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Teaching award winners
sustain
student enthusiasm for learning
This issue of the Teaching Times
features interviews with the 2003 winners of major University of Pittsburgh
teaching awards—five recipients of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching
Award and two recipients of the College of Arts and Sciences Bellet
Teaching Excellence Award. These seven faculty members represent diverse
schools and departments. Nevertheless, each has insights to share with
faculty across the University, regardless of discipline, physical setting,
or student population.
A commonality evident in the approaches of these faculty members is
an unflagging determination to sustain student motivation for learning.
They find ways for students to take the initiative to actively engage
with content, not only to facilitate comprehension and retention of
information, but, more importantly, to acquire higher level thinking
skills. Each is concerned that students learn how to think critically,
solve problems, and look at the course content from multiple perspectives.
They aspire for their students to become self-directed learners who
maintain a lifetime habit of critical inquiry.
Motivation is an important determiner of the learner’s active involvement
with learning, which facilitates mental deep processing of information.
“Instructors know that student learning and memory are closely tied
to motivation. Students will learn what they want to learn and will
have great difficulty learning material that does not interest them”
(McKeachie, 349).
John Keller, an instructional researcher, used a number of learning
theories to create a classic instructional design model for motivation,
known as the ARCS Model. The four components, which are intended to
be used in conjunction with other instructional models and strategies,
are Attention, Confidence, Relevance, and Satisfaction. Explained below,
these components of the ARCS Model are evident throughout the interviews
with University teaching award winners in this issue:
Attention
- Arouse interest by stimulating the senses through the use of novel,
surprising, incongruous and uncertain events.
- Stimulate inquiry arousal by posing or having the learner generate
questions or a problem to solve.
- Maintain interest by varying instructional strategies.
Relevance
- Connect course content to learners’ previous experiences by using
concrete language and providing real-world examples and concepts.
(Early on, use informal assessments to discover what interests and
knowledge students are bringing to the course.)
- Present goal orienting statements and objectives in the syllabus
and in class discussions.
- Provide students with a context for the course information, explaining
how knowledge is necessary for applications in other courses, future
employment, or everyday life.
- Share personal research interests that merge with course content.
Confidence
- Communicate goals that are challenging but that allow for success
under both learning and assessment conditions.
- Clarify your expectations for students. Let students know what specific
steps they can take to succeed in the course. Break down tasks and
present performance requirements and evaluation criteria to guide
students in measuring their progress throughout the learning process.
- Provide prompt, directive, and supportive feedback through homework
and informal assessment, explaining why a response is “wrong,” and
providing means of extra learning support, if necessary.
- Show that the students’ efforts directly influence their performance.
- Ask for feedback from students about the course, demonstrating your
interest in their learning and letting them know that they can help
shape the course in ways that help them to achieve learning goals.
Satisfaction
- Provide opportunities to use newly acquired knowledge or skills
for problem-solving in a real or simulated setting.
- Provide intrinsic (e.g. sense of achievement) and extrinsic (e.g.
grade) rewards as reinforcements that will sustain the desired behavior.
- Maintain consistent standards and consequences for accomplishments.
- Help students become reflective about how they can continue to learn
beyond the classroom.
Sources:
Keller, J.M. (1983). “Motivational Design of Instruction.”
In C. Reigeluth (ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models:
An Overview of Their Current Status. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum,
1983.
McKeachie, Wilbur J., Teaching Tips: Strategies,
Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. D.C.
Heath and Co, 1994.
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