I personally feel that motivation is the “glue” that holds the process of successful learning together. A teacher can be as concrete or abstract as they want, or as informed by the learning theories as it gets, but if the student’s aren’t motivated to learn, they won’t. Some of the motivation factors we discussed in class can be categorized into three parts: internal affective factors, environmental factors, and cognitive factors, so as a teacher it is important to see all three when they look at a student.
Internal affective factors would include things such as beliefs, mood, interest, how much they value education, and how relevant they find the curriculum (among other factors). I feel like these factors could be the hardest to alter or be aware of, since many of them are not things that a student exhibits specifically, for example, a student is not going to say to you, I don’t find math important or relevant to my life (although they may), but they are more likely to exhibit results of these feelings – things like not putting full effort into their homework, turning in things late, not paying attention – so these are the types of things that I think can be a cue for a teacher to have concerns.
Ways to better affect a students more emotional motivators? I think the biggest thing is to get to know your students. If you know that a student doesn’t value art, tell them why it could be important, or how it could relate to them, or make it a project that could reflect its meaning. Ways to do this are limitless, but some big things that I want to tell my students, are that they don’t have to fit any labels. I feel like there are many students who don’t think they are “good” at art because there is someone better than them, or because they weren’t happy with something they created, or because somewhere in life, someone told them one of their creations was bad. I want to explain to them that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at a skill, so they should still be learning and improving. I also want to explain that everyone has different interpretations of what “good” art is. I want to know if my students value recreating something perfectly, or do they want to explore their creativity, even if it’s not realistic, or perfectly executed. I want to know what aspects of art they value, and which ones they don’t – what hobbies they have, and how those can inspire them in their artwork.
I also want to address how art is fruitful to their learning and how it is relevant to them – how it is everywhere, how they can learn from it, how it will make everything from advertisements to movies, to the museum of modern art hold much more weight than the students can realize. I think it would be really cool, one of the first days of class, to just have everyone meet in groups (or in one large group depending on how comfortable the students are with each other) and just have a sort of Socratic seminar that I could facilitate with questions. Ones off-hand that I can think of would be things like:
In what ways do you think art is important?
How has art influenced the way you view things?
Why or why not do you like art?
What do you want out of this class?
What types of art/periods of art do you want to explore?
I really want to know where my students are coming from so I can address or alter their motivation towards the subject accordingly.
The Other motivation factors that I will have to address as a teacher will be a student’s environmental factors. To me, these seem to be less of a challenge since school is a controllable environment. Aspects such as distractions, available support, peers, presentation of materials and classroom, teacher expectancy and a student’s home life would fall under the category of environmental factors.
I want to start with external motivation factors created by your own classroom, since your room is the first thing you have to prepare when teaching. A big thing for me when I was a student, and especially in an art room, is to make your classroom a haven for kids – stark walls and rows of desks doesn’t exactly say that you are invested in inspiring your kids. I think your room should be decorated, for art, things like a color wheel, basic components of composition, and maybe some example pieces of work can go a long way in the classroom. It brings some life into the room, and kids are literally surrounded by the subject when they enter. However, if a room is over-decorated or cluttered with irrelevant crap, kids can become distracted or feel stressed. I used to have a social studies teacher who was a huge pack rat and I had the hardest time focusing in his room because I felt cluttered and stressed.
I also think that kids should work at tables, not desks. For art I don’t really have a choice because sparseness of materials and sheer size of projects usually require kids to have to share and work at big tables. But creativity is something that sometimes needs nurturing, and I think it is important for kids to sit at tables, have time to bounce ideas off each other and critique each other’s work. Also, since art is usually skill-based, a more knowledgeable peer is essential! One teacher to 20 students means I will not be everywhere at once; I know when I was a student it was painfully difficult to get the teacher’s attention in art classes because everyone had their own specific questions they needed help with. If kids are in groups, they will turn to each other first for answers, and if there is no one knowledgeable on the subject, than I can step in. Obviously as a teacher it is my duty to always be available to answer questions and support my students, whether that means coming in extra before or after school so kids can get extra help or finish projects.
Presentation in the classroom will often be difficult I think, since most of what I will be presenting will be demonstrations of techniques. I know that I will want the kids to gather around and not remain at their tables so that they will pay attention better. I also want to put serious thought into each activity/ lesson plan that I create. Will this be something that is engaging to the student? Is it within their ZPD? (this is especially essential because if something is too hard, they will get frustrated and give up, but if it is too easy, they will finish early and be bored and probably get off task). Obviously I will have a set curriculum, but within that I need to make sure that what I am teaching is properly scaffolded – for example, if I ask a student to do a drawing using primary colors, I better have already checked their understanding/schemas of what primary colors are so they can be successful. The activities also need to be age appropriate; having a kindergartner cut and paste would probably be more appropriate than having a senior in high school do it. And in the same way, you wouldn’t have a second grader soldering metal or working with serious chemicals and complex processes.
I think another big thing I want to address with my students is a level of comfort they need to have with each other. Art is a very personal thing, a person’s work is a reflection of their thoughts and emotions. If students don’t feel comfortable with each other, it will be hard for them to want to fully express themselves and want to expose themselves in front of their peers. We will probably have a serious discussion about respect the first week of classes so that kids can feel open to fully express themselves and not feel judged in the classroom. For some students, the medium may be their only way of expression, so I don’t want anyone belittling another’s work/ ideas.
The last environmental motivation factor that I want to address is the student’s home life. If a child does not seem motivated, interested, or dedicated, I would first talk to the student and try to figure out where they are coming from – what is stopping them from putting their best foot forward, and where we can make things better – but if that still does not help the student improve, I would turn to their home life. Maybe the parents think that art is a waste of time for their child to be taking, or maybe the student doesn’t have the workspace/ time at home to put into their homework. I would have to try and work with the parents to see how we can be a support group to that student, and what we could do to make the student want to succeed.
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