Wisniewski Everyday Strategies for Accomplishing College Learner Motivation

25/S 9:15 AM Newman

Type_Presentation: 60-minute Concurrent Session

PresentationTitle: Everyday strategies for accomplishing college learner motivation.

ProgramStrand_Primary: Learning and Study Strategies

ProgramStrand_Secondary: College Reading

Presentation_description:

Are your students motivated every day? Motivated students are strategic, self-regulating, and, most importantly, have confidence, or self-efficacy, in their academic skills. This session will show how self-efficacy guides the everyday engagement through the demonstration and practice of motivational strategies for use in classroom and tutoring contexts.

Session_summary:

Everyday strategies for accomplishing college learner motivation.

Purpose and Learning Objectives

The purpose of this session is to provide college reading and learning practitioners with the theory and practice of college learner motivation in multiple learning settings. Participants in this session will

1. Understand the theories of motivation that guide college learning.

2. Practice theoretically-based strategies that are motivating for learning content.

3. Select strategies for use in developmental education and content classrooms as well as group and individual tutoring situations.

Significance to the Field

In the field of college reading and learning, research points toward the need for teacher direction of learning strategies combined with content that ultimately leads to student generated learning strategies (Nist & Holschuh, 2000). These strategies are the cornerstone of reading engagement, where learners are thoughtful and motivated (Guthrie, 2000). Motivation for college students is a growing area of research, especially after the National Reading Research Council pointed toward motivation as a cornerstone in learning engagement, and that motivation lessons as children and adolescents go through school. Therefore, there is a need to apply the theory and practice of motivation for students in college contexts. The further application, dissemination, and research of these strategies by college learning professionals will make a significant contribution to the fields of college reading and learning and developmental education.

Connection to the Conference Theme and Strands

The theme of Halls of Fame: Celebrating our day to day accomplishments directly relates to using motivation strategies in our daily teaching and facilitation of classroom, small group, and individual learning. When learners experience motivation strategies as thinking scaffolds, they increase in their self-efficacy. Bandura (1994) states that self-efficacy is the level of people’s beliefs about their capabilities. These capabilities for college students are their academic skills in reading and learning, ultimately leading to academic achievement accomplishments.

Significance to Conference Attendees, Presenter Experience

Participants in this session will understand motivation theories, know the recent research regarding motivation and college students, experience motivational strategies, and plan ways to implement the strategies in their specific contexts. These contexts include college learning and study strategies classrooms, content area classrooms, small group tutoring, individual tutoring sessions, and academic success programs. The presenters have 30 years combined experience in these contexts, including learning and study strategy program administration, developmental reading and writing courses, supplemental instruction, teacher education, content area literacy, and school psychology in both small college and large university settings.

Audience Interaction and Handouts

The audience will participate individually, in pairs, small groups, and as a large group. First, they will begin with a strategy (the three-part interview) where they will be in pairs and small groups. Second, during the presentation of motivation theories, they will participate as a large group. Third, during the presentation of strategies, they will participate in a large group during examples, and pairs and small groups for the practice strategies. Finally, they will plan individually how they will implement motivation strategies into their professional contexts. The handouts they receive will be the visual pieces of the strategies, presenter information, and the slide show that will lead them through each part of the presentation.

Session Outline

I. Starting Strategy: 3 Part Interview

II. Basic Motivation Theories

a. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (Deci, 1971, 1975)

b. Self-Efficacy (Bandura, 1986, 1994)

III. Motivation theories applied to Education

a. Keller’s ARC Model (Keller, 1987)

b. Reading Engagement Theory (National Reading Research Center; Guthrie & Wigfield 1998, 2000)

c. Recent research on motivation tied to college student learning

IV. Motivation Strategies

a. 3-part interview (review of the strategy we began the session with and how it is informed by the motivation theories we reviewed)

b. Carousel Brainstorming, Word Sort, Map, KWL (Ogle, 1986). These first four strategies are in a group which we have presented at a CRLA institute in 2002 on how to use an adaptation of the jigsaw strategy (Aronson, 1978). In this session, we will show pictures of each step from the institute and examples of how to use these strategies in different ways connected to jigsaw.

c. List Group Label (demonstration and connection to the first four strategies)

d. Think Pair Share (practice)

e. Discussion Web (practice)

f. Herringbone (practice)

g. Exit Slip (practice as closing strategy to the session)

V. Participant Planning

Using Hansen’s (1996) self-evaluation strategy for motivation, participants will plan what motivation strategy or strategies that they will try, in what context, and how they will know it worked.

Session Outline Summary

The session will be divided among the theoretical background of motivation and motivation in postsecondary education, the practice of strategies informed by the theories, and planning of what strategies to use in classroom, small group, and individual learning contexts. The session will begin with a demonstration of a cooperative learning strategy called the 3 part interview in order to glean background knowledge and experiences of strategies that participants have used in college learning contexts while also demonstrating a motivation strategy. The presenters will link the three-part interview strategy to the primary theories of motivation theories applied to reading and instruction that have been applied extensively in the education field, including K-12 and more recently in adult education and college learning. From these three theoretical bases, strategies will be presented, demonstrated, and facilitated by the session presenters. At the end of the session, participants will plan how they will use the motivation strategies.

PresenterBio:

Dr. Wisniewski holds a Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction and School Psychology. For over 15 years she has worked with hundreds of college learners, faculty, teachers, and related professionals on implementing learning and literacy strategies across the curriculum. She has published and presented nationally and locally in areas of disability, assessment and evaluation, literacy, diversity and cultural responsiveness, teaching, leadership, technology, psychology, and transformative learning, and has administered programs at Kent State University in reading, student development, and counseling. As current faculty at Baldwin-Wallace College, Dr. Wisniewski is a teacher educator, school psychologist, and curriculum and educational management consultant.