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VOLUME XII, NUMBER 8

¢ INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

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WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

Motivating the Unmotivated

Over the years, I’ve watched them collapse, falling
hard into the vinyl seats of the faculty lounge, heard
them grunt the “Oh, hell” and “damn” that came from
the experience of working with students who wouldn't
learn. I’ve listened to the long sighs of frustration and
then the discussion of the “fact” that students are
largely “unmotivated,” unwilling slugs taking up their
time and best performance.

And though I, too, have fallen into this occasional
“locker room talk” about students, I find myself now
regretting my ignorance. Over the past few years, |
have tried to take time to get to know my students—-to
talk honestly with them about who they are and what
they want from me, the institutions where I have
encountered them, and their education. They have
taught me a great deal. I no longer believe that their
motivation is the real issue regarding the ways many of
them perform or fail to perform in my classrooms.

Students have made it clear to me that they embody
many sources of frustration regarding the learning
process before I ever encounter them, frustrations that
are difficult to set aside for 50 or 60 minutes at a time.
And they carry in many problematic attitudes a’pout the
nature of learning. They come from diverse back-
grounds. Some arrive immediately after graduation
from high school, but many others come to me after
years of involvement in the work force.

In general, today’s students are likely to be older
than the stereotypical 18- or 19-year-old. They are
likely to be apprehensive about traditional classrooms—
paper and pencil work and “book learning” —and they
are likely to perceive themselves as bein,z outsiders
when they consider the teacher’s world—-my world.
They are often uncomfortable with formality. They are
often lacking study skills. And they are often strug-
gling to work jobs, raise families, deal with financial
responsibilities and limited funds, all while trying to
better themselves by going to college.

If all that isn’t enough, coming to coll.ege challenges
their social identity and shakes their confidence; many
of them come from worlds different from mine and
have been shaped by experiences far different from

what they face in college. When I think about all that is
going on with them socially, psychologically, and eco-
nomically, it is no surprise that many students do not
see my classes as the pivotal point of their existence.

Even knowing all the problems they carry with them,
I always wanted to believe that my classes should be
something they cherished and to which they would
give themselves over. I wanted the best from students.
If I could have had my way, they would have come to
me as active learners, seeking assistance and insight at
every opportunity. They would have thrived on
academic challenge, and they would have challenged
me to teach better than I have ever taught before. They
would have questioned every aspect of their education
and sought an understanding of the “how's” and
“why’s” of the factors that touch their curious minds.

Oh, what a wonderful experience that would
be... but, let’s face it, that’s not what most students do.
What a disappointment! How easy it is to blame them!
And how easy it is to get frustrated...and how easy it is
to fall into the belief that they are passive, uninvolved,
apolitical airheads. How easy it is to assert that they
shun responsibility, that they never question anything
that relieves them of responsibility, and that they often
drag other students down with them by using their
social networks in the classroom to undermine the
value of the lessons being presented to the potentially
“good” students. How foolish I was to think | would
not have to teach them how to learn!

The fact is—as I had to learn the hard way—class-
rooms don’t have to be deadly, and students who seem
unmotivated don’t have to remain in the unmotivated
stage for very long. Making a change required a great
deal of soul-searching and rethinking on my part. And,
most difficult to accept, it required that I accept some of
the blame for what [—as a representative of the teach-
ing profession—have been given in my students’
responses to me.

I’ve learned that many of them don’t know that they
have the right to ask for anything other than what they
are given. For the most part, they are the products of
years of experience in schools where they were essen-
tially told to sit down, shut up, listen, and learn—an
experience that taught them that the teacher is the
source of all knowledge and that learning is something

 

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EDB 348. Aus:tin. Texas 78712

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD) 9
Community Cullege Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin