Motivation; 22 January Sorry this has taken a while to appear—I'll try to do better in future!

Tip of the Day I've not got access to a Smart Board... how can I capture and use spontaneous whiteboard material?

Use your mobile phone (or a digital camera if you have it with you). These are some of the authors who do not appear on the reading list but deserve comment; I could have made a note of them and then typed it up (which would have made sense for this example), but when the material is more complex, such as a mind-map, think how much work this could save. You could print it as a handout, use it in a web-page, annotate it....

However! The references are;

• PETTY G (2004) Teaching Today: A Practical Guide (3rd edition) Cheltenham; Nelson Thornes
  Very practical, plays down the theoretical aspects, but an excellent starting point.
  
• RACE P (2005) Making Learning Happen: A Guide for Post-Compulsory Education London; Paul Chapman
  Phil Race has long been established as one of the clearest writers in the field; his style is a model for us all. But he is also not unafraid to argue with some of the conventional wisdom and ideas. However, I think he has lost the plot with this one; it is rambling and the nuggets of wisdom are not easy to find.
  
• CLAXTON G (2002) Building Learning Power: Helping Young People Become Better Learners London; TLO
  This is not the book I was referring to, but that appears to be out of print. Claxton has another coming out in February.
  
• ZULL J E (2002) The Art of Changing the Brain; enriching the practice of teaching by exploring the biology of learning Sterling, VA; Stylus Publishing.
  This is not a bandwagon "accelerated learning" book; Zull is a biologist who has become a teacher. He is not prescriptive but tries to understand the relationship between the brain and the process of learning.

Motivation

• The basic page is http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/motivation.htm (which includes dear old Maslow) with links to other pages on the topic, including http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/motivanx.htm

• For broader reading go to http://www.doceo.co.uk/academic/learning_links.htm#Motivation

The vignettes on motivation can be found here.

Reflection on the session

(From an email to an academic friend;)

My Monday class? I re-ran an exercise (some vignettes focussing on
motivation, slightly up-dated from 2002, 20 minutes in small groups with
questions and then a plenary intended to provide a means of weaving in the
theory). It worked quite well, although I missed a couple of opportunities in
retrospect, which the students were unlikely to notice.

There's a trick to this structure, I confess. Writing up notes from students' and groups' responses sends them an important message---"I value what you say; I've made a note of it."

But! Of course what I write on the board is selected on the basis of what I can comment on later, in order to weave in some theoretical input. And as I comment I can circle the points the students have made, as if the whole thing were driven by them. And of course, most of it is indeed driven by them.

Why don't I share these reflections with them, too? Because they might not
agree? Even better! They could respond on the blog. I'll give it a try.

  19:53