Finding the Right Connection

During the first couple weeks of the semester, students are trying to figure out what their classes will be like. This is the time when the teacher's efforts should focus on capturing their interest. Students are more likely to work on a learning throughout the term once they understand its relevance.

Psychologist William Glasser's Schools without Failure explains that student motivation depends on whether students understand how studying the subject matter helps them satisfy their needs. He argues that until students discover this link they will not commit much effort to learning. The following tips suggest some approaches to building connections between your course content and their needs and interests.

Community Connection

Last week, one introductory lesson suggested that students look for applications of your course material in their daily communities. This first tip asks them to build on the initial observation.

Using a group -- friends, family, church, work, hobby, etc. -- have students conduct a brief "research" study. They might interview people about issues or topics or themes related to the course. They might collect data for class analysis. They might try a brief experiment. Or, they might present some information and bring responses back to class. Activities that are short, self-contained, and allow students to see your discipline in action are ideal. Use the material to illustrate presentations, stimulate small group discussions, or develop larger learning projects.

Finding a Future

Students believe that courses lead only to other courses. While a liberal education reaches beyond job skills, the next tip uses career ideas to build bridges to the content.

As early as possible, have students visit career sites. They should have some specific task (observations, surveys, data collection) to help them see how course material is being used (or could be used). Job shadowing in offices, laboratories, and field sites gives concrete validation to your material. Do these early, keep them simple, and use some class time to reflect on the experience.

Service Learning

The CIRT will be sponsoring a series of forums this spring to introduce this method. Tim Stanton, a national leader in this field will offer the first one on January 28. Check the Winterfest schedule.

Make arrangements for students to provide some volunteer service at a public agency. Use the class to prepare students to apply course materials while in the setting. Show them how to reflect continually on their experiences in the community setting using knowledge from the course.

Visitors

When it is too awkward to arrange for students to visit field sites, bring visitors to them. Sometimes the expert is a colleague or subject matter specialist. Other times, you may want to bring in ordinary people who can share their experiences -- a neurobiologist has medical students talk with families of patients who relied on doctors' knowledge of this information. This can leave a powerful impression.

Starters

The shortest tip depends on the teacher (& students) to start the class with a short attention grabber about the subject.

Current events that illustrate the content can be reported & a short class discussion can follow.

Shockers are reports or activities that surprise students. I read a USA Today story about a Native American placed in a psychiatric hospital after an accident because doctors considered his language babble. Mr. Wizard dissolves a bag of styrofoam peanuts in a cup of acetone.

Life Themes

Educator Ernest Boyer believes that higher education makes a mistake by organizing courses around isolated disciplinary content. Rather, he suggests that multi-disciplinary courses focus on primary themes in human life, so that the course deepens students' understanding of their world. He describes the kinds of themes he believes will connect with college students.

How can you communicate the human purpose for studying your area (something we connect to but students need to learn)? Often, leaders in a field have written reflective essays that reach beyond methods to how we contribute to human culture. Share these with your students and make time for discussion. Help them see how scholarship fits into everyday life.

Selecting Topics or Projects

When a teacher designs an activity, she or he must find the point of interest for students.

Try giving students some choices about topics or projects. Brainstorm some suggestions. When they contribute to selecting a topic, they reveal the topics of interest to them. With a little imagination, a good instructor can use most proposed topics to convey a point or organize a learning activity.

A Final Word

Student motivation does not come about because teachers are great entertainers, like many of us fear. It happens when students recognize that the struggle to learn the course material will help them solve problems, be more successful, or understand their world better. People don't learn from friends, they learn from people they trust will lead them to richer lives. Good teachers begin by understanding their students needs and interests (use last week's tips to get started). Being subject experts, they then build a bridge between these interests and the course material.

Two good essays cited above address these issues: William Glasser on educational motivation and from Ernest Boyer on themes in higher education. Contact the CIRT and we will gladly send you a copy.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on January 20, 1997.