Click here to view the video transcript
Hello. My name is Sarah Rose Cavanagh and I am the Senior Associate Director for teaching and learning at the Center for Faculty Excellence at Simmons University, in Boston, Massecheussets, USA. I teach psychology and neuroscience with a focus on emotion and motivation. I’m also the author of a few different books on teaching and learning, including ‘The Spark of Learning: Energising the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion’ and the upcoming ‘Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge’.
In this course we’ll be taking a look at the science of motivation, and how we can tap into its insights to help students learn. We will identify three psychological needs critical to motivation, and consider how to target these in your course design, lesson plans and assessments. We’ll also work together to see how goal setting energises behaviour, and tap into lessons from several decades of goal setting research to motivate student learning.
For learning to take place, students need to be motivated to engage in the work of the class. One of the principal jobs of an educator, then, is to create learning environments that encourage student motivation. Exciting new research on human motivation, self-determination, and goal setting can inform this work. This course will provide a primer on tenets from motivation science relevant to teaching and learning, and then share practical strategies for use in your next class.
“When students value the outcome of their work and expect to succeed, motivation soars”
Get Involved And Share Your Learning
- Share your perspective. Throughout this course, you will see discussion prompts at the end of each lesson inviting you to share your thoughts and experience. We encourage you to respond to these discussion questions and read those of other educators to benefit from theirs. When you see a comment you agree with or find helpful, hit the ‘Like’ button to help other educators find it. You can also reply to any comments from other members that you find interesting.
- Ask a question. You can ask questions of experts and other educators in the discussion threads in courses. If your question is more general, use Ask, Answer and Share in the community to reach more people.
- Pick up your course badges. To earn your Course Completion Badges make sure you mark all lessons as ‘Mark Complete’ once you have completed a lesson. At the end of the course, click ‘Mark Complete’ and you will be asked a few multiple-choice questions to earn a Course Completion badge. Once you’ve had a chance to apply your learning, come back to complete an Impact Badges by applying what you have learned in the courses and answering a short survey.
If you have any questions or issues, please email us [email protected].