students we become and stay as our whole lives. They are responsible for developing our interests in particular subjects and in due course, they shape our careers. Not all teachers are same; every teacher teaches and acts with students in different ways. It takes a lot of time for teachers to gain students’ trust and open up about their skills. Not only teachers, each and every student is different in nature too. So these are a few ways to motivate students.

1. Practical case studies

 Practical case studies

To be very frank, some subjects can be really boring. You can often see students zoning out in their own worlds during long, boring lectures. Those subjects that do not hold a practical approach to them or requires writing stuff down, students are bound to get distracted in-between the lectures. So what teachers can do is relate stuff to the real world. There isn’t even one subject that cannot be related to the practical world. Teaching concepts through case studies so that students can have a better understanding of topics can be really helpful. If students understand the topics, their interest gets developed and they want to learn more about the subject. This will also help in creating an interactive environment in the class.

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2. Practice questions

Practice questions

Those subjects that are practical and involve numerically solvable questions can be found difficult to understand by majority of students. Not everyone can be good at understanding those complex concepts. So it is advisable that teachers give some practice questions in class. Homework and self-study is in its own place, but what we study in class stays with us for a long time. Not only will it give students a chance to clear out doubts then and there, it also creates a sense of a competition among the students. Not a deadly war to get the answers right and prove themselves but a healthy competition to motivate students to do better. Seeing their peers performing well can be that one push they required to work harder.

3. Group projects

Group projects

Students have their own friend circle in which they usually hangout. Although it is a good thing to have such bonding during our student years, but sometimes it hinders us from getting to know more people around us. It is important to talk to more and more people as it teaches us how to make connections with people of different personalities. The connections we make during these years of our lives give us exposure which is very useful in life. So, assigning group projects can help teachers to make students comfortable among themselves. When group projects are assigned, students end up doing them with their friends only, so it is important to assign different groups for maximum exposure. This can be a great way to make them understand that there are different kinds of people around us.

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4. Workshops

Workshops

Schools and colleges prepare us for the life we have ahead of ourselves. They provide theoretical knowledge of all the concepts that we would require in our careers. But this theoretical knowledge is not enough to make us understand the working of the actual world. We need practical knowledge for that; some of it only comes from experience that we would gain later when we start working, but we need to be prepared for entering the real world beforehand and for that we must have some pre-requisite knowledge. Workshops and webinars by professionals in those areas on most relatable topics are the best way to provide that information. So, teachers must find a way to hold such workshops in the organization. These workshops must be interactive and not like the usual boring lectures which would again result in students dozing off.

5. A non-discriminatory environment

A non-discriminatory environment

As mentioned above as well, teachers are our role models; the way they behave, affect our way of thinking. Thus, it is important that teachers impart good values in students along with academic syllabus. If schools and colleges are like our homes, teachers are also like parents to us. They guide us through the learning years of our life. If they try and shape adolescents into not only good performers but also good-natured beings, then only they can be considered as true role models. So, they must instill values such as helpfulness, inclusiveness and caring for others in their students. For this to happen, teachers themselves must act in an indiscriminate manner with all the students. When students see these habits in their teachers, they learn to be good to others and be good human beings.      

6. Exam anxiety

Exam anxiety

Not all students are same at academics. Some are really good at it and always prepared for any test that comes there way, but some students seem to be scared of writing exams. This has nothing to do with how much they have studied for that exam; it’s the pressure of writing correct answers in the given time and the expectations of performing well that comes with exams. A student can have studied every word and know all the concepts like the back of their hand, and yet, get nervous while actually giving the exam. It feels like they have forgotten all that they studied and are going to fail the exam. So, it is in the hands of the teachers to calm the students down. Students look up to their teachers for making them confident about themselves. It is not as simple as just “if you study, you will feel confident about writing your exam”. So teachers must try to calm students’ exam anxiety so the students don’t let the pressure get the best of them.

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7. Reasonable goals

Reasonable goals

Encouraging students to perform academically better is one of the duties of a teacher. But they should always set reasonable goals for students that they can achieve. These goals should be out of students’ comfort zones but attainable at the same time. These goals should be able to push students to perform their level best but not scare them off and set off their exam anxiety. Students should have such grip on concepts and such goals in mind that they are not shivering in fear before going to write an exam. Exams already put a lot of pressure on students as they come with a lot of expectations for parents, teacher, peers etc. so a teacher should try to understand the pressure the student is being made to go through and set reasonable goals according to their skill set and capabilities.

8. Set learning objectives

Set learning objectives

When students grow up to a higher level of their studies, they expect to learn a lot of new things. So setting clear learning objectives for them to help them gain interest can be really useful for motivating them. Starting of subjects can be usually for building the foundations and can turn out to be boring. So telling students what they are expected to learn in that entire subject can help their interest prevail for a longer time. Once students lose their will to study for that subject, they might never be able to get back on track with it. It might sound being ahead of time but it can really helpful. Then once those interesting topics come in line, students get enthusiastic about learning and thus, the teacher would be able to keep them interested for the whole semester.

9. Be their friend

Be their friend

As already mentioned a lot of times till now, teachers are someone students look up to. It takes a lot of time for teachers to get their students open up to them. But it is all worth it, once the students feel that they can talk to their teachers about any issue they are facing, they not only feel at ease but also have the feeling of living up to the expectations of their teachers. This pushes them to perform better. This is also where the need of setting reasonable goals comes in. If teachers set unattainable benchmarks, and students feel like they do not want to let their teachers down, they ultimately feel pressured and all the efforts teachers had put in to be a friend to their students goes all in vain. So teachers must be their friends, but also in a limit. Friends often pass remarks as jokes which they don’t mean but have a long lasting effect on our minds and teachers must not be that way. They should in fact, teach their students to not pass such remarks.

10. Self-enthusiasm

Self-enthusiasm

All of the efforts that teachers put in to get in the good books of their students, it all comes down to giving them a good education and ensuring that they have bright careers and futures. Thus, teachers must ensure to be so good at making students understand the syllabus and encouraging them to do better that beyond a certain point, students gets this feeling from within themselves that they have to make something out of themselves. One teacher cannot remain and guide a student for their entire lives, in fact, no one can guide us through our entire lives. Students would also one day grow into adults and will need to guide their younger ones. So, teachers must impart such values and knowledge that makes the students independent and get through life on their own.

Hope these points helped you. Motivate the students as they are the future of the nation!

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