Oct

5

Motivate students to do their best by having them evaluate their own work and negotiate the final mark.

Filed Under motivating students | Leave a Comment

uploaded by cycle60
uploaded by cycle60
It’s always a challenge to motivate my more struggling/reluctant learners. Many of them will do the least they have to do.  They really don’t care if what they’ve done is done well. They just want it done. I’ve had kids tell me they’ve aced a test or an assignment in another class meaning that they got something like 53%.  I swear that when they hand in their work they’re thinking “OK, you wanted me to do this.  Here it is. So leave me alone.”   Fortunately there’s strategy I use that gets them to be more motivated to do their best. It’s almost too easy.

I ask them to evaluate their own work and then we negotiate the mark.  The first time I do this, they can hardly believe their good fortune.  You should see the smiles on their faces.   They’re definitely game to evaluate and negotiate the mark they get f for the assignment.

This is how it works

1 Students evaluate their work according to given criteria- rubric, checklist etc. Sometimes I ask students to develop the criteria, sometimes I develop the criteria. Sometimes we develop the criteria together.

2. After the students decide what their mark should be, I meet with them so that they can explain why they’ve given themselves that mark. If the mark seems reasonable according to the given criteria, I record the mark. I don’t sweat a few percent.  If the mark doesn’t seem reasonable according to the given criteria, then we discuss it.

This discussion is a wonderful teaching opportunity.  First, I want my students to realize that just because they want an 80% doesn’t mean that they should get it.  Believe me, more than one student has told me they gave themselves an 80 because “I want a high mark”. That’s when I have the discussion about the difference between wishes and goals. Secondly, I want my students to realize what the quality of work has to be for the mark they think they’ve earned.  Some students don’t have a realistic idea.  They think it’s enough to hand in work that’s neat. It’s interesting, when these struggling/reluctant students  know they will be  determining their mark they shoot really high,  but when they know the teacher will be determining  the mark they don’t .

3. Our discussion really is a form of negotiation.  I truly mean that. We come to a consensus about their mark. If I think the mark should be 60 and the student thinks that it should be 70, we discuss it and find a mark some where in between that we both can live with.   Sometimes students ask if they can revise their assignmens so that they can get a higher mark. I’m cool with that. Then we discuss the revision.

Now, it would be wonderful if my students weren’t motivated by marks, if they were intrinsically motivate to do whatever. But, they’ve been trained to work for marks.  Marks are all important. They work to earn marks to pass. They work to earn marks to get money from their parents. They work for marks to please me. They work for all kinds of reasons except for the love of it.  But, that’s a whole other discussion!   At least if they’re going to work for marks, they can have some say in the mark they get.  That, I find motivates my struggling/reluctant learners.

Jul

11

High cost of gas is driving students to take on-line courses

Filed Under The Way I See It | 1 Comment


Photo by Cyfer13. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0

Registration for on-line courses has increased 35% to 114% this past year.  With gas costing more than $4.00 a gallon,  more  and more students are opting  to take on-line courses to try to save money.  Even though many students prefer the campus experience,  many feel  have little choice. The cost of gasoline can be as much as 50% of the cost of tuition. Basically for some students, what it boils down to is taking  courses on-line or not at all.

While taking courses on-line  enables  students to get around the high cost of gas,  there are still some  problems.   Not  all courses are offered on-line.  Only a small fraction are and manyof those  have waiting lists.  Education institutions are having to train new staff as quickly as possible to meet the new demand.

The other problem for students hoping to take on line courses is that in some places like rural areas the high speed internet connections that on-line courses require is not available.  Then, it becomes a question of equity.

I wonder if high speed internet access is going to be considered a common good and just like access to electricity in an earlier day,  there will be a political will to make it available to everywhere everywhere. Maybe it’s a case of when big business is ready, the internet will come.  I try not to be too cynical,  but at my age it’s hard.



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