What’s Your Student’s Motivation Trigger

Understanding your student’s Learning Style and Motivation Trigger can help keep them engaged with less effort on your part. Once our boys grow taller than us, it’s natural for them to want to take the leading role. Yet, as a teen, they are likely not taking the reins to plan and implement their education, so this transition time can be challenging. Here is how you can fuel their ability to learn, keep harmony in the house, and keep them motivated to want to succeed more than you.

Learning Style

First, have your students take the Learning Styles Quiz available at VARK-learn.com. Help them study smarter, not harder, by teaching learning methods that fit with their design and maximize their potential. Once they have identified their style, together, read the strategies that will help them be better learners.

For example: Some students thrive on the very act of writing notes or flashcards. Other students should focus their attention on studying someone else’s flashcards that are comprehensive, neat, and in color. Oh, and they should be walking around and reading them out loud while studying. Perhaps outside with headphones on!

Motivation Trigger

Second, identify the things that motivate your students. Let’s face it, the idea of getting an A on a math test or earning college credit while in high school can get lost on a 14 year old. Read this article by LifeHack on the 9 Types of Motivation. What compels your students to achieve? Identify those things and tap into them. Motivation falls into two primary categories: intrinsic and extrinsic, but understanding the minor forms of motivation will really help you tap your student’s potential.

For example: Your parental motivation might be to save money on college, therefore you ask your student to spend 20 minutes a day studying test-specific flashcards. If you find yourself nagging, or posturing so he will align his efforts with your goals, work together to instead align his motivation with your joint goals. IDEAS: Build a chart where he can check off 10-minute study increments. After 100 minutes, he is done for the week. This puts him in control of his time (power-based motivation). OR, turn studying flashcards into a game of slap jack. First person to slap the card and give the right answer gets to keep the card. Tally the points at the end to see who wins. (motivation: fun time with you and competence-based motivation).

CLEP: It is Simply a Test

One of the reasons I am such a fan of CLEP is because it is simply a test. Students across the spectrum of abilities can find success in earning college credits because they can focus on learning, not mastering a series of prescribed lessons. We can customize our students’ learning environment to meet their needs. Formal classroom learning dictates completion within a specified time frame or teaching paradigm and not all students will succeed in that environment.

My three kids were very different learners. One thrived on academics and achievement came easy. The second thrived on competition, social interaction, and the personal satisfaction of winning. The third was eager to learn, but often found his physical need for movement screamed louder than the need to complete an assignment. As they all transitioned into middle school, I introduced CLEP as a final exam to their academic courses. To be successful, it wasn’t enough for them to simply achieve academic proficiency in the subject, they had to want to pass the test as well. In fact, they had to want it more than I did if I was going to avoid becoming a nag.

For those who are motivated by social interaction, host a study group! I was not a subject-matter expert in most of the groups I hosted. I latched on to the term “facilitator”. It was far less scary. Including review games in these sessions also motivated my competitive student to put in the extra study time needed to bring her team to victory. For those for whom academics comes easy, earning college credits or early graduation becomes the motivation! Keep a running tally of credits earned on display. Numbers often are motivators for these types of students, as is receiving positive feedback.

Carrying the Vision

Sometimes parents, you will have to carry the vision for your students until they understand what graduating debt-free can mean for them. I had one of these students too. Yet he graduated early, debt-free, and is pursuing his interests. There is great joy in hearing, “Thank you, mom.” Thank you for not nagging, for letting me learn at my own pace, for giving me freedom to read, for letting me sleep when I needed to, for believing in me, for giving me time to find my stride.

CLEP can be a part of the solution to give students financial freedom to pursue their goals.

Please share this article with friends and introduce them to Credits Before College.

Copyright©2018 Cheri Frame – All Rights Reserved

Tags: clep

Category: Blog, Teaching/CLEP-Prep, Vision