Eighteen students piled up in a stifling class assigned for my first-year seminar course during a sunny day in September. With high office research Indicates can strengthen learning results. At some point, I asked these new arrivals from college to share university and professional aspirations. Their responses were a tribute to the dreams of young minds: future pediatric nurses, speech -language pathologists and more than one veterinarian were gathered in our unpretentious little space.
These students seemed to be motivated to learn – a direct contrast to the story of the disengagement which permeates today’s education circles. But despite the enthusiasm, research indicates a much more sober reality: About half of all students fail to graduate within six years of registration. These rates can be even more perilous for certain cohorts, including beneficiaries of PELL grants, the federal financial aid allocated to undergraduate students by demonstrating the need.
Many students gathered in my class have been part of this most vulnerable category and would probably face the types of obstacles that can decrease learning resolution. The requirements of academics coupled with the attraction of daily life can negatively balance the results of students, siphoning the motivation of students, according to the educational researcher Howard McClusky. Her Margin theory The framework compares the motivation of students to the calibration of “charges” compared to the counter-deform of resources, or what he calls “power”. Students with sufficient margin between these competing forces have the capacity to take up new challenges, including the hard work of learning; Insufficient margin students are submerged and have a higher failure rate.
Determined to keep and even strengthen the motivation of the learner who was apparent on the first day of my class, I engaged in the following motivation practices which could reduce the load and promote the type of power necessary to go to the finish line. Here’s what it looked like:
Community Remains at the heart of the successful results of the students, therefore emphasizing the relational aspect of learning has become a guiding principle for the class. Taking advantage of the energy of the first weeks when enthusiasm is particularly strong is an opportunity to forge group connections and cultivate support between peers. Research indicates these informal links as a form of vital power, therefore from the first day of lessons, my students were placed in groups determined by common areas of academic concentration and career aspiration. To replace the reluctance of work in collaboration, we have passed the class lesson to install what is groups of application and practice the type of awareness and response that has familiarized group members with the act of contacting each other.
Career preparation has become an appreciated currency in today’s higher education sector, not only because it helps to mitigate the entry into the labor market, but also serves to link employment education more deeply. Our class therefore included duties forcing students to search for their future areas. Using the American work statistics office Website, students have been able to deepen the understanding of specific areas in terms of industry growth, income and even entry requirements. The anchoring of aspirations with realities of the real world was an opportunity to guide students to their objectives declared in a real and relevant manner, which has further improved their learning motivation.
Continuous reflection Invites students to their learning trips while starting metacognition, thus contributing to motivation and learning success. The simple fact of inviting students to reflect on their learning process can deepen the commitment while helping to push the acquisition of knowledge in retention, the objective of good teaching. The reflection can be as simple as to devote the last minutes of class so that students write what they have learned and what they would like to revisit for a better understanding. We have undertaken this exercise in almost each of our 15 weeks. In addition, students captured their reflections via electronic portfolios that have served as a permanent record for their progress.
The evaluation of the driving and energy necessary to maintain motivation during a semester can present challenges, in particular in our post-countryic years, when the factors of isolation, endurance and access to optimal learning environments have ravaged. We met numerous trips during the semester, but in the end, each of my 18 students reached the finish line of the course. The fight against learning of head winds requires an understanding of the complex phenomenon of the motivation of the learner, then to engage in evidence of the enlightened practices which can maintain, even strengthen – energy and driving to succeed. This can mean more work and efforts in class, but for instructors involved in the success of students, it is his own deeply satisfactory motivation force.
Juli S. Charkes, EDD, has been an instructor in class for 14 years, teaching organizational leadership, communications and media studies at the first cycle levels and higher cycles. From 2021 to 2025, she directed the Center for Teaching and Learning at Mercy University, where she supervised the development and strategy of the faculty in 100 academic programs.
References
ASH, SL and Clayton, PH (2009). Generate, deepen and document learning: the power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48.
Biney, IK (2022). The theory of the margin of McClusky and its implications on adult learners in higher education establishments. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 28 (1), 98-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477971421989337
National center for education statistics. (2022). First cycle and grab retention rate. Condition of education. American Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Recovered on May 31, 2022 fromhttps://nés.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ctr.
Sasan, JMV, Tugong, GM and Alistre, KLC (2023). An exploration of galaes and their impact on the commitment of class students. International Journal of Social Service and Research, 3 (11). https://ijssr.ridwaninstitte.co.id/index.php/ijssr/article/view/566
Schön, DA (1983).The thoughtful practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
(Tagstotranslate) Build the commitment of students