How Are You Motivating Students in

Your Math Class?Dr. Glen Richgels

Dr. Derek WebbBemidji State University

grichgels@bemidjistate.edu

Name School Grades you teach Why are you here?

Introductions

Is motivation an issue in your classroom?

Is it math or is it across the curriculum?

Set the Stage

The NCTM has a section of their website dedicated to motivation in the mathematics classroom:

http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=16479

Resources

Motivational classroom activities

Research and general strategies

Resources: NCTM

Do you notice/perceive a difference in motivation?

In Class vs. Out-of-Class

Don't do their homework. Are brought to class by the police The police wait for them outside the

classroom Put their head down and pretend to write to

avoid class participation and responding in class

Miss class because of athletics Miss class because of extra curriculars Miss class because their 5th grandma died Missed class because they were in a ditch Left class because you called on them

Ever experience any of these?

They weren't in class last time Left their book in their car Dog ate it Left it at the relatives that they visited Left it on the bus Too busy with family schedule Couldn't remember what we did in class

Didn’t do homework because…

Survey technology: iClicker Computers/laptops/iPads/etc…

Ways to Engage Students

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Clickers

Please answer the following to the best of your abilityA. I am a femaleB. I am a male

Questions that Invite Deeper Thought

Roll a 6-sided die once. What is P(roll a 4)?

A. 1/2B. 1/4C. 1/6D. 2/13E. Not enough information to determine P(4)

Roll a 6-sided die once. What is P(roll a 4)? Assume equally likely outcomes and S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

A. 1/2B. 1/4C. 1/6D. 2/13E. Not enough information to determine P(4)

Questions that “Train” Students

Guess the correlation

A. r = 0.121B. r = 0.372C. r = 0.644D. r = 0.865E. r = 0.978

r = 0.865

Questions that Invite Group Work

You recently found out that the country Vulgaria has 112 McDonald’s Restaurants. Please use the regression model to estimate how many Nobel Prize winners herald from Vulgaria (you can round to the nearest whole number).

A. 14B. 49C. 26D. 5

Country Nobel Prize Count

McDonalds Count

Austria 11 148Czech Republic 2 60Denmark 13 99Finland 2 93Greece 2 48Hungary 3 76Iceland 1 3Ireland 5 62Luxembourg 0 6Norway 8 55Portugal 2 91Slovakia 2 10Turkey 0 133United States 270 12804

Group Learning

Contextual Learning

Activity Based Learning

Ways to Engage Students

Daily (or frequent) short quizzes◦ 5 minutes long◦ Immediate feedback

Ways to Engage Students

“Work-at-the-Board”

Ways to Engage Students

Small homework assignments

Homework students can be successful on working by themselves

Homework problem complexity builds over a course as students gain confidence and become used to completing homework

Ways to Engage Students