This past Spring Lynn Smaagaard and I had the opportunity to join a teaching circle at Century College. A teaching circle is a group of 6-9 faculty members who work closely together for one semester to focus on an issue(s) related to improving teaching and learning. The focus of our teaching circle was student motivation.
What a topic, huh? I don’t think any of us walking into it expected to experience a eureka moment that would somehow illuminate the age old question of “what makes people tick.” We were realistic and enthusiastic. We all brought unique experiences, thoughts and ideas to the semester long conversation, and in addition to working on small individual projects, we also undertook a single, larger group project. We administered a survey of psychographic driven questions, going straight to the sources (our students) for information on what inspires student motivation. That is what this short article is about.
Before delving into some of the data I would first like to personally thank my teaching circle colleagues, without whom, a survey like this would not have been possible. Without a budget and with comparatively little time for collaboration, they all (we) did a smashing job! So, thanks to Amy Rafter, Amy Donahue, and Amy Canavan (the Amy trifecta!); and to Mary Saurino, Lynn Smaagaard, and our ever-mindful-of-time circle leader Michelle Neaton. The pleasure was certainly mine.
A bit about our methods
Drawing a good sample of a population is often challenging. Our sample of 233 students (approximately 1.6% of the student population) was less than an ideal number, but given the circumstances we considered our sampling efforts a success. The survey contained a total of 17 questions administered through surveymonkey.com. Of those 17 questions, five were demographic and 12 were psychographic; all were multiple choice. Students completed the survey during the lead up to finals week at Century College from April 12 – April 30 2011. Participants were chosen only from courses taught by members of the teaching circle (a convenience sample), and all students from these classes were provided equal opportunity to partake in the survey with notifications being offered through email, Desire2Learn and in person.
In this article I will only focus on what I consider the two most interesting question results. Those interested in digging deeper into our survey results can find links to them at the end of this article.
Question 5
Question 5 of our survey was a likert question that posed the following:
When in class, I prefer a formal lecture environment with lots of structure as opposed to an informal discussion environment with less structure.
Based on discussions we had throughout the semester, I surmise that most of our circle members subscribe to the “guide on the side” approach to modern classroom instruction. That said, I also think at least some of us expected to see the overall response to this question reflect a preference for less structured learning environments. However, this is what we got back.
More students responded to this statement favorably than adversely, indicating that many still retain comfortable feelings toward lecture format instruction. When viewed broadly the responses were nearly split evenly down the middle, with strong feelings well-represented on both sides of the spectrum, and a large chunk of undecided respondents in the middle. Does this suggest students really do have diverse learning styles?
Probably – I think most instructors take that as a given, but this also raises important questions about how we as educators begin to approach delivering instruction in the classroom during a time when “sage on the stage or guide on the side” is sometimes a freshly drawn battle line in higher education. Given the breadth of learning styles, how are we to know when students want the sage or the guide? If we assume that “the guide” is better de facto (and that, by consequence, some students do not know what is best for them), is it not our inner sage informing us of that, and if so, does this not create an epistemological conflict? (I’m still mulling this one over.)
Question 8
Question 8 of our survey was a multiple choice question that asked students to respond to the following:
I feel most motivated in class when:
The tricky thing about these sorts of questions is that the potential responses are always a matter of conjecture. Left to her own devices, a respondent might answer such a question in a hundred different ways. We gave respondents only five possible answers to choose from. Here is what the responses looked like.
Holy feedback! Admittedly, we had no consensus ahead of time on how we thought students might answer this, but the results were loud and clear. Students really like specific feedback. Conjecture being what it is, we have no way of knowing how the students interpreted the word “specific,” but we might assume that a simple letter grade on a paper doesn’t cut the mustard. By extension, we might also assume that feedback is more effective in greater quantities than lesser quantities, and hence, this question may suggest that students really want feedback regularly. As an instructor, I feel obligated to meditate on this question and reevaluate the role feedback plays in the classroom. What conclusions can you draw from these results?
If you are interested in viewing more data related to our teaching circle’s survey on student motivation, download or view the .pdf document below. More information or data in alternative formats can be attained by emailing stephen.kelly@century.edu.
Teaching Circle Student Motivation Summary.pfd
5 Responses
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Lynn Smaagaard Says:
This is a great article Stephen. It would be interesting to follow this up with a focus group of students to discuss the topic and results.
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judelia Says:
Holy Motivation, Holy Feedback… but what I heard was “holy structure”! Thanks for sharing the results of your circle work and your individual perspective, Stephen. I’m finding much to ponder and I wasn’t even part of the circle.
Here’s the point I’m focusing on. In Q 9 the one about lecture, structure/discussion, less structure, I think there’s much more there than first meets the eye. Perhaps the students are equating a lecture with structure and discussion with less structure. I’m left thinking about the idea of STRUCTURE rather than lecture/discussion being the choice the students might be expressing.
From my experience (almost 40 years and that’s not 5 years repeated 8 times but a long term engagement in this process of teaching and learning with plenty of time in both roles) I’m thinking these days that students do need (and even say they WANT) structure. That being said, is it possible to provide STRUCTURE while still being a guide on the side. I would say resoundingly YES! And to me, that along with feedback (and it’s almost like they’re thirsting or dying from hunger for feedback, focused and specific and personalized) are the keys to success in student learning.
Summary: Given ‘em plenty of structure while providing opportunity for collaborative and intuitive, connected learning with as much quality and detailed feedback as possible.
Agree? Disagree? Tell me more….
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Don Says:
Good discussion, thank you.
My thought is to question #5, which within the question itself states a preference and, I think, it is probably more common for people to want to agree than to disagree, so I question what valid conclusions can be derived from the proportion of responses, other than there is diversity in students’ preferences around class environment.
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Stephen Kelly Says:
Judy – Are you talking about Q5? Either way, I agree with you. I think structure is important AND that it can be done while being a guide on the side as opposed to a sage on the stage. That said, do sages still have there place? I think so, but context is important, and there are still large differences between community colleges and universities. Do you think one lends itself better than the other in different academic settings?
Don – I also agree with your comment. The best we could do is protect internal validity, and unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do a lot of field testing to protect against things external. By releasing these results, my hope is that sometime in the future a teaching circle may decide to have a second go at this, adjusting some questions, dumping others and perhaps posing some more appropriate ones. This was a first stab, and by no means was it perfect (but it was a good stab nonetheless.
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judelia Says:
OK… so memory is truly the first thing to go. I meant 5 but remembered 9 so pardon the “ole lady”
) Don makes a point but more important than drawing conclusions is to continue the conversation. Teaching is a lonely profession when you go to the classroom and close the door to contain the teacher and the students and then go to the single person office. It’s the conversation about “what does this mean?” or “what is your experience?” between teachers and anyone who is concerned about student success that is the really important thing.
I’m thinking maybe Lynn’s suggestion of a “followup” with students in a focus group might be helpful.
But please continue the conversation, it’s the best way I know to encourage myself to continually make effort to improve my teaching (and probably my learning too)
