ESTABLISHING A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
23 Motivating Students to Learn
These teaching tips were provided by Prof. Danny Rosenberg, Department of Sports Management.
- learn students’ interests, experiences, hobbies and career goals so that you can know where students are coming from
- be generous with your use of examples, anecdotes, illustrations and stories
- be generous with humour, when it is appropriate
- use appropriate self-disclosure so that students realize that you are a “real person”
- admit your mistakes and lack of knowledge
- talk less than your students do
- encourage your students to interact with each other and always try something new
- listen effectively
- give feedback that is positive in the form of verbal praise and non-verbal eye contact, nods and smiles
- make sure that the level of your teaching meets your students’ backgrounds, abilities and experiences
- make sure that students understand the relevance of what you are doing
- make sure you use a variety of methods and materials
- if possible, change environments such as sitting outside on nice days
- be clear about what is going to happen by using an agenda
- allow students to make their own decisions about their learning – give them choices and implement their suggestions
- if possible, let students have a say about how they will be evaluated
- get feedback from students about how to make sessions more interesting
