STUDENT MOTIVATION

AND INNOVATIVE

TEACHING

Lance King

Warwick Academy

Bermuda

February 2014

Start with a preview – what did we do last time?

(Finish with a review of key points covered – drawn from them)

Go to the big picture – today’s objectives, where they fit into the whole

Vocabulary first

Teach to all senses – main points something to see, hear and do

Hook visual memory – coloured notes, diagrams, pictures

Encourage key word summaries

Relate constantly to real world examples

Build in opportunities for inquiry learning

Ask for clarifying questions

Evaluate your own teaching – ask for feedback

Forgetting Curve

Review Curve

Start every lesson with a closed book preview of the previous

lesson – “what did we do last time?”

Finish every lesson with a closed book review of that lesson –

“what did we just do?”

At the end of each week have students create a summary of

the content covered in that week – open book

At the end of each month have them put their weekly

summaries together into a one month summary

Biology

Biology

Biology

Cells

Human

Plants

Micro-org

Biotechnology

Biology

Cells

Human

Plants

Micro-org

Biotechnology

Protozoa

Bacteria

Yeast and mould

Viruses

Procaryote & Eucaryote

Pathogens

To review what works in a standard lesson

To explore the basis of student motivation to

learn

To experience some innovative teaching

techniques

To look at some innovative on-line teaching

opportunities

Always provide spelling and meaning of all

the new words students will come across in

the lesson before the lesson begins

Glossaries of technical terms

Especially for second language learners

Multi-sensory Teaching/Learning Strategies

Visual: use video, film photographs, use colour on the board, notes, highlighting key points in text, pictures, posters, diagrams and graphs, using mindmaps and THOrTmaps, using visualisation, using gestures, facial expressions, creating flowcharts of processes

Auditory: reading out loud, playing tapes, playing quiet instrumental music, talking, describing, dictation, creating discussions or debates, using word games, puns, jokes, asking and answering questions, telling stories, myths, using metaphors, formal and impromptu speeches, inviting in guest speakers

Kinesthetic: having the experience, allowing standing, moving, stretch breaks, using interactive CDs, being aware of non-verbal language, role playing, drama, creating question and answer games, field trips, workshop and laboratory sessions, having students teach each other, using real life examples, providing things to touch, pull apart and put together, allowing for physical comfort, thirst, hunger, visiting museums, exhibitions

Visual Memory

Teaching note making skills - practice yours

today

Listening for ideas

Making own interpretations

Confirming with peer feedback – regularly

Focus on teaching the skills required to learn the subject

matter well

Pose questions, outline problems, set challenges, give

clear measurable objectives

Put students into small groups

Assign roles – researcher, questioner, recorder, director

Give them access to the best subject based resources

Facilitate their journey

Teach questioning

Make it safe for students to ask clarifying

questions

Why is it that the longer students stay in school

the less questions they ask?

How does it feel for you to ask questions today?

On a regular basis ask your students.....

How was my teaching today?

What are some of the things I did today that helped you

understand and remember?

What are some of the things I did today that didn’t help

you understand and remember?

Evaluation must be anonymous for the student and

confidential to the teacher

How many are paying attention at any one time?

20%

How much detail will they remember in 24 hours

25%

What is the attention span of an average child at

school?

7 minutes

Is it a teachers responsibility to motivate students?

If so how?

Dan Pink – on Motivation

Extrinsic motivation only works for the most basic of tasks – grades, rewards, punishments

Intrinsic motivation is needed for thinking and learning tasks

•Autonomy

•Mastery

•Purpose

What is the purpose of schooling?

- from the perspective of:• Owners – private or state

• Administrators

• Teachers

• Parents

• Students

Is there any unifying highest purpose?

How can we help our students to focus on purpose?

Crowd control?

To help students:

gain good qualifications?

get into a good university?

get a good job?

prepare for life?

develop into brilliant learners?

To develop:

self-motivated

self-directed

self-regulated

autonomous

independent

lifelong learners?

In a learning context means the mastery of

the skills of effective learning

Do your students have all the skills they need

to learn well?

What are the top 10 learning skills students need to succeed in your classroom?

cognitive

affective

Can you teach them directly

Recording information in class

Organising the information

Transforming information from one form to another

Time management for classes, tests, assignments

Organising the home study environment

Asking questions for understanding

Reviewing information regularly for memory

Recording information:

note making in class

key point summarising from books, teachers talking

Time Management:

for class attendance - modelling

for completing assignments

for preparing for tests and exams

desk/table and chair at the right height

light onto the page

music without words

instrumental

W

O

F

ater

xygen

ruit – instead of high sugar foods

crossover exercises

nose/ear

juggling

1) Get time tabled – use phone calendars, diaries, year planner

- whole year with exam dates

- semesters/terms with all test dates

- all assignment due dates

2) Doing assignments – break each one down into steps:

a) as soon as you get an assignment mark the due date in your phone

calendar and later transfer that date to your year planner

b) timeline every assignment - mark on your year planner when you

need to have it 25% done by, 50%, 90%

c) stick to your schedule

See http://taolearn.com/seminars.php

- for video of exam study timetabling with IGCSE students

Persistence and perseverance

Focus and concentration, overcoming distractions

Self-motivation

Courage

Reducing anxiety

Delaying gratification

Managing emotions

Developing resilience

Pick any affective skill (strategy, technique)that you would like the class to focus on for the class or the day (eg you might pick on concentration)

Get some analytical discussion going in the class as to what the parameters of this skill are:

- what does concentration mean?- what are the characteristics of concentration?- what are some examples of times when you are

concentrating well?- how can you tell when you are concentrating?- how could you tell if someone else was concentrating well?- what would be an objective measure of concentration?

Get agreement within the class so everyone is very clear about how to recognise and measure performance of the skill.

Take the students through the following 5 steps: 1)remember a time when you were concentrating

2) close your eyes, remember that incident in detail, what happened before that moment, during that moment and after that moment – what can you see…hear…how did it feel?

3) notice what was going on in your mind at the time when you were concentrating, what were you saying to yourself, what were you imagining, what else was going on?

4) Open your eyes and write all those things down, describe the experience clearly, precisely and analytically

5) Now you know how you do it sometimes, practice doing all those same things deliberately when next you need to exercise that skill

Give them an exercise to complete within your subject that causes them to practice the particular affective skill on your subject matter

Get them to reflect on their own competence with that skill

What does courage mean?

.. doing something that you know is going to be

hard

What is the hardest thing you have ever got

yourself to do?

How did you do it?

That is your courage strategy

Level 1

Novice

- observing

Level 2

Learner

- copying

Level 3

Practitioner

- demonstrating

Level 4

Expert

- self-regulating

Observes others performing tasks and using the skill

High levels of scaffolding from teacher needed

Copies others performance of the skill

Medium level of scaffolding needed

Can demonstrate the skill on demand

Minimal teacher scaffolding required

Can teach others the skill

No teacher scaffolding required

What do students have control over at school? Whether they go to school or not?

Where they go to school?

When they go to school?

What the rules are?

Who teaches them?

How they get taught?

What they get taught?

Who sets their tests and exams?

Who marks their tests and exams?

Choosing their own topics to study

Choosing their own methods of presentation

of information for assignments

Learning how to self-assess their own work

Engaging in independent learning projects

Using inquiry learning in the classroom

1) Negotiate criteria used for your own marking

2) Add self-assessment sheets to work

3) Ask students to propose their own marks

4) Negotiate grades

5) Allow students to award their own marks for some

elements

6) Allow students to award their own marks for the

whole assignment

“Knowledge is experience,

all else is information”

“Imagination is more

important than knowledge”

Albert Einstein

Knowledge keeps no better than fish

Alfred North Whitehead

Innovative teaching

In order to help children to learn well

we must engage them with

the experience

of their own learning

Experiential Learning

LOOK

PLAN

DO

THINK

LOOK

PLAN

DO

THINK

Action, activity, trial, example, experience,situation, experiment

What happened there? What are the facts?

What does it mean? What have I learned?How does it connect to ideas, concepts, theory?

Where to from here?What don’t I know yet and how will I find it out?

DO Have the experience

LOOK What did you do?

Describe what happened,

objectively

THINK What did you learn from

that?

What are the implications

that you can draw from

this exercise about

teaching and learning

generally?

PLAN Where to from here?

How could you use this

knowledge to inform your

own teaching?

Experiential Learning – Teacher’s Perspective

Hooks all the senses through the internal visual Engages the imagination Uses the power of visual metaphor to embed

serious content Combines verbal and visual thinking And achieves:

- movement through imagination- multi-sensory connection with content- high levels of understanding- great retention of content

Role of the teacher:

- designing and writing the visualisation script

- explaining key concepts to be investigated

- establishing control, setting the mood

- reading the visualisation

- asking for reflection and questions

- making sure every student writes down a summary of the key points correctly after the visualisation is over

Role of the student:

- listening , imagining, thinking

- reflecting, learning

Children need to move, take a break, change activitiesYrs 1 – 3 after 5 - 7 minutes input Yrs 4 – 8 after 8 - 12 minutesYrs 9 – 12 after 13 - 20 minutes

And so do you!!Try - energizers: nose/ear

juggling- concentrators: pat head, rub stomach

finger circles, leg circlesSimon Says

- content embedders: whole class role-plays

Hooks all the senses through the kinesthetic Engages the imagination Uses the power of physical metaphor to embed serious

content Combines verbal and visual thinking

Avoids the issues of embarrassment, over-performing, under-performing, wanting to opt out

And achieves:- movement, energy release- multi-sensory connection with content- high levels of understanding- great retention of content

Demonstrates concepts:

What is:

- current?

- a switch?

- a resistor?

- a battery?

- an ammeter?

- a fuse?

What are the differences between series and parallel circuits?

Demonstrates concepts:

Indices of failure of potato crisps

Gas and water transmission properties of three

common, flexible plastic, packaging materials

Accelerated storage trialing of food

Role of the teacher:

- designing and writing the role play

- allocating roles

- explaining key concepts to be investigated

- controlling the action, one step at a time

- asking for reflection and questions

- making sure every student writes down a summary of the key points correctly after the role-play is over

Role of the student:

- listening , participating, thinking

- reflecting, learning

Udacity

TED-ED

Review of the key points

Evaluation

How was my teaching today?

What are some of the things I did today that helped

you understand and remember?

What are some of the things I did today that didn’t

help you understand and remember?