Week 7: What is learning? How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?

Jill Mason's picture
Learning is a process that includes incorporating previous knowledge with new information in such a way that it becomes part of the student’s long-term memory, and changes their thoughts, behavior, knowledge-base and decisions regarding the subject.  A teacher can best effectuate learning by making each lesson intrinsically motivating to the student. My lesson this week, for example, is one that my students always love. After all, they get chocolate for good class participation, and they get to learn the basic economic problem of scarcity through an object-lesson that is also chocolate-based. However, I don’t think that without the increased motivational aspect that I added this week it would have affected their decisions and thoughts regarding economics.  In the future, I will think more carefully about how intrinsically motivating my lessons are so I can better effectuate learning in my class.  
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Submitted by Jill Mason on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 11:32am
Paul Cobb's picture

chocolate motivation.

Submitted by Paul Cobb on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 3:57pm.

I have a hard time figuring out how to get students intrinsicly motivated as well. Especially when candy works so well. I mean, how do you get kids intrinsicly motivated about economics when most adults don't care about it either. My problem is motivating 8th graders to love science. So if you figure it out let me know. I need all the help I can get.

Brian B.'s picture

well, one way that can be

Submitted by Brian B. (not verified) on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 6:08pm.
well, one way that can be intrinsically motivating to students is to have them solve real world problems related to their community or that is relevant to their everyday lives. So when I worked with some teachers one thing they did was have students examine sources of water pollution in a stream right by the school. It doesn't work for all students but it does work for some. Brian
Rebecca Rogerson's picture

Don't we wish they were all intrinsically motivated!

Submitted by Rebecca Rogerson on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 6:51pm.

I think we would all agree that instrinsic motivation is the best motivation and in Education Utopia it may be that way, but we are in the real world and if a little candy will motivate students to participate and learn, then I think it is well worth it.

Brian B.'s picture

certainly none of the

Submitted by Brian B. (not verified) on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 4:27pm.
certainly none of the theories we learn about in class represent truth in its entirety. sometimes it is necessary to use extrinsic motivators. there's nothing wrong with them per se. What I hope you all get out of this class is that these theories are a set of tools that you can deploy selectively to help your students learn. Nobody knows students and how they learn better than their teachers.

Disclaimer

Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.