One of the hallmarks of a good teacher is the ability to motivate or cause his/her students to learn. And as a teacher, you must ensure that learning has taken place in your students by making sure that the students make sense of a subject, use the newly acquired knowledge and do something with it.
For sometimes now a debate has been ongoing on who is responsible for students’ academic failure. Although many people believe that teachers take a larger share in poor academic performance of students. However, to ensure that you have played your part, one needs to check and measure students’ learning process.
In this piece, I will be discussing those crucial things that can cause or enhance the student learning process.
How to Motivate or Cause your students to learn
- Students want you to be enthusiastic
I am always fascinated by people who are passionate about the work they do. The high energy, the smile, and diligent they put in their work increase their productivity.
I have a clear understanding of this trait a day I went to teach a class for the first time. Although that day I frowned and before I commence my lectures a student voiced out and said “I think we will have a hard time in your course with the look on your face” This statement came to me as a shock and I put on a smiley face to ease the learning atmosphere that is already getting tensed.
An enthusiastic teacher will always get the interest of his/her students and facilitate learning in them. I believe that learning starts when students’ attention is in place.
- Create a positive classroom environment
A positive classroom is a welcoming atmosphere, ordered physical environment with a positive impression, where a student feels safe and willing to share.
What this kind of environment does ultimately is to ensure that every contribution from every student matters.
The size and shape of a classroom, the seating arrangement, the lighting, sound, color, temperature, and humidity all have some influence on the learner’s attention level.
I have always noticed that once the atmosphere of the learning environment is right, the students will be willing to learn and make contributions based on the newly acquired knowledge.
- Be creative while teaching
A creative teacher is someone who can use different approaches to deliver his lesson content to his students to cause them to learn. One of the attributes of a boring teacher is that he is predictable, i.e., his style of teaching is fixed.
I have needed to change my approach whenever I discovered that I am boring my students, or the content is difficult for them to grasp. There have been times I crack up a joke to lighten the students’ mood or take them through the lane of what they have known for them to understand the difficult topic(s).
It is your creativity that will help you out whenever it seems your students are not getting the topic(s) you are teaching. Your creative ability can be measured when you understand that learning has not taken place in your students and what to do to change the situation
- Students like it when contents are well presented
Facilitators must ensure that their contents must have well been thought through and grind to a level that will be easily digestible by their students.
Subject contents are like stones that need to be ground into powder before it can be served to students. This process can only be achieved if the facilitator has expertise in the subject area.
In some cases, you may need to use visual imaging, stories, songs, rhymes, etc.to convey your message to you, students.
- You must be a motivator to your students
One of the primary reasons why students are in school is to learn, and this can be achieved when they stay motivated. A discouraged student may find it challenging to have good grades, and that is why a teacher must ensure that his students are motivated.
One of the things I have seen most teachers around me do, which I have also cultivated, is giving hope and making them feel valued. I know of a teacher that has made it his mantra always to tell his students, “you are special.”
Motivation is an essential ingredient in achieving academic goals. A facilitator must ensure that every student is given a chance to freely express himself in class and be rewarded for any attempt made in answering questions.
Someone said, “there is no better motivation than knowing that you have done something well” Making your students have self-belief and respected in class can facilitate learning.
- Maintaining a healthy student-teacher relationship
Student-teacher relationship is a state of connectedness between a teacher and his students with the aim of improving their performance academically and making them an instrument of change to their society.
Some of the importance of this type of relationship includes:
- It gives an avenue to the students to ask questions without fear of being criticized by the teacher.
- It makes the teacher know where a student lags behind academically.
- Enhances effective communication in the class
I strongly believe that great students are produced when the teachers are interested in the overall wellbeing of their students.
