Dear All,

Heartfelt thanks to all our contributors. We received  some daily teaching challenges that we meet in class in response to our “Challenges  and Learning Together” blog post, ranging from mobile-phone over use,  need to improve students’ grammar , and managing the difficulty level of teaching materials according to student profile . But the most frequently suggested challenge was motivating the students.

One of the responses reported:

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“In regards to the classroom experience, I felt most challenged by the range of student profiles in my class. The two profiles that conflicted were:

1) Students in their second year at Scola who were generally demoralized and under-motivated, and

2) Direct entry students who were highly focused and highly motivated.

The first group were routinely unfocused, tardy, weary upon arrival, less responsive, less attentive and more difficult to engage, which caused disruptions for the rest of us. The second group had to endure the disruptions and the problems caused by this attitude and behaviour.  The first group is higher needs in many respects and would be better served by being taught with an approach that specifically considers these needs.  I felt that the students in the second group were short-changed because of the time and energy that had to go into classroom management.  I found much of my energy going into classroom management and negotiating between these two sets of student profile needs”

We would like to dedicate all our collective efforts to solving the issue of lack of motivation that we face in class at times. Let’s join our forces and gather ideas and teaching suggestions to overcome the challenge of motivation.

How can we motivate the students if; (1) students profiles in the class display variety, (2) there are mixed ability students in our class, (3) we are teaching 5 hours in a row with the same class, (3) logistics of the class is not ideal (i.e. class without windows, not spacious…etc.), (4) students are bored easily ?

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Looking forward to learning together…