As a high school teacher, I see and hear from my students how school is repetitive and boring. My fellow teachers would talk about their issues with students falling asleep in class, looking at their phones, or playing games on their laptops. It can be frustrating as a student to stay focused when you're used to the ease and fast pace of social media and the internet. So, why should we keep education the same when the world around us is changing so much every day?
Focusing Learning on the Students
Learning can become more engaging when we focus the lessons on the students. Scott Herbert, a veteran science teacher, says in his TEDx speech that educators should find out what is important to their students, and try to revolve the lessons around those aspects. Involving students in their learning not only makes it fun but creates a sense of purpose and motivation for their success.
Using Gamification and Strategies in Lessons
No doubt playing games in class would make it much more engaging than the dreaded worksheet or essay writing. The good news is games can be used to promote learning through play. Just like animals learn through play, humans can also learn to retain information this way as well (TEDx, 2018). Gamification is just that: making lessons more engaging through games.
This could be collaboration strategies like 4-corners, where each corner of the room is labeled and students move to whatever corner corresponds to their opinion on the matter (agree, disagree, etc.). Music-Pair-Share is another one where students get up and move around the room while music plays. When it stops, they pair up with the closest person and share their thoughts on the content presented. Students are moving their bodies and their minds are too occupied to pick up their phones or fall asleep!
The Value of Feedback for Students
In chapter 9 of Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology by Keller and Dempsey, one principle of motivation states that motivation to learn is promoted when learners anticipate and experience satisfying outcomes to learning a task. This can be motivated by internal and external factors. Using feedback to control outcomes for students can decrease their confidence in their abilities. Providing feedback that is congratulatory on the student's efforts in completing a challenging task will carry that confidence for them to continue to progress and learn. Now, they believe in their abilities to succeed.
Refereces:
Keller, J. M., & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, Volition, and Performance. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology(4th ed., pp. 78-84). New York, NY: Pearson.
TEDx. (2018, May 7). The Power of Gamification in Education Scott Hebert TEDxUAlberta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOssYTimQwM
ntroduction
The author of this blog post is fully validated in feeling annoyed about students not paying attention during a traditional lesson when they are in the real physical practice at school, which is how schools are traditionally run and have been run for many centuries in relation to human learning. I feel as though the traditional methods of pedagogy and standardized testing are actually setting students up for failure. You also have a point that your students are becoming more and more used to newer technologies and living in the social media realm, so perhaps it’s more and more important to try to adapt teaching to contemporary needs. As a millennial, we were one of the first generations to…
Hello! This Ted talk was pretty thought provoking. I love that the speaker is so passionate about the kids that he teaches, and it seems like he leads a pretty engaging classroom. When he spoke about the criticism that he received, I could understand that it might seem like he is handing out participation trophies. I’m curious how he gauges what the learners have retained throughout the class, but none the less- his strategies resonate with the motivation in learning principles that we read about in chapter 9.
Motivation to learn is promoted when the knowledge to be learned is perceived to be meaningfully related to one’s goals.
According to Dempsey and Reiser, “Relevance can also be achieved…
Curiosity: Learner engagement principles are at the top of my mind. In a Ted talk with Scott Herbert, he expressed deep curiosity about why students are not engaged, doing the same repetitive learning, and getting bored with the traditional teaching methods that haven't changed much. People often fear change and stick to what has been done since the beginning. Scott made a good point about his research, mentioning that when asking kids what they dislike about school, they mentioned the lack of fun, engagement, and excitement. They expressed that they don't like being taught the same way every day. To address this, Scott had to think outside the box to get them engaged, and he found that using gamification was…
I understand the frustration that both teachers and students experience with the dull nature of education. It's crucial to recognize that our world is evolving rapidly. As educators we must discover ways to make learning more interesting and relevant for our students.
One key principle of engaging learning discussed in Reiser and Dempseys book is, focusing lessons on the students themselves. By recognizing what matters to our students and integrating their interests and passions into the curriculum we can create a learning experience.
Feedback plays a role in motivating student learning. As Keller and Deimann suggest, feedback that acknowledges and celebrates students efforts in tackling tasks can enhance their confidence and motivation to progress (2018). Furthermore students who…
Shifting the focus from the teacher to the students through gamification creates an engaging learning environment where students are involved in their learning have a sense of purpose and are motivated to succeed. Engagement in educational games and quality of life in early and middle childhood has shown that gamification has a positive impact on students’ lives. In their study published in the Journal of Educational Technology Department and Exchange, Abbasi et. Al (2002) found that there are also unexpected benefits of gaming including improved hand-eye coordination, conflict resolution, spatial representation, and mood regulation. Abbasi et al. (2022) found that children involved with educational games helped them with expressive communication, mathematical, and language skills. Students benefit in unintended ways, “interactive experience,…