Teacher's Role In Motivating Students

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that teachers play a great role in motivating students. We all have our favourite teachers and perhaps not favourite or not so favourite. How we perceive our teacher is largely dependent on how he/she was able to motivate us to learn. Perhaps we have our own examples of students who jumped out of the window during mathematics class and students whose performance dramatically increased or decreased because of change of teachers. We also know that our own favorite teacher is not necessary our friend’s favourite teacher. These observations illustrate how students differently react to different teachers mainly because of the strategies the teacher use in motivating them.

Several studies have addressed the issue of how teachers motivate their students. Adelabu (2005) reported that teachers’ knowledge of

Such students often exhibit maladaptive behavior such as tardiness, hostility towards authority, and unrealistic aspirations.The standard approach is to address the problem as an academic issue through remedial or developmental instruction. Developmental education programs however do not address the whole problem. Lack of motivation is not limited to the academically weak student. Successful remedial and study strategies courses aimed at the underprepared student have demonstrated that students who really want to improve their skills can do so when motivated. However, even the best remedial instruction programs have failed to positively impact the student who is both underprepared academically and unmotivated. When students have both a lack of academic skills and lack motivation, the greater problem is motivation (Kelly,