Welcome to the Master Teacher Video Tape Presentation on Motivating Students to Want
to Learn.
This is Part 1, Before Students Will Learn, the first part of our four-part video series
on motivation.
Part 2 explores using the secondary needs to arouse interest in learning.
Part 3 shows you how to use nine powerful motivators in the classroom.
And Part 4 outlines teaching strategies and techniques that encourage learning.
Perhaps one of the oldest questions in teaching is, how can I make my students learn?
The truth is, you can't.
No one can make a student learn.
But you can help your students want to learn.
If they want to learn, chances are they will try.
And if they try to learn, the chances are great that they will learn.
Yet, it's difficult to get students to try.
That's where motivation comes in.
Our goal in this series is to impart a basic, but absolutely necessary understanding of
human motivation and make clear our responsibility as teachers to use this knowledge in encouraging
students to want to learn.
In this first video tape of our four-part series, we will do four things.
First, we will define motivation.
Second, we will review the primary needs of human beings.
Then, we will point out how unmet primary needs can be recognized.
And last, we will suggest what you might do about primary needs of students at school.
Of course, you can review this video lesson several times until you've mastered the information.
We recommend that you do.
Most of us have students in our classes who are highly motivated.
Some of our students are motivated most of the time.
And of course, we have some who seem unmotivated.
They are underachievers.
These underachievers may have negative attitudes or poor self-images.
They may lack confidence or show little ambition.
It is tempting to conclude that these students are doomed to failure and that nothing we
do will motivate them.
But if we give up on them, all is lost.
We certainly won't feel successful.
We'll feel guilty.
And if we give our attention only to the students who are motivated to learn, we'll do so with
the knowledge that many of these students could learn without our help.
Think of it this way.
Every student is motivated.
It's just that some aren't motivated to learn what we want them to learn.
They may only be motivated to drive cars, watch TV, or find a boyfriend or girlfriend.
But they are motivated.
Keep in mind that there are instances in the school when we are highly successful in motivating
students to want to learn all there is to know about a subject.
Because so many students are extremely motivated on the playing field, let's take athletics
as an example.
The student athlete knows without question that the coach wants him or her to be a winner.
This knowledge helps motivate the student to reach his or her full potential.
We should express no less in our own classroom.
Helping every student into an academic winner is a large part of our responsibility.
And that means knowing our students individually, understanding their strengths and weaknesses,
and finding keys which can help us motivate them toward learning.
What is motivation anyway?
What do we mean when we say someone is motivated?
What do we mean when we say someone is not motivated?
Motivation is a state of need or desire that causes a person to do something that will
satisfy the need or desire that he or she feels.
Once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivating force as long as it remains satisfied.
But as soon as the need or desire is not satisfied, it becomes a motivating force once again.
We can use motivation to meet our educational objectives by helping students fulfill their
needs and desires.
We are all born with certain primary physiological needs.
They are unlearned.
They cannot be ignored, discounted, or overlooked.
These primary needs are hunger, thirst, sex, air, rest, escape from pain, and elimination
of waste.
These needs are held in varying degrees by the highly motivated and those who are not
motivated at all.
They affect the motivation of all students at various times, places, and situations.
When we witness a motivational problem, we should look to the primary needs first.
Until these primary needs are satisfied, a student is unlikely to be interested in learning
anything.
And unless we are aware of these seven primary needs, we can make professional errors, which
will affect our relationships with students and our ability to motivate them to want to
learn.
There are countless reasons why students come to school hungry, and many do.
Never assume that every student who lives in an expensive home has a parent who gets
up to prepare breakfast.
Likewise, family financial problems or spending lunch money on something else may be the cause
of a student's hunger.
The predominant causes of hunger may be inadequate diet and dieting to lose weight.
Millions of people in this country fail to eat adequately for a wide variety of reasons,
and this can alter their behavior.
Watch students who come to school upset or get irritable or misbehave at about 10 a.m.
Proper eating fosters good behavior and learning.
Empty stomachs do not.
And take note, if you're one of those teachers who doesn't eat breakfast, grabs nothing
but a donut and a soft drink, or tries to make it on coffee until noon, watch yourself.
You may be the motivational problem in your classroom.
Thirst.
A thirsty student may also be unable to concentrate in the classroom.
Sometimes this need is not being completely satisfied because of a health problem that
we and even the student are unaware of.
For example, undiagnosed diabetes may cause continual thirst.
Know too that this need may be unsatisfied because a student has a drug or alcohol problem.
If we fail to permit students to get a drink of water when they're actually thirsty, their
energy will be focused on their thirst, not on our instruction.
We cannot always find ways to help a student satisfy his or her hunger and thirst.
Yet there are some definite actions that are always appropriate.
One, look for evidence that these two needs are not being met before you arrive at other
judgments about what is causing a misbehavior.
Two, express concern and understanding.
Talk to the student and the parents, if necessary, about the importance of the student having
something to eat before he or she comes to your classroom.
Three, do not cause a student to miss lunch or to go without a drink of water.
Your classroom rules should be flexible enough to allow students to satisfy these needs.
Four, take steps to make certain the student has a lunch ticket and breakfast at school
if such a program is available.
John, Kaylee, can I have your lunch?
I forgot it today.
Okay, well we don't want you to go hungry here, so go ahead and give me this for dinner.
Show this to the lunch lady, okay?
Thank you.
Okay.
Fancy.
Five, refer the student to a counselor, social worker, nurse, or an agency where he or she
may be able to get help for problems related to these needs.
Come on, I'll write you a pass.
Sex.
The third primary need is sex.
Perhaps a better term to use is sexuality.
This need causes a person to strive toward a sexual identity and to form male and female
friendships and relationships.
Make no mistake, sexuality is a powerful motivator.
Sex is revealed frequently as a primary need which results in misbehavior.
There are the typical boy-girl problems as well as girl-girl and boy-boy friendship problems
we see every day.
Also, difficulties caused by not being included in the group and being overdeveloped or underdeveloped
physically are very real problems students experience which cause unacceptable behavior.
Sexual problems also arise due to how students feel about adults of the opposite sex.
Likewise, a student may be in love with the teacher.
These are all sexual needs and they are basic needs which cause students to behave well
as well as misbehave.
As teachers, we must work to be certain that the relationships among students in our classrooms
do not contribute to the failure to meet this primary need.
When the need for sexuality is met, it can be a positive force.
Students who are comfortable with their identities and who have worked out their relationships
are happier students.
They are also more cooperative and more willing to work with others.
In the classroom, we can take steps to help students meet this sexuality need.
One, accept each student in your classroom.
Make sure you don't add to the problem by rejecting any student.
If you reject a student, he or she may reject school and learning.
Two, work to make the psychological climate in your classroom warm and friendly.
Talk to your class about the importance of friendships and how one develops friendships
and relationships.
Three, check to see if a student seems to be a loner in the class, in the lunchroom,
or on the playground.
If so, try to help him or her find a friend.
Four, make a place for every student in your class so that none are excluded by other students.
Take an occasional brief survey asking each student to list his or her friends, and then
rearrange your instructional groups so that all of your students get to know each other
well.
Five, be aware that the student who seems to be a pest or an attention getter may be
exhibiting this behavior in an attempt to form a relationship with you or with another
student.
Air.
The fact that schools have the highest population density per square foot is a factor when it
comes to the primary need for air.
Most of us have studied the impact of the 18-inch personal zone and its effects upon
people.
However large numbers of people are put together in a confined space, behavior will be altered.
In the classroom or the halls, it is very difficult for a student to find space or privacy
or to be alone.
Likewise, never forget that constant failure or continuous trouble with peers can make
a classroom psychologically unsafe for some students.
This can affect their willingness to participate, which in turn affects both behavior and learning.
A privacy corner has worked well for many teachers.
One, ask your students on occasion if they are comfortable.
Two, make certain that the temperature in your classroom is agreeable and the ventilation
is adequate and that your room smells fresh and clean each day.
Three, vary learning activities by rearranging the way groups are seated or moving them to
different parts of the room.
A special seating arrangement can prove to be very motivational.
We all know that some students do not do their best when seated too close to certain classmates.
Four, avoid discipline which restricts a student to his or her desk, eliminates recess, or
eliminates physical activity periods.
Five, refer the student who appears to have a health problem to the school nurse.
Six, ask your students, social worker, or other appropriate agency where he or she may
receive help.
Getting the proper amount of rest is essential to success in the classroom.
But sometimes the fact that this need is not being met is not recognized by either the
teacher or the student.
We should explore this need when a student shows lack of interest, doesn't complete
homework assignments, or performs poorly in class.
We may ask ourselves, is the student working late or being kept up by unsettling problems
at home?
Does the student have an illness or insomnia?
Rest from work is also essential.
If we give lots of homework or make students stay in and work during recess or after school,
the primary need for rest from work may affect our efforts to motivate effectively.
When we believe the need for rest is not being met, our actions should address the problem
of rest and not the character of the student.
For instance, belittling a student who sleeps in our classroom is not really correcting
the problem of rest.
Here are some ways to ensure that a student's need for rest is being met.
One, arrange lessons so that learning activities requiring high concentration are alternated
with less demanding activities.
Two, build recreational breaks into your instruction.
Give students a few moments to relax and get their second wind.
Three, make certain that the academic demands of homework or lesson completion are not contributing
to the problem.
And four, talk with the student and his or her parents if necessary.
Make them aware of how the lack of rest is interfering with the student's academic performance.
For some people, escaping pain is the strongest force in their lives.
Much of the advertising in our society is based on appealing to the desire of people
to escape pain, and that advertising is not limited to painkillers like aspirin.
It is used to promote alcoholic beverages and other products as a way to escape to the
good life.
Drug and alcohol abuse in our society are symptoms of our need to escape pain.
The need to escape pain is very powerful, and we should remember that it is not only
a need to escape from a state of pain to a state of pleasure, it is also a need to escape
to a situation of less pain.
We constantly see this need to escape from pain in discipline problems in our classroom.
A student who feels he or she is stupid or unprepared for a class may cause a disruption
just to escape the pain of being pointed out as someone who doesn't know the academic
material.
It may get a student in big trouble to refuse to work, talk back to a teacher, or cause
disruption.
Yet, as far as the student is concerned, these acts will not be nearly as painful as classmates
discussing the fact that he or she is dumb and can't do the work.
Student absenteeism is often a form of escaping pain.
The student would prefer the punishment for skipping school to the pain of the classroom.
Look closely at those students who are rejecting us by refusing to learn.
How many are trying to escape the pain of failure?
After all, learning is not easy, but it can be rewarding and satisfying.
To help students fulfill this need, there are several actions that are essential on
our part.
These are, one, recognize it is painful for a student to find no success in school, and
then help the student be successful.
The more prepared you are, the better you'll be able to do on it.
Then you'll feel good about your grade.
Two, recognize that when a student is in physical or psychological pain, all of his or her energy
may be concentrated on the pain rather than on academic learning.
Lindsay, what's the matter?
I'm not feeling very well.
Three, realize that you are important to each of your students, and each of them should
be important to you as well.
You are their advocate, their partners in learning, and partners do not abandon one
another in times of hurt.
Four, when necessary, discipline students in ways that show your love and concern, not
your dislike and rejection.
What do you think we ought to do about it?
Having me have five times to get up, and then up.
Five, refer for counseling and other assistance any student who you feel is experiencing too
much failure.
As teachers, we need to recognize that when it comes to elimination of waste, every student
is physically different.
When this need is unmet, it can affect productivity in the classroom, yet our practices may not
indicate that we understand students in this regard.
For instance, some students may be too shy to ask to leave the classroom during class,
and they won't use restrooms in the presence of other students.
A bully or a gang may be preventing some students from using restrooms during passing periods.
That is why we need to know both the student and the school when it comes to meeting this
primary need.
We can also make sure that our rules for restroom use are very liberal, and we can arrange for
frequent checking to ensure that restrooms are safe for students.
These are the seven primary needs.
Until they are met, the secondary needs covered in the second part of the video series cannot
and will not receive much attention.
This is vital because it is the secondary needs that motivate students to reach for
goals.
It is sometimes the case that a student may have several primary needs that are not being
met.
For example, a sexuality problem, a failure in a relationship may also cause a student
to lose sleep.
Then, he or she arises late in the morning and misses breakfast.
As a result, the student arrives at school tired, hungry, and still preoccupied with
the relationship.
It is not likely that this student will have a strong desire to learn in the classroom.
When we see such situations, we need to identify all of the problems.
Then, we should concentrate on the need that has the best possibility of being fulfilled.
For instance, sexuality may be the first need we should consider.
Remember, regardless of the unfulfilled need, we must make some effort to help the student
with his or her problem.
Let me quickly review these primary physiological unlearned needs which are within us all, students
and teacher alike.
Hunger, thirst, sex, air, rest, escape from pain, and elimination of waste.
When a student is having a motivation problem at school, we must first identify his or her
unmet primary needs.
And although we may not always be able to help fulfill them, we must try.
Most importantly, we can show that we are sensitive to student needs and that we understand
these needs.
We can be the point of reference for getting a student help.
Often, it is the failure to fulfill the primary needs that keep the vast majority of our motivational
efforts from being successful.
This is why we need counselors, principals, nurses, social workers, and others who can
help us help students.
Remember the adage, to teach children we must know them?
If we know children, we will put their needs first, never sidestepping our responsibility
to help them to the best of our ability.
Motivating teaching practices are shared with you in part two, part three, and part four
of this video series.
Part two explores using the secondary needs to arouse interest in learning.
Part three shows you how to use nine powerful motivators in the classroom.
Part four outlines teaching strategies and techniques that encourage learning.
Yet the primary needs come first, and they must be understood, studied, and dealt with
if a teacher expects to motivate students successfully.
The Master Teacher has many resources and services that can help teachers in the classroom.
You may secure a copy of our catalog and additional information about Master Teacher resources
by writing The Master Teacher, Leadership Lane, Post Office Box 1207, Manhattan, Kansas 66502,
or calling 1-800-669-9633.