Motivation Case Studies Scenario A Amir is a student in a 300 student Calculus class There are multiple assignments due every week and he feels as though they are all busy work As soon as he gets stuck on a problem he looks up the answer on the internet When he goes to class and recitation the professor and TA often provide in class practice problems and encourage students to work together with support from the LAs Amir sits by himself and works on his own during activities often with the help of Google He keeps telling himself that eventually he will actually learn the material but he gets halfway through the semester and realizes that he needs to know how to solve problems for the closed book midterm and doesn t know what to do What do you think is going on for Amir Where might he fall on the Motivation Chart Amir cares about doing well in the class but he does not really believe he can solve the problems on his own As soon as something feels confusing he turns to Google and avoids trying to work through the steps This means he is not building any confidence and by the middle of the semester he realizes he never practiced the skills he needs for the exam On the motivation chart he would fall in the area where value is high but expectancy is low because he knows the class matters but he does not feel capable If you were Amir s LA what might you do to try to help If I were his LA I would check in with him during activities and try to get him to work through one or two problems without looking them up I would guide him with small questions instead of telling him the answer so he can see that he is able to make progress I would also try to place him near other students who collaborate so he does not feel alone The goal would be to give him small moments of success that help him start believing he can actually learn the material Scenario B Brooke is an LA in the Biology Department and she s heard that a lot of students get very stressed out about their grades To support and motivate students she does everything she can to help students boost their grades When she sees a student who s particularly struggling in recitation she likes to give them the answer when they get stuck so they can move along more quickly to other problems and make it through the content Sometimes students ask her whether or not they re doing something correctly or if they got the right answer and she always tells them where they went wrong and how to get the correct answer What do you think Brooke is trying to achieve Is her strategy going to help her do so Brooke is trying to support her students by helping them feel less stressed about getting things wrong She wants them to feel confident but giving them the answers right away does not help them learn how to think through the problems It may make them feel better for a moment but it stops them from building the skills they need on their own Where might Brooke place her students on the Motivation table How do you think Brooke s behavior is going to affect student motivation Her students might end up in a place where their expectancy stays low because they are not getting a chance to practice thinking through the work themselves They may come to believe that they can only succeed when she steps in which actually lowers their motivation Instead of becoming more confident they may feel even more unsure when they have to take a test on their own What advice might you give Brooke I would tell Brooke that it can help students more if she asks questions that guide them rather than giving the answer Students often grow the most when they struggle a little and figure things out with support I would suggest she let them try a few steps first and then point them in the right direction only when they need it This will help them feel a sense of ownership and build real confidence Scenario C Dr Cortez was recently assigned to teach Organic Chemistry He knew this course had a reputation for being really hard and most students only take it because it s required for their major His colleague warned him that many students stop coming to class early on in the semester if they come at all and those who do come are often unprepared It seemed clear to Dr Cortez that he needed a way to motivate students to work hard and keep up with the material When he was a student any suggestion by the professor that he might not be up to the challenge made him eager to prove the professor wrong So on the first day Dr Cortez told his students This is a very difficult course You will need to work harder than you have ever worked in a course and still a third of you will not pass He thought if students heard that they would dig in and work harder to measure up but to his surprise they slacked off even more than in other sections they often did not come to class they made lackluster efforts at the homework and their test performance was below the course average And this was after he gave them fair warning This class had the worst attitude he had ever seen and the students seemed to be consumed by an overall sense of lethargy and apathy What went wrong in this scenario What factors may have undermined students motivation Dr Cortez wanted to push his students to work hard but his message on the first day made the class feel discouraged instead Instead of feeling challenged many students felt defeated before they even began Telling them that many of them would fail lowered their confidence and made the course feel hopeless When students believe they cannot succeed they stop trying and that seems to be exactly what happened in his class If you were an LA in Dr Cortez s class What could you do to motivate students As an LA I would try to create a more encouraging atmosphere during activities I would remind students that they can learn the material if they take it step by step I would celebrate small progress and help them see that Organic Chemistry is something they can understand with practice Building a sense of support could help bring their confidence back up What might you want to share with Dr Cortez How could you go about communicating that to him I would want to share with him that students often respond better to supportive messages than to warnings or scare tactics I would explain that helping students believe they can succeed is a key part of motivation I would communicate this respectfully maybe by asking to talk after class and sharing what I have noticed …
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