One important difference between Utrecht University and basically every university where I have worked or been a student at previously is the importance that it, as an institution, gives to the quality of the teaching. It shows this in a very practical way by requiring every professor, at every level, to have at least a Basic Teaching Qualification where, among other things, professors are expected to have taken multiple courses to improve their teaching practice. I am currently undergoing a course called “Teaching in Higher Education“ that is considered particularly important for the aforementioned qualification. As part of the course, I am studying a well-known book called “McKeachie’s Teaching Tips“. In particular, I was asked to read chapter 11, “Motivation in the College Classroom”, written by Prof. Barbara Hoffer of Middlebury College. This chapter is super interesting and left me wanting to be a better lecturer. Below I list some of the highlights of that chapter (for me), in very summarized format.

Researchers typically consider three indices of motivation:

  • Choice
  • Effort
  • Persistence

Achievement is viewed as an outcome of these indices.

Autonomy and self-determination positively impact motivation, i.e., choice is good. Too much choice is bad, though (Paradox of Choice). One possibility of giving students choice pertains to the dates when to hand in assignments.

Extrinsic rewards are most effective when they provide informative feedback. In other words, grades by themselves are too little feedback and do not help students improve. Even better would be to, as much as possible, separate feedback from grades, e.g., to provide just feedback for a draft of a paper, without grades. In addition, it is very important that students see the (practical) value of what they are studying. This is a strong generator of motivation.

Students study with one of two goals: Mastery goals vs. Performance goals. The way a course is organized can induce one goal or the other more. In any case, these kinds of goals exist along two different ranges, e.g., a student may be motivated by both mastery and performance goals. . For the latter, grading usually motivates comparison, e.g., because only certain percentages of the students can reach a certain maximum grade. What kind of evaluation would induce mastery goals? The text does not make it clear.

Students make rational decisions about how much time to invest in a course to the detriment of the others. Lecturers should make it clear how much effort is expected from the students, e.g., whether to read something in depth or to just skim through it.

When students obtain a result that differs from what they expect, they will tend to attribute causes to that outcome. There are three dimmensions for that attribution:

  • locus: internal vs. external
  • stability: stable vs. unstable
  • luck: controllable vs. uncontrollable.

If a student tends to consider that an unexpected outcome stems from internal, stable, controllable reasons, e.g., “I know I didn’t prepare well for the test”, she/he is more likely to do better next time because she believes that the outcomes depends on her actions and can be controlled. On the other hand, attributing the causes to external factors/luck, e.g., “I will never understand statistics”, means that she will not feel motivated to improve, due to believing that it is not possible/useful.

Beliefs impact motivation. Feedback that fuels some beliefs may be more beneficial for motivation. There’s the now well-known example: if a student performs well in a test or assignment compliment her/his effort instead of saying that she/he is smart. In the former case, the student will feel acknowledged and possibly keep on making effort. In the latter case, the student is likely to try to maintain that perception and may take shortcuts as a consequence.

The chapter ends with a list of practical recommendations that nicely summarized what was discussed:

  1. When planning assignments, consider issues of choice and control, e.g., in terms of when to hand in assignments, which exercises to do (among a pre-determined list), or subjects in which they would like to go deeper.
  2. Project you own motivation – for the subject matter and for the students. You are a role model and your passion (or lack thereof) is perceived and absorbed by the students.
  3. Forster students intrinsic motivation by preparing well for class, using various instructional formats, interactive activities, promoting discussion.
  4. Make the value of the course explicit.
  5. Adopt a criterion-based approach to grading, instead of a normative one.
  6. Test frequently enough that students become accostumed to the format and have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
  7. When grading tests, consider dropping questions missed (or incorrectly responded) by a large number of students and re-teach the topic after the test. This sends the message that there is a shared responsibility for learning and reinforces the idea that the lecture is their to help them learn and achieve mastery and not simpy to penalize them for mistakes.
  8. Provide feedback that is constructive and non-controlling.