You may have heard me talk about motivation before. I have conducted research in the area of motivation throughout my entire academic career, especially focusing on the ways in which motivation principles affect student learning. Almost everyone I talk to agrees that motivation is essential to learning. But can it be measured? It turns out that it can! There exist validated measures of motivation, based in theory, and which assess the quality of the reasons students give for attending class or going to school, as well as the extent to which their basic psychological needs are met by a learning environment.
Now, if you are thinking: “This is really “touchy-feely”, it would not apply in my discipline”, I would invite you to think again! Basic psychological needs are powerful motivators in any learning environment, whether online or traditional. In fact, in an article published in the September issue of Online Classroom, Brian Harper and William Beasley, discuss basic psychological needs as key components of constructive feedback. Harper and Beasley write, “with respect to the content, it is imperative that all communications between teacher-as-editor and student reflect relatedness, competence, and autonomy” (p. 1)

http://www.magnapubs.com/issues/magnapubs_oc/9_9/news/602774-1.html

Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are the three basic psychological needs proposed by Deci and Ryan, authors of Self-Determination Theory (www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT).

Autonomy signifies choice not independence. It is about conveying the message that an individual, in this case the student, is able to bring about changes through their own work. It is related to ownership. Competence is about the development of skills, the mastery of the material and concepts, and knowledge acquisition. Relatedness signifies connectedness with other students and with the instructor as well as with the material. It communicates to students that the instructor knows them and is concerned for them as individuals.
No matter what the learning environment is, it is possible to assess the extent to which this environment is supportive and experienced by students as satisfying their need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To the extent that as instructors we can create a learning environment that will facilitate these needs, we will see increases in student motivation and consequently improvement in learning outcomes.
Previous research, including my own, support these conclusions. Preliminary research by Harper and Beasley in a technology-mediated environment also supports these conclusions. On October 21st, 2008, from 12:00 to 1:30, in Glass Hall 230, the FCTL will be presenting an audio online seminar on Providing Feedback in a Technology-Mediated Environment.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is not simply good teaching and it goes beyond scholarly teaching. It involves the systematic study of teaching and/or learning and the public sharing and review of such work through presentations, publications, or performances. SoTL then shares established criteria of scholarship in general, such that it is made public, can be reviewed critically by members of the community, and can be built upon by others to advance the field. SoTL is a research agenda. The use of classroom assessment techniques for example, is important but is not sufficient for the scholarship of teaching and learning.
It is not sufficient to try a new technique in the classroom, talk about the fact that students enjoyed the exercise, for it to be called the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The Focus of SoTL is on the creation of a product regardless of your discipline. It is about carefully designing ways to ask questions, collecting data, examining and interpreting the results and ultimately sharing one’s findings, thereby contributing to the scholarly community of the field. SoTL is research.
Some feel that the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is not real research. I believe these perceptions exist in part because of confusion in definition of terms and the association of SoTL with Scholarly Teaching. Scholarly teaching is taking a scholarly approach to teaching. Teaching is an area in which to develop expertise. Scholarly teachers will do things such as reflect on their teaching, use classroom assessment techniques, discuss teaching issues with colleagues, try new things. Scholarly teaching is closely related to reflective practices. This conception of scholarly teaching is related to what Boyer (1990) identified as scholarship of teaching. However, scholarly teaching is NOT the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, because it is not research. It is very important, but it’s not research.

A faculty member who participates in a networking group and discusses ways to become a better teacher is engaging in scholarly teaching. In that networking group, it is very likely that new teaching techniques, which have been shown to enhance engagement in the classroom, will be discussed. Using those teaching techniques in the classroom would still be considered scholarly teaching and would NOT qualify as research or SoTL. Improving yourself as an educator is engaging in scholarly teaching and it is very important. However, it is not SoTL. Conducting research on different teaching techniques is SoTL; examining the properties of various teaching techniques and how they relate to student learning and success is SoTL; it follows a process of scientific inquiry which leads to the creation of a product, and that is research.

I never thought that a trip to the vending machine would teach me something about finance, challenge me to use my critical thinking skills and problem solving skills, but today it did!
I have to preface this story by telling you that for the past week, I have been fighting with this one vending machine in the Library which will accept coins but not dollar bills. I rarely have coins on me, but I tend to have a few dollar bills in my wallet. So, here I am, very thirsty for a Diet Pepsi, in front of this vending machine in the library which will accept coins but not paper bills, determined to get a drink. On that day, I have six dollar bills in my wallet, and I proceed to try each one of them to see if the machine will accept one of those bills. I try the first one, the second one… no success. I try the third one, and … oh joy, the machine accepts that dollar bill! I’m thrilled!! It appears that today, the machine will comply and accept my dollar bills and provide me a drink. So I keep going. I put the fourth dollar bill, which the machine rejects. I don’t despair. I try my fifth and then sixth dollar bill, which it promptly rejects. Now, I’m quite puzzled, but still hopeful that the machine will comply. So slowly, very slowly, I try again the first and the second dollar bill… which the machine rapidly denies.
At that point, I’m thinking that this is quite silly. I have a dollar in the machine, the soda that I now want more than ever is $1.25. I look into my wallet, desperately hoping I have a few coins in there, but of course I find many pennies but that’s about it. I pause…. and begin to think. I look again at my coins and decide that after all, I might have enough. I start putting coins in the machine, very slowly. I use up all my coins and the red display on the vending machine indicates that I have put in $1.20. At that point, I wonder if the machine will think that I suffered enough and let me have my drink for $1.20. With hope I press the button, and the machine seems to laugh back at me by flashing the $1.20 sign and then indicating that the price of the drink is $1.25.

I’m frustrated, but this teaches me my first lesson. No matter how close you are from being able to purchase an item, even a small one, not having enough money, even if you are only missing 5 cents, is still not having enough money to purchase the item!The machine is teaching me financial planning.
Now, I know that at this point I could have pressed the “change return” button, get my money back (hopefully), and go back to my office thirsty and frustrated. But something in me pushed me to persist. I really wanted that Diet Pepsi, and to tell you the truth, I was not sure that the machine would comply with my request and give me back my money.
I start to look around. I’m feeling like a 4th grader in front of a difficult math problem. I look back at the machine, I look at my dollar bills. I try another one of the five dollar bills I have left… the machine at this point does not even want to begin to take my dollar bill. I look around once more. This is when I notice the other vending machine next to the soda machine. I begin to wonder if this other one will accept my dollar bills. Like the 4th grader who suddenly sees the solution to the impossible math problem, I realize that I could buy something inexpensive with one of my dollar bills, get some change back and use the change to buy the coveted soda. With a lot of excitement and anticipation, I see that I can purchase cookies for 85 cents. Eureka! I quickly put a dollar in the other machine, which it promptly accepts. I purchase the cookies, the machine gladly gives me back 15 cents, as if this is what I was supposed to do all along. I look at the 15 cents with extreme giddiness!! This will work!! I take a nickel put it into the soda machine and quickly press the Diet Pepsi button, as if I’m afraid the machine will change its mind. I was never so happy to hear the sound of the soda as it fell to the bottom of the machine!! Success!!
At that moment, I felt extremely competent! I know it’s really silly, but I felt like the 4th grader having just solved a very difficult problem. The machine had just allowed me to exercise my problem solving skills, which I guess I was grateful for. Maybe this was all a ploy to get me to spend 85 cents I did not want to spend or eating the cookies, which I did not want to eat. But beating the machine that day, gave me great joy and satisfaction!! This was the best Diet Pepsi I ever tasted, and it surely made for a funny blog!

Every Fall semester, I become introspective and ask myself “Why do I Teach?”  I began teaching in the Fall of 1999 at the University of Rochester, NY.  It seems more than ten years ago, but at the same time, ten years seems to have flown by.

Teaching brings me great joy!  I am passionate about teaching!  Maybe I’m just fortunate to love it so much.  Even with the multitude of work from my new position as the Director of the FCTL, I chose to remain in the classroom to teach not only because I think it’s important, but mostly because I enjoy it.

But why?  Why do I teach?  Why do we teach?  Or maybe the question should be: why would we want to teach?   There are grades to assign, exams and papers to mark, long hours spent trying to craft an enlightening and electrifying lecture, and most of the time all this is done in isolation.  Teaching is often experienced as a lonely endeavor.  In addition, students are not always as enthusiastic about the course material and as engaged as we would like them to be.  It often feels like you are the only one in the classroom putting on this performance, trying to create an environment to help students learn.  Wow!  This is a tall order!  Maybe we teach because we can make a lot of money doing it.  However, is that the main reason we teach?  We all know it’s not.

Every time I walk into a new classroom, every new semester, I feel the exhilaration of this new semester.  I’m filled with the desire to have an impact on the students.  I feel privileged.  Will I be able to talk about my discipline with enough passion to help them appreciate it as much as I do?  I feel the responsibility to live up to this expectation.  I wonder if I will be able to live up to their expectations.  Sometimes, the magnitude of my responsibility as a teacher hits me.  How will I know if they are learning or not?  Will the grade they obtain in my class reflect how much they have learned?  Then I tell myself that I know about many techniques to help students learn.  I remind myself that I know this stuff!  I know my material and I have prepared my class well.  I crafted a good syllabus, I know what I’m going to teach and in which sequence, and I feel prepared.  But then I realize that all this preparation, although necessary, is not sufficient to help students learn and succeed.  Then I come to realize once again, that the best way to facilitate student learning is to convey to them the love that I have for my discipline and to teach it with passion, to teach it from the heart.  Bottom line, I teach because I love my discipline, I love teaching, and I care for my students.  I walk into the classroom every semester so that I can experience the look on the students’ face when they finally get it.  This aha! moment.  I teach so that I can see the sparkle in their eyes and the animation in their voices when they get excited about sharing their new understanding of the discipline.  I teach for the times when I get a random phone call or email by one of my former students, thanking me for the impact I have made in their life, because they are now leaders in their field, our field.

This is why we teach. 

Maybe you have a different opinion.  Maybe you would like to agree with me and add your own thoughts.  Let me know what you think.  I will post on this blog frequently.  I am new to this whole blogging experience, but I would really appreciate and welcome your comments and input.  I want this experience to be as interactive as possible!

 So why do you teach?  Have a great semester and enjoy the many joys and challenges of teaching!