The argument which often surfaces during my discussions with colleagues about teaching practices is as follows:
If students are motivated they will do well, and if they are not, they won't. Everything else doesn't matter.
Some thoughts on this:
- Most students are not self-motivated. There are many reasons for this including,
- In college because that is what they thought they were supposed to do and didn't know what else to do.
- Just want a degree so that they can get a job.
- Course is not important to them and they are taking it just because it is required.
- Distracted because of personal problems.
- Working too much because of financial problems.
- ... This list can get pretty long, so I will stop here.
- Incentives matter. Motivation doesn't automatically imply discipline and time management skills. The degree of focus and effort dedicated to coursework depends a lot on the incentive structure. One needs only to ask this hypothetical question: "What if homework assignments are not required?". Would we really think that would not impact their learning?
- Motivation does not automatically imply critical thinking skills and deep learning approaches. Most well motivated students who are working hard are quite content with memorization and procedure-replication if that is what they are used to and if those practices get them a good grade.
