How to Help Students Improve Academic Achievement & School Success Behavior

A student's behavior toward learning may reflect how he is being taught.

A student's negative behavior within an educational environment just may be the result of how that environment is presented. Classroom motivation may be affected by how you, as a teacher, provide encouragement, opportunities, structure and a strong student-teacher relationship.



Students can easily feel discouraged when constantly condemned for their academic faults. In order to encourage motivation in your students, you must first create a positive environment for them. Surprisingly, improving a student's academic achievement or behavior may only take a compliment or a change in classroom structure.

Instructions

1. Provide positive feedback. Rather than consistently criticizing a student's work, praise his strengths within each assignment. He may be more likely to accept and learn from the criticisms when he is provided with a positive evaluation as well.

2. Present additional learning opportunities. Students may have a hard time grasping material in the classroom. Informing them about extracurricular activities may help improve their performance within the classroom and help boost their confidence.

3. Structure your classroom time with easy-to-follow activities without lowering classroom standards. Students comprehend information differently. What may seem like simple exercises to some can be difficult for others. Having patience as a teacher is key to creating a sense of belonging for students, especially for those who are struggling.

4. Offer additional time to students outside of the classroom. Due to looking unintelligent in front of classmates, a student may not raise her hand to admit that she does understand the topic being taught. Offering additional time for students who do not feel confident in their learning abilities allows them to feel more secure in asking questions at an interpersonal level. This will create a strong student-teacher relationship that will hopefully continue throughout the school year.

5. Provide choices. Allow your students to choose from various assignments. For example, a student has a choice of writing a paper or giving a presentation. Perhaps a student does not feel comfortable in his writing abilities, but is confident in presenting a speech. Being given options may increase motivation to complete an assignment, as well as learn by a preferred method. Additionally, allowing students to choose what topics to study within the classroom may increase their motivation to learn.

References

• University of Hawaii: Motivating Students
• On the Cutting Edge: Student Motivations and Attitudes: The Role of the Affective Domain in Geoscience Learning