Strategies for Enhancing Perseverance in the Classroom

With a few tricks up their sleeves, teachers can motivate students to persevere.

Students in the average classroom range dramatically in terms of academic performance, level of interest and degree of engagement with the curriculum. Teachers commonly struggle to keep their pupils interested and focused on the subjects being taught, but it is common for young people to become bored with their studies, to zone out and to become discouraged when things do not immediately work out. Fortunately, well-equipped instructors can successfully motivate students toward pressing on with confidence.

Goal-Setting

One way to make sure that a student sticks to a certain course of study long after he might be expected to lose interest is to work one on one with him to create an outline of goals and academic objectives. When students start to develop their own road maps to success and to invest in the outcome of their endeavors, they are more likely to stick to the blueprints and keep working hard on their studies.

Motivation

Student achievement has been linked to positive, confidence-boosting motivation on the part of encouraging and supportive teachers. The more a young person believes that her instructors are in her corner, backing her up as she progresses through class lessons, the more likely she is to stick to the program and to deliver better test scores and homework assignments. Maintaining a high level of optimism regarding students' abilities can do wonders for increasing their tenacity.

Personal Narratives

Teachers should involve students by requiring them to write about their own experiences with perseverance and success. Pupils should be asked about the times in their lives when they felt like giving up but stuck to their path and were happier and wiser in the end. Many students should be able to recall instances in their academic or personal lives when dogged dedication to reaching the finish line helped them to come out on top. These interactive activities should help to ingrain the concept of perseverance in the students.

Structure

Dependable structure and discipline always gives students, and young people in general, a stable framework from which to operate. If threats of consequences are followed through, pupils will come to expect a certain degree of seriousness in class, inciting them to work harder. A sense of responsibility to the rules will encourage a sense of confidence when it comes to accomplishing goals.

References

• Unco: Motivation: What Teachers Need to Know
• KellyBear: Instilling Perseverance in Children