{"id":4084,"date":"2017-02-14T15:46:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T23:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/?p=4084"},"modified":"2017-02-14T15:46:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T23:46:52","slug":"low-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/2017\/02\/14\/low-motivation\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Resources for Addressing Low Motivation Mid-way Through a Class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-opt-id=342038275  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4087\" src=\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:772\/h:1024\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"772\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:772\/h:1024\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg 772w, https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:226\/h:300\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg 226w, https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:768\/h:1019\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg 768w, https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:813\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg 1507w, https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:813\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/dpr:2\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Depositphotos_47580333_l-2015.jpg 2x\" sizes=\"(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you teach in higher ed, you have probably experienced it.<\/p>\n<p>Despite your best efforts, your entire class seems to start experiencing a huge decline in motivation. What started out well, as you watched your students' curiosities be heightened, now feels like an attempt to lift something well beyond your capacity.<\/p>\n<p>You're experiencing &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/2013\/04\/01\/the-dip\/\" target=\"_blank\">the dip<\/a>,&#8221; and it is a common occurrence.<\/p>\n<p>You may very well not have done anything wrong, to cause this to happen. However, there are plenty of strategies you can use to bring the motivation back in a course.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Kevin Gannon provides <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grandviewcetl.org\/student-motivation-and-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\">resources about student motivation and learning<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Doug McKee describes <a href=\"http:\/\/teachbetter.co\/blog\/2016\/06\/11\/engaging-students-in-a-large-lecture\/\" target=\"_blank\">ways to engage a larger class<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation provides <a href=\"http:\/\/civilstat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Active-Learning-Activity-Table.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">this handout with some active learning strategies to try<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Maha Bali reminds us that we can embrace a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/blogs\/profhacker\/pedagogy-of-imperfection\/63435\" target=\"_blank\">pedagogy of imperfection in our teaching<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Heather Yamada-Hosley prescribes some self-care through <a href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/a-yoga-routine-for-people-who-work-on-their-feet-1790622846\" target=\"_blank\">a yoga routine for people who w<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/a-yoga-routine-for-people-who-work-on-their-feet-1790622846\" target=\"_blank\">ork on their feet<\/a>\u00a0(the more centered we are, the more we have to offer our students)<\/li>\n<li>Sarah Rose Cavanagh asserts that &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclevitae.com\/news\/1621-caring-isn-t-coddling\" target=\"_blank\">We don't need to coddle. But we do need to care.<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>James Lang gives us small changes we can make in our teaching during the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/Small-Changes-in-Teaching-The\/235583\" target=\"_blank\">last five minutes of class<\/a>, or\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/Small-Changes-in-Teaching-The\/234869\/\" target=\"_blank\">first five minutes of class<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I recommend putting together a playlist of energizing music to start each class with, not taking yourself (or your class) too seriously, and just being thankful that <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6ZhMfzc9RbU\" target=\"_blank\">things are probably going better for you than they are for this guy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you try to address issues of low motivation, midway through your semester\/term?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you teach in higher ed, you have probably experienced it. Despite your best efforts, your entire class seems to start experiencing a huge decline in motivation. What started out well, as you watched your students&#8217; curiosities be heightened, now feels like an attempt to lift something well beyond your capacity. You&#8217;re experiencing &#8220;the dip,&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[195],"class_list":{"0":"post-4084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-teaching","8":"entry","9":"gs-1","10":"gs-odd","11":"gs-even","12":"gs-featured-content-entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}