Today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce. But, with the growing digital age and an abundance of educational resources online, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for teachers to keep their students motivated and interested in learning new things.
Whether you’re a new teacher or have been teaching for years, it’s essential to constantly look for ways to improve your effectiveness as an instructor. There is no perfect way to teach, but by implementing new strategies and techniques, you can make your lessons even more effective than before.
Read on to learn about five simple strategies that will help motivate your students and see them excited about learning again:
1. Carry Out Motivation Assessment
Before you embark on new plans or schemes to improve your student’s motivation levels, you should conduct a motivation assessment and devise a motivation assessment scale for each student.
This can be as simple as asking your students what they think are the essential things in life or carrying out an online quiz on what drives people to achieve their goals. Once you have your students’ answers, you can use this information to tailor your lessons and make them more relevant.
For example, if most of your students state that they want to be successful in life and have a comfortable life with a family, then you can integrate these aspirations into your lessons to make them more relevant. This will help your students see the relevance of the information they are learning and increase their motivation. Additionally, for those considering higher education and living arrangements, understanding their aspirations can guide you in providing resources and advice on options like Bolton Student Accommodation.
2. Play Games During Class
Playing games during class can boost a student’s motivation levels incredibly quickly. When you break up your lectures with a quick game, you help your students shift from the grave-focused mode needed for studying to a more relaxed and fun mindset that enables them to retain information more easily.
There are endless possibilities when choosing games to play with your students. Some examples include:
- Bingo (either as a competitive or collaborative exercise)
- Scavenger Hunts
- Trivia
- Banana Contests (similar to the banana challenge)
- A Debate/Discussion about a topic related to the lesson/topic at hand –
- Hot potato/other types of quickfire games
- Board games that tie in with the topic you’re teaching
Playing games during class can quickly increase your students’ engagement levels and keep them motivated throughout the lesson.
3. Keep Lessons Fresh And Varied
If you have been teaching the same lesson for years, it’s important to remember that you must make it new and exciting again. This will help you avoid your students getting bored of the information and losing interest in the lesson.
Mixing things up and keeping your lessons fresh and varied is essential. You can do this by adding different assessments, quizzes, and activities. Doing this ensures that your students are constantly challenged and don’t get too comfortable in the same old routine.
Depending on your subject area, there are several ways to keep your lessons fresh and varied. For example, if you’re teaching English, you could vary how you deliver your lessons. Instead of reading out loud from your textbook, you could get your students to read aloud or even get them to form groups and act out certain parts of the story.
4. Make Learning Fun
If you want to improve your students’ motivation levels and make the most of their time in the classroom, ensure that your lessons are fun and engaging. Every once in a while, you could break from your regular lesson plan and do something completely different. May you could get your students to play a quick game of basketball or read out loud from an interesting article.
There are many ways to make your lessons more fun and engaging. You could:
- Change the way you deliver specific topics. For instance, if you are teaching about dinosaurs, you could have your students draw their dinosaurs or make a dinosaur museum where they can display their work.
- Incorporate engaging activities like creating papier-mâché volcanoes or setting up an obstacle course.
- Hold regular competitions to encourage collaborative learning.
- Use different media types like videos, podcasts, and games to make your lessons more engaging.
These are just a few examples of how you could make your lessons more fun and engaging.
5. Use Collaboration To Increase Motivation
When you assign group projects or activities, you help your students to develop critical thinking skills and learn to work in a team. At the same time, you can quickly boost your students’ motivation levels by encouraging them to work together to achieve their goals.
Working together helps students feel like they are part of a team, which gives them a sense of belonging and boosts their motivation.
There are many ways you can encourage collaboration in the classroom. For example, you could assign groups for regular exercises or get your students to form groups to complete more extended projects. You could also let your students create groups based on their interests and strengths.
Conclusion
To keep students motivated and engaged in the classroom, you must provide an engaging, interactive learning environment tailored to your specific student group. This means that you must be flexible in your approach, and you must be willing to try new things.
Keep these five strategies in mind, and you’ll have no trouble keeping your students interested, engaged, and eager to learn all semester long. Now that you know what strategies work best to keep your students motivated, it’s up to you to put them into practice!
