April 1, 2013

Motivating students to learn

Engaging students

Students are more invested in the learning process when they have some sense of control, and when they see ways they can directly apply what they learn to their daily lives or career goals. According to the authors of a literature review in the journal Computers & Education, research demonstrates the “need to offer complex and authentic activities that engage the learner in decisionmaking and problem solving that is relevant to their real world situations.”¹³

UW faculty use a variety of methods to cultivate buy-in and motivate students, and often employ technologies to help.

• Using examples from current news: “I use a lot of economics examples straight from the news in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, and ask students to use classroom concepts in analyzing the articles.” — Haideh SalehiEsfahani, Senior Lecturer, Economics, UW Seattle
• Linking course content to online videos: “I like the ability of Canvas and Blackboard to link students instantly to short audiovisual texts (many on YouTube) that become part of course materials. I have given assignments involving academic writing and popular cultural texts; working with both, the students are enthusiastic.” — Claudia Gorbman, Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Tacoma
• Asking students to create exam questions and answer keys: “Allowing students to learn from each other is essential to the learning process. It takes work to set this up, but once it happens students are engaged and it saves time. One example is having students come up with exam questions and create an answer key. They can post these online to help others study, and online discussions can emerge.” — Hedwig Lee, Assistant Professor, Sociology, UW Seattle
• Students turning science into stories for the public: “I ask students to develop a case study on some conservation issue, which includes a literature review of the dimensions of the problem and attempts to solve the problem. Then I ask them to develop a 300-word ‘story’ about their case, to link that story to images in a compelling way, and then publish their ‘conservation story’ in any of a number of outlets, often a class website or blog, but many also choose YouTube (student project on YouTube). What I like about this assignment is that students have to think about how to make a compelling story that inspires other people, drawing from a strong foundation of good research. We are so in need of good conservation stories!” — Martha Groom, Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell; Adjunct Professor, Biology, UW Seattle

• Live polling using clickers: “There are lots of interesting things that you can do with clickers¹⁴ that go beyond just multiple choice answers. Using the feature ‘moment to moment 1 to 5’ in TurningPoint clicker software, I poll students while they watch public service announcements created by NGOs. They judge where the announcement falls on a 1 to 5 scale ranging from pure scientific fact to pure rhetoric. The end product is a line graph of all the students’ responses. We then compare the peaks and valleys to the corresponding points in the video and discuss how a consumer of information can discern the difference between fact and rhetoric and how these judgments affect the way people make decisions.” — Lekelia (Kiki) Jenkins, Assistant Professor, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, UW Seattle

UW students respond well to efforts to keep them engaged with the material and with each other. “Having clicker questions is engaging. It keeps me more attentive,” says” Xinia Ebbay, a junior in Pre-Nursing. Brian Perez, a senior in Pre-Nursing, agrees, “It’s like a mini-quiz every day; you’re more motivated to keep up with the class reading.

Encouraging metacognition to deepen learning

Reflection is another way to motivate students. Research shows that when students reflect on their learning— that is, engage in metacognition—their learning deepens and their thinking becomes more sophisticated. Instructors who engage students in complex and authentic activities can also “enable them to reflect deeply on both their learning processes and outcomes, which subsequently drive them towards metacognitive thinking and self-learning,” according to authors of an article in Computers & Education, who add that metacognitive thinking is associated with enhanced ability to transfer knowledge to new situations.¹⁵ Others note that metacognition is a key component of critical thinking.¹⁶ The authors of an article in Internet and Higher Education argue,“Metacognition must go beyond simply thinking about thinking…[to] include self-corrective strategies.”¹⁷

Guiding reflection and metacognition means asking students to consider questions such as: How did they arrive at an idea? How has their thinking changed? What has been their learning process, and what might they do next time?¹⁸ Not all students do this or know how. Instructors can help by providing opportunities for self-reflection and clear prompts, such as those Principal Lecturer Mary Pat Wenderoth uses when she asks biology students to write learning paragraphs (shown below and in a video produced by the Office of the Provost’s 2y2d Initiative).

Many UW instructors use a variety of tasks and technologies to create opportunities for students, individually or in groups, to reflect at the assignment or course level.

• Including reflection as part of the assignment: “When students write papers, I have them answer a series of questions that have them reflect on what they learned and the challenges they encountered in writing the paper.” — Heidi Stahl, UW-IT Web Information Specialist, who has taught in various settings, including Tufts University
• Creating ePortfolios¹⁹ to reflect on course learning: “All of my courses include an ePortfolio, in which students write a reflective, framing essay about their learning, citing evidence in their artifacts.” — David Goldstein, Director, UW Bothell Teaching and Learning Center; Senior Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
• Brainstorming as a group, on (virtual) whiteboards: “At a couple of points in the course, and especially at the end, I have the students brainstorm what they have learned about several big picture topics. My goal is partially to help them connect the very technical, detailoriented work we’ve been doing with larger pedagogical objectives, and partially to have them reflect on what they have learned. When I do this in a blended in-person/online course, I have a virtual whiteboard open and use it to write down the brainstormed ideas.” — Emily M. Bender, Associate Professor, Linguistics, UW Seattle
• Building different levels of reflection into the course design: “I support reflection on three levels. In my most recent class, I termed these micro-reflection, meso-reflection, and macro-reflection. For microreflection, I had students fill out a feedback form at the end of the class session that asked them to either (a) describe rewarding, frustrating, surprising, and ‘aha’ moments during the class session or (b) draw a picture of their learning during the class session. I turned these forms over to a student in the class who reviewed them and brought themes back to the class during the next session. For meso-reflection, I invited students to create ‘reflection boundary objects,’ which I defined as text, graphics, sound, art, etc., that provided (a) evidence of the students’ personal reflection and (b) had the capacity to entice the other students in the class to reflect as well. For macro-reflection, I had students complete a final reflective activity at the end of the term—they had to create a pre-recorded presentation in which they made an argument for how their class experiences had prepared them for their future.” — Jennifer Turns, Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, UW Seattle

By focusing on motivation, engagement, and reflective metacognitive skills, faculty can help gradually build student understanding and teach students to become increasingly autonomous, self-directed, lifelong learners.

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how students learn and how technology helps.

Additional resources for teaching with technology.

For a full list of referenced works, click here.