Motivate students

To increase student confidence and motivation use the following strategies:

Eliminate negativity: encourage your students to think about what they know and accept that everyone experiences at times lack of knowledge or strategies to solve problems. Do not allow generalized statements such as: “I am not good at this!” “I will never be good at this” “I will never be able to learn it”.

Be direct: especially when working with first year students warn them that if they were successful in high school that does not mean they do not work to work much harder in college. Explain them that college course level is different than high school and how that might be in your particular domain. Explain what exactly you expect. It is always good to have Student Learning Outcomes in your syllabus and explain them in detail at the first day of classes. Remind them again as semester goes on and as you introduce new topics. Student must be aware what do you expect from them, what kind of skills they must demonstrate by the time the course completes that particular topic.

Be personable: make an effort to know your students. Might be you will not learn all the names, but use all opportunity to know information related to the students in your class. A good idea is to use a short questionnaire in the first day of class by asking demographic questions. Tell them about your availability in office hours and encourage them to use the opportunity, a good idea is to come early to class so you can ask questions and chat about their interests. It makes you look more like a person and more approachable than the professor at the blackboard or behind a desk in the office. Share your out of class interests and ask them what are they interested in.

Communicate and encourage: Write notes on exams and quizzes, encourage them to come to your office if the performance is poor. Offer praise where you see success. They need your encouragement as well. If possible offer the chance to improve or retest. If too many fail a certain type of problem on an exam it is a sign most likely students did not understand the topic; give a quiz with the commonly missed problems – it is not fair to have so many fail because they did not understand the theory. Anytime the number of those who fail approaches 1/4th of class it is good to think about re-teaching the failed topic.