My students are taking a translation test. There's supposed to be 18 of then, but usually about 10 or 12 turn up. Today there were three… This leads me back to my previous thoughts on motivation and learning. The other day, my class seemed to be saying that they need the pressure of an impending test situation to motivate themselves. Today, although it's partly with a different group of people, that doesn't seem to work either.
Also, I had a conversation with a couple of students yesterday, about filesharing and video games. I was surprised to realize how much they knew, and how quickly they seemed to learn about and master things, e.g. a new game. This tells me that the correlation between level of difficulty and motivation isn't quite what I've made it out to be. Things can obviously get much more difficult in the classroom before the difficulty level is a problem. The real problem lies elsewhere.
So, the question remains – how do I, and we, tap into that source of motivation which makes it possible for them to master such complex processes in a short period of time? They're definitely capable, and it's very clear to me that they perform far below their own potential in school.
The epic struggle goes on…
Labels: learning, motivation, teaching
