Motivation Factors

   Motivation in a classroom is very important to the success of the student. However, from reading most of the blogs we all understand that. I personally believe that motivation is something that most students have at the beginning of their education path. This is seen from kindergarten, students are excited to finally be in school and start to be a big kid. And then some where along the way the motivation becomes blurred and has to be reiterated by the teachers. This motivation can be forced upon students as well as it can be easily accepted by students. During the discussion in class we had discussed the forced participation that some of the students have felt during their education. From making participation 20% of the students' overall grade from getting the students motivated by good teaching.
   Forcing the students to participate in class can have some motivation but possibly the wrong motivation. The student is just simply responding to a negative stimulus of the grade and reacting accordingly, yes the teacher can get the students to participate but are the students motivated to learn or keeping their grade up? Then on the other hand the students can be motivated to learn by the scaffolding presented by the teacher. The scaffolding can be built up by establishing a respectful student-teacher relationship. Showing interest in how a student is doing and how well they are doing is very important for the teacher to express to show the student that the teacher respects the student's right to an education and is willing to help them along the way. Also it is important to have the facts of the lesson or the day relate or be important to the students. If the students do not care about what is being taught, the motivation of them is going to be really low. Having the information relate to them and have it interesting will keep the students more motivated than if the teacher just sat at the front of the classroom and lectured about pointless material.
    Keeping students motivated in a classroom is very important to the success of a student. How a teacher is going to accomplish this task may differ to each person. To me the important factors are establishing a respectful relationship with the student as well as understanding that if the information relates to the student they will be interested. And a teacher has to realize the importance of motivation, without motivation what is the point of education?