Engaging and Motivating Learners
Aim:
• To identify practical approaches to
teaching and tutoring to engage
and motivate learners
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Objectives
• Awareness of a range of classroom or workshop
management techniques to improve motivation
and teaching and learning
• Understanding of how to work with individuals to
build self-esteem
• Understanding of the use of motivational
dialogue techniques
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Classroom or Workshop
Management
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Being an assertive teacher
“A teacher’s response has crucial
consequences … it creates a climate of
compliance or defiance, a mood of
contentment or contention, a desire to
make amends or to take revenge.”
(Chesterton, 1924)
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Classroom or workshop management
self-assessment questionnaire
• Please
complete
the
answering YES or NO.
questionnaire
• We will return to the questionnaire and the
action points at the end of this session.
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Teaching styles and learner
behaviour
High expectations for learner behaviour
Assertive Style
High sensitivity to
learners’ needs
Over-indulgent /
Permissive /
Submissive
Style
Authoritarian
Style
Neglectful /
Passive Style
Low sensitivity to
learners’ needs
Low expectations for learner behaviour
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Ground rules for life
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Share
Play fair
Don’t hit
Remember to flush
Hold hands in traffic
Tidy up after your own mess
Put things back where you found them
Don’t take things that aren’t yours
Say sorry when you hurt someone
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Ground rules of behaviour
Behaviours
unacceptable to STAFF
Behaviours unacceptable
to LEARNERS
Behaviours unacceptable
to BOTH
Behavioural
expectations of STAFF
Behavioural expectations
of LEARNERS
Behavioural expectations
of BOTH
• Ground rules should be discussed by the teaching team and then by the learner
group.
• Areas of common agreement form the ground rules.
• Have them typed or written up as a poster.
• Some ground rules are non-negotiable.
• This is an important exercise in social problem-solving. (Kohn, 1996)
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A cycle of classroom management
Bill Rogers (1998) produced this framework of key principles for
successful classroom management.
Prevention (of disruptive
behaviour)
Encouragement (of positive behaviour –
correcting as necessary)
Consequences (for unacceptable
behaviour – certainty rather than
severity)
Repair and rebuild (the relationship
following correction)
Exercise:
Work in four groups, each group taking one of the areas of the cycle above.
Each group will develop strategies for their area of the cycle.
Write up the strategies on a flip chart and report back.
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Prevention
• Teach and establish rights, rules and
responsibilities.
• Have a major focus on positive relationships
and self-esteem.
• Build rituals and routines for starting and
ending lessons and for gaining attention.
• Consider learner states and styles – play to
their strengths – differentiate.
• Develop scanning – intervene early and
quietly.
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Encouragement
• Create a relaxed, peaceful environment.
• Have high expectations of all learners.
• Achieve a 6:1 ratio of encouragement :
correction
• Use verbal and non-verbal
encouragement.
• Give clear instructions, positive feedback
and set realistic targets.
• Frequently ask yourself: “Why would
learners want to return to my class?”
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Consequences
• Discuss when establishing ground rules
• Should be fair, reasonable and related to
appropriate behaviour
• Emphasise they are in direct response to
learner’s choice
• Certainty rather than severity
• Offer some negotiation and opportunity to
make restitution where appropriate
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Repair and rebuild
• Correction can erode relationships and
damage self-esteem.
• It’s our job to develop and manage
positive working relationships.
• A simple acknowledgement of improved
behaviour is often enough.
• A friendly and courteous word as learners
leave goes a long way.
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Learners
• Learners are the most important visitors on our
premises – think of them as guests.
• We are dependent on them.
• They are our core business.
• Always acknowledge their presence – smile,
make eye contact, say hello, talk to them, make
them laugh, offer help and advice where
appropriate.
• Treat learners as you would like to be treated.
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Aristotle’s challenge
“Anyone can be angry – that is
easy. But to be angry with the
right person, to the right
degree, at the right time, for the
right purpose, and in the right
way – this is not easy.”
Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics
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Anger: four questions
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Is anger the same as aggression?
Is there anger without aggression?
Is there aggression without anger?
How do you deal with your anger?
Work on anger-management strategies for
angry learners.
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Assertiveness training
People adopt different response styles depending on the circumstances. It is unlikely that anyone is
wholly one type or another.
RESPONSE STYLES
NONASSERTIVE/SUBMISSIVE
AGGRESSIVE/DOMINANT
When you allow your
boundaries to be invaded; I
lose - you win
ASSERTIVE
standing up for your
rights without violating
the rights of others; I
win - you win
BASIC SKILLS
when you invade or attack
someone else’s
boundaries; I win - you
lose
ESSENTIAL SKILLS
developing confidence
and rights
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comprising:
SPECIALIST SKILLS
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what to say; nonverbal behaviour;
what to think; how
to integrate these
elements
Handling:
disagreement
complaints
criticism
aggression
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Social skills
Model and teach:
• social communication skills
• social interaction skills
• self-awareness
• relationship skills.
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A sequenced repertoire of strategies
for the management of disruptive
behaviour
1. Core skills – these are powerful skills, useful in all
discipline transactions.
2. Low level strategies – these are low key but
assertive interventions.
3. Medium level strategies – these are direct and
assertive interventions.
4. High level strategies – consequences for
inappropriate behaviour are applied.
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ABC
A – ANTECEDENTS
events that prompt,
trigger behaviour
B – BEHAVIOUR
the specific actions of an individual
C – CONSEQUENCES
subsequent events that make the
behaviour more or less likely to
occur
precede
or
The model is powerful in that it offers the possibility of
altering behaviour by changing either antecedent or
consequence.
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Talk strategies
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Don’t say “don’t”.
Use “maybe…… and”.
Use calming tone of voice that conveys respect.
Emphasise you will hear them out when they have calmed
down.
Preface your statement with an understanding of their point
of view, then say, “however, I feel …” then say, “and I
suggest” or “and I would like”.
State your request in positive behavioural terms.
Repeat your statement up to three times.
If negative behaviour continues, state the consequence and
emphasise it is their choice.
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Non-verbal techniques
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Take-up or face-saving time
Mirroring
Mood matching
Using calming gestures
Non-confrontational positioning
Body buffer zone
Walking away with an angry person
Maintaining normal eye contact
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Classroom or workshop management
self-assessment questionnaire
• Return to the questionnaire.
• In view of what we have learnt, identify key
action points.
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Motivational Dialogue
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Thinking about learners’ behaviours
In relation to a task, learners may show:
commitment
compliance
disaffection.
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What is motivation?
The probability that a person will enter into
and persist with a process of behaviour
change.
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Motivational strategies
• Advice
• Barriers
• Choice
• Determination
• Empathy
• Feedback
• Goals
• Helping
How to give it? When to give it?
Help learners to remove the
obstacles to change.
Provide it in the face of the
necessity of change.
Increase their desire to change.
Communicate your desire to
understand.
Provide clear, accurate assessment of
the current situation
Help THEM to clarify their aims.
“Active helping” is NOT “enabling”.
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Motivational dialogue
A directive, learner-centred style of
interviewing which helps people to
1. identify risks and goals
2. explore ambivalence
3. set targets
4. maintain behaviour change.
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The Wheel of Change
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Teacher’s task at each stage of
change
Learner stage
Teacher’s motivational task
Pre-awareness
Raise doubt: increase the learner’s
perception of risks
Contemplation
Tip the balance: evoke reasons to change,
risks of not changing
Decision
Help to determine the best course of action
Active change
Help to take steps towards change
Maintenance
Help to identify and use strategies to
prevent relapse
Relapse
Help to renew the process
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Motivational dialogue skills
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Effective questioning
Reflective listening
Using non-verbal communication
Summarising for change
Eliciting change talk
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Skills with the Wheel of Change
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Effective questions
• Open questions
• Do not elicit a
short answer
• Do not
predetermine the
reply
• Encourage the
learner to talk
Opening phrases
• In what way . . .
• How does this . . .
• Tell me about . . .*
• Give me an
example of . . . *
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Reflective listening
• A form of active
listening
• Always end reflection
in a down tone of
voice
Useful for:
1. checking meaning
2. clarifying meaning
3. building empathy
4. selective
reinforcement
Can involve:
1. repeating key word or
phrase
2. paraphrasing a key
idea
3. reflecting NVC as
well
NVC: non-verbal communication
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Closing the communication loop
What the
learner says
What the
tutor hears
What the
learner
means
What the
tutor thinks
the learner
means
REFLECTION
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Reflective statements
• It sounds like you…
• You’re feeling…
• It seems to you that…
• So what you’re saying is…
The pronoun YOU is usually the subject of
the sentence.
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Aspects of non-verbal
communication
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Posture
Orientation
Eye contact
Use of silence
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Summarising
Drawing together what has been said and
presenting it to the learner
Useful for:
• 1. getting the learner
to take stock
• 2. checking or
changing the direction
of the conversation
• 3. bringing other
information into the
frame
• 4. Stalling while you
think of the next step
Don’t make it too long
Ask for approval at the
end, for example;
• Is that about right?
• Is that more or less how
you see things?
• Have I understood you
correctly?
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Summarising for change
One way of changing the learner’s perceptions
• Spend more time on the reasons for change (or the
reasons against staying the same) and less time on
the reasons for not changing.
• Use tone of voice and pace of speech to emphasise
the seriousness and benefits of change.
• Order the summary by putting the argument in
favour of change in the latter part.
• After asking for approval for your summary, ask
“Where do you think you should go from here?”
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Self-motivational statements
or “change talk”
Another way of changing the learner’s perceptions
“People are generally better persuaded by
the reasons which they themselves
discovered than by those which have
come into the minds of others.”
Pascal in the 17th century
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Types of self-motivational statements
Increasing
significance
1. Statements of problem
recognition
2. Expressions of concern
3. Statements of intention to
change
4. Expressions of optimism
about change
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