Motivation is one of the key factors that empowers or inhibits students to engage in or disassociate from the learning process. We, as higher education professors not only have to deliver quality subject content, but be motivational triggers for our students. We prepare classes, call attendance, design projects, manage classrooms, create assignments, deliver lessons and attend workshops, but a professor is more than that. Professors are people who are aware of students’ uniqueness: their goals, their attitudes toward objectives, their persistence, their ambition, in other words, their motivational level.We know that motivation is not learned in books nor can it be generated in a blink of an eye. We cannot come to class with a big smile and proclaim: You are the best! Such behavior will create embarrassment and loss of credibility.
To implement motivational techniques, we have to remember that our students are adult learners and as such they are motivated not only with encouraging words but by other key factors. First, we have to be able to connect the classroom teachings with their reality. They have to be capable of seeing a connection between what is being taught in the classroom and their real world whether this world is in the present or in the distant future. Eliciting questions is a good approach to establishing connections. For instance, my classes have students from different majors and most of their questions are: “My major is Ultra Sound, what I am going to do with ‘data’ or why do I need to know what ‘data’ is?” Or “My major is Radiology, when am I going to use ‘input devices’?” Or “My major is Business Administration, when am I going to use ‘IP addresses?” These questions offer a great opportunity for us to link the classroom to their expectations. I use practical examples to answer these questions.
