Last week in my college success class, we were talking about motivation. I use Skip Downing’s On Course with this class and he defines motivation as being made up of value and expectation (M=V x E). When I asked each student the percentage of value they place on getting an education, they all said 90-100%. When they were asked about their expectations for success, the percentage dropped to 70-80. So while all of them valued education most were less convinced that they would actually succeed.
This was a clear example that the value students place on their education isn’t enough. They also need to believe they have the skills and abilities to be successful. That’s the harder part especially for my students who have dropped out of high school, received GEDs, and are coming to college with extreme academic and personal challenges. It’s no wonder they don’t expect to succeed.
What can we do? I believe that it’s critical to find ways for these students, and all students, to experience success no matter how big. Students in my class have made it through almost the first half of the semester. They’ve watched others drop out not because they didn’t have the ability, but because they didn’t stay long enough to actually experience success. Some even sabotaged their chance of success by not handing in homework, not studying, etc.
For those students who are still here, they are seeing that their efforts are paying off. They are handing in work, writing papers, taking small steps to get through a math quiz. With each success, I can see them growing more self-confident, but I know it’s tenuous.
We, as teachers, must find a way to challenge our students while providing them the scaffolding to be successful. It doesn’t mean handing out A’s. It does mean giving them multiple opportunities to be evaluated and to show mastery.
In my next post, I’ll talk more about ways to help our students increase their expectaions for success so that it comes closer to the value they place on college.
