Motivation

Last updated on 2024-12-04 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 60 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can we positively impact learner motivation?
  • How can we empower learners to continue learning after their workshop or training?

Objectives

  • Examine a past experience with learner motivation in terms of environment, efficacy, and value.
  • Classify anticipated goals of learners as learning or performance-based.
  • Assess the usefulness of different strategies related to motivation in Carpentries workshops and trainings.
  • Predict the impact of cognitive limitations on both learners and Instructor Trainers in Instructor Training.

Reading

From How Learning Works:

  • Chapter 4: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? (p. 84 - 105)
  • Chapter 8: How Do Students Become Self-Directed Learners? (p. 187 - 211)

From The Carpentries Instructor Training curriculum:

Discussion Questions

  1. What stood out to you from this week’s reading? Think of things that made sense in light of your own experience, things you’re not convinced of, or questions that you have.

  2. There are many demotivating “traps” an instructor can fall into. What strategies can we give our instructors for recovering from these slip-ups?

  3. How might the concepts taught in this lesson apply to the process of learning to becoming a better teacher?

  4. How can we support our learners in transferring metacognitive skills to the materials learned in a workshop?

  5. Make a concept map (3-5 items with labeled connections) that links one or more of the strategies on p.200-211 to one or more practices that could be implemented in a workshop to support metacognition. What concepts did you connect? What relationships did you identify?

  6. Examine Figure 4.2 (p.97). Think of an situation you’ve encountered in a classroom that is explained by this figure.

  7. Will learners at Carpentries workshops have primarily learning goals or performance goals? What about at Instructor Training events?

  8. Which are the strategies on p.99-104 are most relevant to Carpentries workshops and trainings? Are any of them not relevant in this setting? Why or why not?

Key Points

  • We expect trainees to have diverse motivations for joining Instructor Training.
  • Although Carpentries workshops and trainings are short, there are many strategies that we can employ to keep learners and trainees motivated.