Engaging and Motivating Learners Aim:

1. Engaging and Motivating Learners Aim: • To identify practical approaches to teaching and tutoring to engage and motivate learners

2. Objectives • Awareness of a range of classroom or workshop management techniques to improve motivation and teaching and learning • Understanding of how to work with individuals to build self-esteem • Understanding of the use of motivational dialogue techniques

3. Classroom or Workshop Management

4. Being an assertive teacher “A teacher’s response has crucial consequences … it creates a climate of compliance or defiance, a mood of contentment or contention, a desire to make amends or to take revenge.” (Chesterton, 1924)

5. Classroom or workshop managementself-assessment questionnaire • Please complete the questionnaire answering YES or NO. • We will return to the questionnaire and the action points at the end of this session.

6. Teaching styles and learner behaviourHigh expectations for learner behaviour Low expectations for learner behaviour

7. Ground rules for life • Share • Play fair • Don’t hit • Remember to flush • Hold hands in traffic • Tidy up after your own mess • Put things back where you found them • Don’t take things that aren’t yours • Say sorry when you hurt someone

8. Ground rules of behaviour

9. A cycle of classroom management Bill Rogers (1998) produced this framework of key principles for successful classroom management.

10. Prevention • Teach and establish rights, rules and responsibilities. • Have a major focus on positive relationships and self-esteem. • Build rituals and routines for starting and ending lessons and for gaining attention. • Consider learner states and styles – play to their strengths – differentiate. • Develop scanning – intervene early and quietly.

11. Encouragement • Create a relaxed, peaceful environment. • Have high expectations of all learners. • Achieve a 6:1 ratio of encouragement : correction • Use verbal and non-verbal encouragement. • Give clear instructions, positive feedback and set realistic targets. • Frequently ask yourself: “Why would learners want to return to my class?”

12. Consequences • Discuss when establishing ground rules • Should be fair, reasonable and related to appropriate behaviour • Emphasise they are in direct response to learner’s choice • Certainty rather than severity • Offer some negotiation and opportunity to make restitution where appropriate

13. Repair and rebuild • Correction can erode relationships and damage self-esteem. • It’s our job to develop and manage positive working relationships. • A simple acknowledgement of improved behaviour is often enough. • A friendly and courteous word as learners leave goes a long way.

14. Learners • Learners are the most important visitors on our premises – think of them as guests. • We are dependent on them. • They are our core business. • Always acknowledge their presence – smile, make eye contact, say hello, talk to them, make them laugh, offer help and advice where appropriate. • Treat learners as you would like to be treated.

15. Aristotle’s challenge Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics • “Anyone can be angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.”

16. Anger: four questions • Is anger the same as aggression? • Is there anger without aggression? • Is there aggression without anger? • How do you deal with your anger? Work on anger-management strategies for angry learners.

17. Assertiveness training People adopt different response styles depending on the circumstances. It is unlikely that anyone is wholly one type or another. RESPONSE STYLES NON-ASSERTIVE/SUBMISSIVE When you allow your boundaries to be invaded; I lose - you win AGGRESSIVE/DOMINANT when you invade or attack someone else’s boundaries; I win - you lose ASSERTIVE standing up for your rights without violating the rights of others; I win - you win BASIC SKILLS developing confidence and rights ESSENTIAL SKILLS what to say; non-verbal behaviour; what to think; how to integrate these elements comprising: + + SPECIALIST SKILLS Handling: disagreementcomplaints criticism aggression

18. Social skills Model and teach: • social communication skills • social interaction skills • self-awareness • relationship skills.

19. A sequenced repertoire of strategies for the management of disruptive behaviour • Core skills – these are powerful skills, useful in all discipline transactions. • Low level strategies – these are low key but assertive interventions. • Medium level strategies – these are direct and assertive interventions. • High level strategies – consequences for inappropriate behaviour are applied.

20. ABC

21. Talk strategies • Don’t say “don’t”. • Use “maybe…… and”. • Use calming tone of voice that conveys respect. • Emphasise you will hear them out when they have calmed down. • Preface your statement with an understanding of their point of view, then say, “however, I feel …” then say, “and I suggest” or “and I would like”. • State your request in positive behavioural terms. • Repeat your statement up to three times. • If negative behaviour continues, state the consequence and emphasise it is their choice.

22. Non-verbal techniques • Take-up or face-saving time • Mirroring • Mood matching • Using calming gestures • Non-confrontational positioning • Body buffer zone • Walking away with an angry person • Maintaining normal eye contact

23. Classroom or workshop management self-assessment questionnaire • Return to the questionnaire. • In view of what we have learnt, identify key action points.

24. Motivational Dialogue

25. Thinking about learners’ behaviours In relation to a task, learners may show: commitment compliance disaffection.

26. What is motivation? The probability that a person will enter into and persist with a process of behaviour change.

27. Motivational strategies • Advice How to give it? When to give it? • Barriers Help learners to remove the obstacles to change. • Choice Provide it in the face of the necessity of change. • Determination Increase their desire to change. • Empathy Communicate your desire to understand. • Feedback Provide clear, accurate assessment of the current situation • Goals Help THEM to clarify their aims. • Helping “Active helping” is NOT “enabling”.

28. Motivational dialogue A directive, learner-centred style of interviewing which helps people to 1. identify risks and goals 2. explore ambivalence 3. set targets 4. maintain behaviour change.

29. The Wheel of Change

30. Teacher’s task at each stage of change

31. Motivational dialogue skills • Effective questioning • Reflective listening • Using non-verbal communication • Summarising for change • Eliciting change talk

32. Skills with the Wheel of Change

33. Open questions Do not elicit a short answer Do not predetermine the reply Encourage the learner to talk Opening phrases In what way . . . How does this . . . Tell me about . . .* Give me an example of . . . * Effective questions

34. A form of active listening Useful for: 1. checking meaning 2. clarifying meaning 3. building empathy 4. selective reinforcement Always end reflection in a down tone of voice Can involve: 1. repeating key word or phrase 2. paraphrasing a key idea 3. reflecting NVC as well Reflective listening NVC: non-verbal communication

35. Closing the communication loop What the learner says What the tutor hears What the tutor thinks the learnermeans What the learner means REFLECTION

36. Reflective statements • It sounds like you… • You’re feeling… • It seems to you that… • So what you’re saying is… The pronoun YOU is usually the subject of the sentence.

37. Aspects of non-verbal communication • Posture • Orientation • Eye contact • Use of silence

38. Useful for: 1. getting the learner to take stock 2. checking or changing the direction of the conversation 3. bringing other information into the frame 4. Stalling while you think of the next step SummarisingDrawing together what has been said and presenting it to the learner • Don’t make it too long • Ask for approval at the end, for example; • Is that about right? • Is that more or less how you see things? • Have I understood you correctly?

39. Summarising for changeOne way of changing the learner’s perceptions • Spend more time on the reasons for change (or the reasons against staying the same) and less time on the reasons for not changing. • Use tone of voice and pace of speech to emphasise the seriousness and benefits of change. • Order the summary by putting the argument in favour of change in the latter part. • After asking for approval for your summary, ask “Where do you think you should go from here?”

40. Self-motivational statementsor “change talk”Another way of changing the learner’s perceptions “People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves discovered than by those which have come into the minds of others.” Pascal in the 17th century

41. Types of self-motivational statements 1. Statements of problem recognition 2. Expressions of concern 3. Statements of intention to change 4. Expressions of optimism about change Increasing significance