By: Cindy | September 18 2009 | Category: Tidbits for Teachers

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I think it’s safe to say that DeLeon Gray already knows more about the role of motivation in learning and in choosing a career in science than everyone else in the office combined! He’s in his third year of a Ph.D. program in Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. He spent about eight weeks with us this summer studying and evaluating the ways OSE programs increase students’ interest in science and then suggesting how to make the programs even more effective.   When I asked DeLeon what his work has to say to middle and high school teachers, he had these research-based suggestions: Stress mastery of the material rather than performance on tests. When students really want to master a subject, they’re more likely to persevere with challenging schoolwork, for example. Offer students choices within certain guidelines rather than insisting on rigid adherence to one approach. For example, you might ask students to research a given topic and then give them the choice to report their results in a written report, on a homemade video, or through a poem or song.  Help students feel something about the material as they’re learning it. They’ll learn it better that way. Humans recall events (and lessons) much better if they are tied to their emotions than if they aren’t. For scholarly information on motivation research, check out:   University of Michigan, Gender & Research Achievement Program and The Patterns of Adaptive Learning Study University of Rochester, Self-Determination Theory For further reading, check out: Classroom Motivation , a book recently written by Eric and Lynley Anderman (Educational Psychology Professors at The Ohio State University). This book is geared towards teachers (and those entering the teaching profession).