1、http:/ Colleges Manufacture Motivation?http:/ students became energized or excited by a topic, an idea, or a discipline. In those moments, he said, a faculty member conveyed to the student that he or she could perform on the collegiate level.“What struck us was that this was the result of being at t
2、he college, not simply a given input, the way lots of people seem to treat it,“ Mr. Chambliss said. “Colleges and universities are like a museum. Theyre filled with all this beautiful art, but someone has to turn on the light. If no one turns on the light, nothing else matters.“Discomfiting TrendsTh
3、e notion that motivation matters in education is not new, of course. For years, researchers have tried to quantify it through such tools as the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory, a standardized measure of internal motivation, and the Academic Motivation Scale.http:/ of the research
4、, by psychologists and education researchers, has identified a discomfiting trend at all levels of education. Paul R. Pintrich, the late professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, for example, observed that motivation tends to decrease in students over time as they progress through their
5、 elementary and secondary education.Recently, sociologists and other researchers have tried to construct a more qualitative picture of the complex web of social interactions, like those that occur in college, that can spur and sap academic motivation.Evidence suggests that colleges have a very mixed
6、 record.Two-thirds of fourth-year students said their motivation stayed the same or declined while they were in college, according to the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, which surveyed in its first cohort 2,200 students who enrolled in 2006 in 17 public and private, and small and la
7、rge colleges around the country. Twenty-seven percent showed moderate to high growth in academic motivation, while 7 percent exhibited low growth.To measure motivation, students participating in the Wabash study filled out an eight-item questionnaire when they first arrived on campus, and again at t
8、he end of their freshman and senior years. Rating their responses on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree, they answered such questions as whether they were willing to work hard to learn material, even when it did not lead to a better grade; to read more than was required for class becau
9、se it was interesting; and to talk to faculty members outside of class about ideas presented in the classroom.The largest drop in the Wabash students motivation occurred during the first year, though it ticked up slightly during the following three years of their college experience. Those results ar
10、e disheartening, said Josipa Roksa, associate professor of sociology and education at the University of Virginia.“Its much more disturbing than what we showed in Academically Adrift,“ she said in an e-mail, referring to the book she co-authored with Richard Arum, professor of sociology and education
11、 at New York University, which documented scant gains in critical-thinking skills by more than one-third of college students during their time on campus.“Its one thing not to improve,“ she said, “but another to actually get worse.“Instilling MotivationStudents whose motivation does increase in colle
12、ge, however, enjoy a host of benefits, according to Jui-Sheng Wang, a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Iowa, who is presenting his paper “Academic Motivation Gain and Co-Curricular Involvement“ here.Mr. Wang used the data from the Wabash study, which his adviser and co-autho
13、r, Ernest T. Pascarella, has described as a Hollywood spectacular because of their richness and complexity. Students who gained in academic motivation during their first year, Mr. Wang found, were more satisfied with their college experience, which also made them http:/ likely to return for their se
14、cond year. Gains in academic motivation predicted retention more strongly than whether students were involved in cocurricular activities, like student government, a fraternity or sorority, or intramural sports.His studys findings point to the power of academic motivation, he said, and faculty and ad
15、ministrators should pay heed. “Motivation is determined by the characteristics of the college environment and the instructor,“ he wrote.The researchers in the Wabash study attributed the differences in motivation more narrowly. Their findings suggest that motivation is a product of professors more t
16、han it is of colleges. In fact, gains and losses in student motivation varied more widely within institutions than they did between them, they noted.In another study presented here, researchers described how varied student motivation can be, even for those in the same course.In a study led by ChanMi
17、n Kim, assistant professor in the department of educational psychology and instructional technology at the University of Georgia, a test of motivation was administered three times in one semester to 110 students in a large introductory geography lecture at Texas State University. Students levels of
18、motivation varied widely, as reflected by their scores on the test, and their motivation was highly influenced by their perception of the intrinsic value of the material.Their perception of the intrinsic value of a course, Ms. Kim said, was a function of how interesting, relevant, and useful it was,
19、 beyond its mere utility in filling a degree requirement. And it is in shaping this perception that faculty can affect students and their motivation, even if it is in a large lecture course.She offered some tools that her research suggested were surprisingly effective. For example, faculty can give
20、students a choice of the format and, importantly, the topics for their assignments, so they can apply material to a subject that interests them. Students should also be encouraged to revise assignments and then be graded again.“Itll create one more layer of work,“ Ms. Kim said. “But its not about pe
21、rformance. Its about learning.“Mr. Chambliss, of Hamilton, suggested that department heads and administrators also pay attention to which professors seem to be the best at motivating students, and to assign them to core and introductory courses, where they are more likely to reach a large number of
22、students. Such seemingly minor decisions can have profound consequences on many students success, he said.Ultimately what matters, said his co-author, Mr. Takacs, is that relationships between students and faculty be created. They are not things that can be mandated or formalized, he said. And they
23、need not be particularly deep, long-lasting, or labor intensive.In many cases, all it takes is a faculty member to have a few well-timed interactions with a student, perhaps during office hours or in class. Such moments, he said, trigger something in students, whether it is a desire to learn or try harder, or it convinces them http:/ they belong on campus:“It is clear from their interviews that something changes quickly, meaningfully, and for the better.“
