EDUCATION TODAY-4.

the old canard-YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER BUT YOU CANNOT MAKE HIM DRINK- is as true a thing as you can say when it comes to motivating students-motivation comes from within- within the individual student- and motivating any single student is a tricky business-much less an entire class of students- there are many factors to consider- class size the age level-are two important ones-but the main thing is to recognize that motivation will ultimately be up to the students themselves-you can lead them to water etc- i have a few suggestions along the lines i have mentioned- one is to make the course work challenging- as a student reaches beyond his self-imposed limits he begins to experience the excitement of discovery-the discovery that he actually can go beyond his ideas of what he is capable of achieving-there is no way to achieve this other than to make the work challenging-giving challenging assignments that give the student a chance to show what he or she can do- second the course work and assignments must be relevant-they must see its purpose- in and of itself- but also in their future- one assignment i gave fit the bill pretty well- i had the students oragnize themselves in to groups and then asked them to come up with a business plan to create a new chain of coffee shops- to compete with Starbucks etc- the project invoved design-accounting-management- advertising and marketing-in an assignmant of this kind each student can find their niche- and the creativity it inspires is both challenging and stimulating- it answers the basic question- how would i do it better- it is a good idea to make the assignment a competition- competition is a good thing and there should be more of it in schools- avoiding competitions because of self esteem issues or anything else is a big mistake- the students know that competition brings out the best in them-and it is also a source of motivation too-the students always know who did the best work on an assignment- they often know before the teacher does-but the teacher must be fair in every way- especially the criteria they create to assess the work- but the rules and guidelines too- this must be in writing- the project should not be given until there is a complete rubric explaining every facet of the assignment and until most of the questions from the students have been answered-students are self motivated that is the secret but motivation can be engendered by the teacher if he thinks about it-in a creative way.The most motivated students i ever taught were the poorest students i ever taught-they were from south africa mostly the townships- they came to school motivated- believing in and ready to work for a better life through education- i almost never had a problem with students handing in assignments late or doing their work at a sub-standard level- they were always willing to go the extra mile- another exapmle of an assignment that helps to motivatre students and one i used in South africa with the students i mentioned was to have them do a budget ananlysis for the South Afican government-they would take a 500 billion rand budget and decide to distribute it in the following areas: EDUCATION,HEALTH CARE,DEFENSE,INFRASTRUCTURE,AND SPORTS AND RECREATION-the students loved this assignment- it was both relecvant and a challenge- it helped them see how difficult leadership is- especially the responsibiltiy to spend money wisely- and to know that you cannot please everyone-they took it very seriously and almost everyone of them did stellar work- they brought out points i had never dreamed of-and they made decisions that were both practical and visionary- i loved reading this assignment because i learned so much about each individual by reading their assignment-and getting to know theie values and their reasoning-I was invariably proud of my students when they tackled this assignment effectively.