Motivation Part 2

In my last post on motivation, I touched on the idea of dogmatism, stating that I would encourage my students to not think dogmatically. I will have to present myself to students as an authority figure, but not someone whose word is to be taken without question or thought. Some students may already be disposed to non-dogmatic thinking, and will take it upon themselves to question me when I say something they disagree with. I will give these questions full and fair consideration, even re-directing the flow of the class to acknowledge the validity of their contention. By setting this example, other students will pick up on the idea and begin to raise questions when they are skeptical of something in the classroom, and when they do I will continue to encourage their independent thought by fairly considering what they have to say, and even conceding that I am mistaken if that's the case.

The classroom environment is critical to motivation, and peers play a large role in composing the classroom. With few exceptions, I will know little to nothing about my students before the year begins, and most often it will be nothing. I will begin the year with them sitting in traditional rows with random assigned seats for a few weeks, until I begin to get a feel for their personalities. After that, I will seemingly randomly re-assign seats, but I will carefully consider how the students personalities and levels of development will work together or not work together. By placing students in the best possible peer surroundings, they will be more motivated and also learn more because of the role of the more knowledgeable peer.