The document discusses strategies to improve student motivation and academic performance. It explores how students' beliefs, perceptions, and motivation influence their learning and achievement beyond just skills and abilities. Both students' and instructors' belief systems can help or hinder learning, so interventions must address both to be effective. The document provides examples of students' counterproductive beliefs and strategies instructors can use to promote self-regulated learning and academic success.

1. Improving Students’ Motivation and Academic Performance in the Classroom Myron H. Dembo, Ph.D University of Southern California [email_address] January 22, 2009

2. Learning Skills and Abilities Do Not Fully Explain Academic Achievement Learning = Skill (content knowledge and learning strategies)+ Will (motivation influenced by students’ beliefs and perceptions)

3. What do you like most about the students you teach?

4. My Concerns About The Learning Behavior and Motivation Of My Students……

8. A social cognitive model of achievement motivation (Dai et al., 1998) Effort, choice, level of activity and persistence Educational experiences, social contexts, gender role socialization, institutional policy and procedures, etc. Aptitudes, temperaments, personality, etc. Self-efficacy, values, goal orientation, attributions, self-worth, attitudes, interests, etc. Social—contextual factors Personal factors Self—Processes Achievement behaviors

11. Some students bring to class faulty beliefs and inappropriate academic behavior that limit their success in college , Some instructors misperceptions about students lead to inappropriate instructional practices.

12. I don’t want to take this course. I can’t solve this problem. I messed up on the last exam because I am not smart enough to learn this material. I don’t understand this problem but I don’t want to ask a dumb question? Beliefs That Interfere With Students’ Motivation to Learn How do community college instructors or staff deal with these beliefs?

15. Do students know where they are going?

16. How one thinks about the self and the future Hoped-for possible self we would like to become (e.g., teacher, attorney, professional athlete) Feared possible self we wish to avoid becoming (e.g., a dropout, homeless, unemployed) Expected possible self we are fairly sure we can become (e.g., college graduate) Possible Selves

21. Goal Orientation Mastery Orientation Performance Orientation Success defined as… Improvement, progress, mastery, innovation High grades, high performance compared with others Error viewed as… Ability viewed as… Part of the learning process, informational Developing through effort Failure, evidence of lack of ability Fixed

33. Academic Toolbox “ It is not that students don’t have the ability to succeed. The problem is that they have not acquired all the tools necessary to learn.”

36. “ A learning-centered syllabus requires that you shift from what you, the instructor are going to cover in your course to a concern for what information, tools, assignments, and activities you can provide to promote your students’ learning and intellectual development” (p. xiv)

46. What is the difference between a federal and unitary government? Federalism authority is divided bet. nat. and regional level Did not exist before 1787 US has been gov. as confederacy-- auth. given to states Unitary authority solely in nat. gov . Ex. Japan and Sweden

53. When it comes to academics, I am mostly a.. ….