The discussion of motivation is such a critical component in learning. I truly believe that you excel in things that you are engaged with. A big question teachers face is “How do I make my classes engaging?” We can get a head start on answering this question if we think about what contributes to the student’s motivation to engage with the lecture. I am a big fan of frameworks like these (and having an interesting mnemonic is a great plus)

As teachers I think we should take particular focus on the last component, Caring. We can have a direct impact on student performance by being caring. Isn’t it novel to think that you can improve the effectiveness of your lecture by just being suportive?

With the model you mentioned, we should look at what components are easy to control and which components we have less control over, as students. We should recognize we can make a huge impact on a student’s motivation.

This is such a novel way to teach research ethics! I too am curious about the results. I think this speaks volumes about the difference between, I guess, “knowing” something and “understanding” something. People can spend time just memorizing all the different regulations and rules, or they can experience it themselves. Similar to the React to the Past that was referenced in one of the readings.

I truly think that is a major goal for teachers moving forward. Expressing not just the facts, but the more complex nuances that can only be experienced by connecting to it personally. We can say “It’s important for subjects to give their consent” or we can have students experince the feeling of reading a research plan and consenting to it.

I think you discussed some valid points. Yes, the fields and disciplines are different, surely a discussion-oriented social science class is different with a lecture-oriented statics class. And as you discussed interaction with environment and teacher, and motivating students can still play an important role regardless of context, though its format might be different. I think we can not move from lecture and might be necessary for many subject matters, but what we can do is to think about teacher as facilitator, as a member of learning community, granting that I think we may move forward to reshaping even our lecture-oriented class in a way that students’ learning became its priority.

I do think that the whole argument about “To Ban or Not To Ban” is missing the critical issue at hand. I think that “Third Way” really hits the nail on the head. If a class is engaging in the first place, then there wouldn’t be issues of distractions, of whatever kind, in the classroom. Obviously, we should safeguard against students distracting other students, but do we have a responsibility to not allow students to distract themselves?

I don’t think it is the teacher’s responsibility to “demand” the attention of students. As I said above, we should make sure they don’t distract other students. However, if we force information to unwilling students, then I’m not surprised that we lose their focus. If a lecture is not interesting enough to keep your attention, then focus on improving the lecture! I think the challenge is that with the introduction of laptops and phones, teachers are now asked to raise the engagement factor as well. And in that arms race, it is much more difficult to make lectures engaging than it is to make an app more distracting.

So in that sense, we should all be working on learning how to teach in an engaging manner. Perhaps then, we will looking at the teacher rather than the laptop in front of us.

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First, great hook with the picture totally got my attention! haha. Your comparison of a distraction is a great one specially since this may only come to mind to a female as we have had to deal with those kind of things. Also, universities are recognizing more learning by doing and as a summer programs coordinator for summer camps here at VT. We exposed high school students to all 8 colleges and all had programming that was mainly hands on. The few that were a lecture styles we immediately saw their focus decrease. Even though it is clear to all the 8 colleges here at VT that hands on learning is essential, I am sure they all have at least a couple of lecture classes. So this leads me to the conclusion, that people are aware of the issues with lecture classes but they still will continue to have them.

Lehi – so funny! But I agree! We have a fish tank in my lab, and I often stare at it when I get overly stressed (or bored).

You addressed the important issue of our approach to assessment and emphasis on teaching to test. I believe the concern is valid to some extent in higher education as well. Despite all findings from learning science and some new revolutionary frameworks, such as liberatory perspective, the conventional approach towards teaching and assessment has not been changed significantly in many institutions.
Lack of attention to different ways students perceive information, lack of engagement within community, classroom and beyond, lack of attention to the notion of uncertainty and important of real world cases, and finally lack of attention to the role of student as an agent in the process of learning, might be just some initial thoughts which might open the dialogue to explore the question you posed at the end.

Hey Luisa, I enjoyed your post—this issue is important to me too. I understood Obama to be saying that, despite what typically happens (kids whose parents went to college, those kids tend to complete college too), is no longer happening. Suggesting there might be a problem that is bigger than the individuals, that something in the structure of education is making students feel less engaged in learning. However, I also think that privilege, mostly a lack of awareness of one’s privilege, can certainly contribute to this too. I have always wondered why students would take out loans, or pay some other way, for classes and then loathe every second of it.

I enjoyed reading your blog post. I think you have accurately depicted what happens in a classroom. I think finding a balance that both engages students and promotes learning can be difficult. I think we are moving in a direction, in the United States, that requires more peer-to-peer engagement.

I thought this was a very interesting way to think about it. When I think of these type of lecture halls, I think of how John Boyer transforms his class into an innovative, campy, yet intoxicating class. I learned so much in his class, because he always kept me engaged. I think that you hint at the role of technology playing a bigger role in classrooms to help the students engage with the material, and asking them what they want is key to any class in my opinion. Thanks for this!