Good afternoon, Spain. We are broadcasting live from the state of Utah in
the United States of America. We have the honor to have with us Professor
John Burton, an expert in education and also an expert in school
administration. He has been a principal of secondary and elementary schools
for many years with a lot of experience in teaching, training, as well as
working with the students. One of the most remarkable things that I can
present of Professor Burton is that he was awarded the National Outstanding
Principal of the Year by the U.S. government. That is a very distinguished
award that not too many individuals receive, as you can imagine, to be
recognized by the President of the United States. He is an outstanding
school administrator. Today, his lecture is going to be on student
motivation. I'm really looking forward to hearing his message. I believe
that all of us will be very uplifted and hopefully we will take his message
of motivation and bring it to our classrooms and even to our own everyday
lives. Without further ado, I will present and introduce... Professor John
Burton. Okay, thank you. It's a pleasure for me to be here this morning
with you and as Dr. Lago indicated, I will be doing a presentation on
student motivation and so let's begin. Waiting for the next slide to come
up here. I wanted to start by talking about the importance of student
motivation and quote what some of the research says. One piece of research
indicates that high motivation in students is linked to reduced dropout
rates and increased levels of student success, critical issue. Another one,
students are more engaged in learning when they are active and have some
choice and control over the learning process and the curriculum is
individualized, authentic, and related to their interests. A third study
says intrinsically, and we're going to talk about the difference between
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, but intrinsically, motivated students
retain their motivation. They retain information and concepts longer and
are less likely to need remedial courses and review. And then finally,
intrinsically motivated students are more likely to be lifelong learners,
continue to educate themselves outside the formal school setting long after
external motivators such as grades and diplomas have been removed. Okay, as
you can see from these research findings, they just underscore the need and
importance of teachers finding ways to motivate their students in the
classroom. Motivation is one of seven principles of student learning. I
want to just touch briefly on the other principles of student learning, but
then I'll come back and we'll really emphasize motivation. One of the
principles of student learning is titled active participation. And the
definition of active participation as you can see on the PowerPoint is the
consistent involvement of all or most of the learner's minds with that
which is to be learned. Another critical principle of student learning is
anticipation. This is a mandatory set, a process of focusing and mentally
preparing the students for the intended learning. In this situation you
would say, students I want you to all think of a time when something such
and such happened. And so you're focusing their minds on the learning
that's about to take place. Another principle of learning is called
closure. And closure is the engagement of students in a mental process that
allows them to summarize the learning that just took place. The fourth
principle of learning is retention. And as it suggests, retention is the
ability to recall or retrieve information. Then there's a principle known
as reinforcement, which means adding something to the learner, adding
something the learner needs or desires following an exhibited behavior. And
then the concept of transfer, and that's the process of past learning
influenced the acquisition of new learning. Okay, so now let's go to this
other principle or this last principle of student learning that we want to
address today. I want to define motivation. Motivation can be defined two
different ways. Here's the first one. Motivation is a state of need or a
desire that activates the person to do something that will satisfy that
need or desire. Another definition would be motivation is the condition of
being stimulated to action, something that compels someone to action or to
do something. Motivation, I think this is important to remember, motivation
doesn't necessarily mean that you have to like what you're doing to be
motivated. I want you to think in your minds for just a few seconds. I want
you to answer this question in your mind. How many of you like doing
dishes? But how many of you do dishes anyway? Or try this one out. How many
of you like to pay bills and taxes? If I could see you, I don't think I'd
see any hands raised. However, how many of you do in fact pay bills and
taxes? And I would say most of you would unless you want to find yourself
in jail. Okay. Now, those are a couple of instances where we're motivated
to do things but it's not necessarily intrinsic. And we're going to come
back and talk about intrinsic in just a minute. Now these next two
questions might be a little more favorable towards your way of thinking.
The next question I would ask is how many of you like to go ballroom
dancing? Well this one would be at the bottom of my list but I'll bet there
are those in the audience today who would say this is one of their favorite
things to do. Now if you ask the question how many of you like watching
soccer or football, I would be there on that list. That would be something
that I would enjoy doing but there might be some of you out there that
wouldn't enjoy that. I want you to do the following. Actually, I'm not
going to take a lot of time to do this but you don't even need to write
them down. I just want you to think of three things that you like to do.
Just briefly think of three things that you really enjoy doing and then in
your mind or in your brain why do you like doing these things? Then I'm
going to ask this question. Is it because you're intrinsically motivated to
do them? Well we'll come back and talk about that word intrinsic in just a
few minutes. We'll define it. But it's probably you do those things that
you like doing because you're intrinsically motivated to do them. Now I
want you to think just very briefly of maybe one, two or three things that
you don't like to do but you do them anyway. We mentioned the dishes
previous to this comment. Why do you do these things when you really don't
like to do them? And I would say the answer is because you're extrinsically
motivated to do them. We'll define that term as well in just one moment. So
basically we have two types of motivation. We have intrinsic motivation
which is internal and then we have extrinsic motivation which is external.
And they both have their place. Let's talk about intrinsic motivation for
just a minute. In intrinsic motivation a student does what he or she does
because he or she enjoys doing it. There's no one compelling or controlling
the individual to do it. He or she does it because they enjoy it. It comes
from within oneself. Think of these three examples. A person likes to read
a book because she likes to read it. A person jogs or enjoys jogging
because it invigorates him. Or a person works on crossword puzzles because
she enjoys them. That's one of my wife's favorite things to do. I couldn't
stick on that task for any time at all but she loves doing something like
that. Now unlike intrinsic motivation where it's a self-motivation that's
within you to want to do it, extrinsic motivation comes from outside
oneself. In extrinsic motivation there's an outward reward for proper
performance of a behavior. Now note this next comment on the PowerPoint
because this is powerful. Another person cannot motivate a learner but he
can affect the environmental conditions so that he will increase the
chances that learning will actually occur. Now remember this before we...
We're going to get into some extrinsic motivators in just a minute but
remember this concept. Extrinsic motivators can be very powerful. This type
of motivation, if it's not used carefully, can either have no effect or
actually destroy learning. Let's look at this next example. When you go to
the doctor, he's paid to know what you need to have done to you to get you
well because you're not feeling well. And this won't be the same for every
student. Every single person. And this is true as well with extrinsic
motivation. Now let's talk about the variables. There are six extrinsic
variables of this type of motivation. One is called level of concern. We're
going to cover these in more depth but I just want to give you an overview.
So one of the extrinsic variables of motivation is level of concern.
Another or a second is success. A third would be knowledge of results which
means feedback. A fourth would be interest. Then feeling tone. And then
rewards. And they don't necessarily fall in that order. That's just the way
we're going to discuss them because you might use knowledge of results at
one time, level of concern at another, rewards at another. But let's talk
about each one individually and just learn a little more about them. Okay.
Level of concern is the degree of expectancy or anxiety a person has toward
the task at hand. Now this next statement is powerful and I hope it
translates into your language correctly but good teachers comfort the
troubled and they trouble the comfortable. Okay. You have to remember and
we said this just a minute ago, the optimum level of anxiety or concern
varies with each student. When the anxiety level is too high it can
interfere with the motivation because the student may be afraid to try.
When it's too low the student is just not motivated to try at all. Let's
look at ways that you can lower the level of concern or raise or lower the
level of concern in a student. First of all, there's the notion of public
display. The teacher says something like this, listen carefully to what I
say because I'm going to have one of you share these four points with the
rest of us. Now that raises the level of concern in the students. You could
lower that somewhat by the teacher saying listen carefully to what I say
because I'm going to have you share with your neighbor the four points that
we have here. That's what we have just learned rather than with the whole
group. That lowers the level of concern a little bit. The next one is the
amount of time. The teacher might say something like you have 30 seconds in
which to write the definition on your paper. That raises the level of
concern. Or the teacher might say I will expect you to read at least five
plays by the author you've chosen but I will give you five months in which
to do this. Now think about what would happen if the teacher said something
like I will expect you to read at least five plays from the author you've
chosen and I will expect you to do it in the next two weeks. That would
absolutely send the level of concern so high that it wouldn't motivate the
students at all. Another idea about ways to raise or lower the level of
concern is the amount of material. Too much time with too little material
is a challenge. As a matter of fact, that's a good way to have a classroom
management problem in your classroom is to have so little material and so
much time that the students finish in a hurry and then they think of
creative ways to disrupt the class. The opposite could also be true.
Another way of raising or lowering the level of concern is competition with
yourself, with a neighbor or a standard. Now competition can be good as
long as it's carefully done and it doesn't destroy the learning. Let me
give you an example of something that would destroy the learning or would
really raise the learning to the degree that your own life would be at
risk. The Mayans used to have a ball game and in this ball game, the object
of the game was to put the ball through a round hoop and there's a little
picture of it at the bottom of this PowerPoint without the use of the
hands. So it was kind of like soccer, just use of the feet. The basket was
not much bigger than the ball. Each basket counted one point. Anything was
legal, so you could kick, push, shove, trip, whatever you wanted to do, but
anything was legal and the losing team's leader for sure and perhaps other
team members were taken out and killed after the event. So you would want
quite a motivation to learn but that's obviously over the top. Competition
can be a good thing but it also can destroy literally. Now here's another
one that's for level of concern and that's physical proximity. The teacher,
and you'll notice a couple of pictures here, the teacher stands by the
student. The teacher moves around the classroom. A teacher might move right
next to the student and put her finger on the text while she's still
talking to the rest of the class but the student that she's trying to raise
the level of concern in gets the idea that he needs to pay attention and
the teacher's pointed in the book or on the paper where he should be
attending. So that's a physical proximity issue, okay? Now remember, the
optimum level of concern or concern varies with each student. Again, just
like the doctor wouldn't prescribe the same thing for every single patient.
When the anxiety level is too high it'll interfere with motivation because
a student may be afraid to try like putting up a high jump or putting the
bar so high that it's impossible for him to physically achieve. Or when the
level of concern is too low, the student may not be motivated to learn at
all. If it's just jumping over a candle like you see in this illustration,
then there's not much learning that's going to take place there. Okay, that
was one of the variables of extrinsic motivation. Here's number two. It's
called success. This is a feeling, as you can see on the PowerPoint, of
achievement or accomplishment experienced by the student following a test
that contained an element of challenge. Now note with this element of
challenge, it means just above what the student's already able to complete
successfully. You don't put it so far out of reach that he or she can't
complete it. Okay, examples of success. The teacher says, yesterday you did
the 100-yard dash in 55 seconds. Today you did it in 50 seconds. Or teacher
says, this morning you did 25 problems in 10 minutes. This afternoon you
did 30 problems in the same amount of time. Remember that very few people
continue to be motivated in activities where they feel like they have
little experience at it or no chance for success. Okay, the third variable
in our extrinsic motivators would be knowledge of results. Okay, if this
variable is to be powerful at all, there have to be two basic
characteristics in place. One is the feedback should be specific and it
should be precise. There shouldn't be any question on the student's part
what the purpose of the feedback is. For example, when correcting papers if
the teacher just simply puts on their good, fine, poor, that doesn't
translate into anything for or much for a student. The student says, oh I
did all right or I did fine or I did poorly but how did I do so good or
tell me specifically how I did so well or why do you say teacher that I did
this thing so poorly. The teacher should spell out what the students did
right or wrong. Okay, she should verbalize what it is she likes or how the
students can improve. Okay, the feedback should be immediate and timely.
Feedback should follow as soon as after the activity the skill or the
process or task is completed. There shouldn't be a large space of time or
gap of time before the student receives that feedback. For example, with
homework, quizzes and tests they should be handed back as soon as possible
so the quick feedback serves as a motivator for the students. Feedback can
be given by the teacher or other students or by self-checking. Okay,
variable number four, interest. Interest means anything that makes
something else more novel or vivid. Increased interest means increased
motivation. A couple of the pictures that I have on this slide in this
PowerPoint are pictures of what are known as smart boards or Promethean
boards. And these are boards that are in classrooms that can be connected
to computers that make the learning more come alive, more vivid, more
exciting for students. We compete with a lot of things in society and it's
important that we use all that we have at our disposal to keep the interest
of the students alive and well. There are various ways to increase interest
such as actual objects, role playing, guest speakers, interest centers, the
colored whiteboard markers, the smart and Promethean boards that I just
referred to, field trips, games, DVDs and so forth. We need to be using
these things. Now, nothing takes the place of a teacher but certainly you
can augment what the teacher does with these resources. Remember, if
something is too novel or too vivid it may distract from the learning.
Here's an example a person would not have to bring an elephant into class
in order to teach the color gray. There are other ways of doing that.
Building interest in a lesson plan will help to do two things. It'll focus
the students on the learning and it'll make learning an enjoyable
experience. Number five, this is variable number five in these extrinsic
variables that will help students to be motivated. It's called the feeling
tone. Feeling tone is the atmosphere or the climate of the learning
environment and there are two types of feeling tone. There's feeling tone
in the room and there's feeling tone in the teacher himself or herself.
Feeling tone in the room would consist of things like the color of the
walls, the bulletin boards, how the room's decorated, the temperature in
the room. Is it too cold? Is it too warm for learning? The arrangement of
desks so that all students are able to see presentations and see the
teacher. Those are feeling tones in a room. Another feeling tone that I
just referred to is the feeling tone of the teacher. The feeling tone of
the teacher that the teacher puts out in the environment through verbal and
non-verbal messages can be positive, neutral or negative. Okay? It's
interesting but I personally can, I feel I can walk into classrooms and I
can feel the feeling tone in that room based on the way the teacher's
interacting with students, her comments, her personal appearance the
politeness and the tone of her voice. I've also been able to do the same
because one of my positions when I worked at a district office was to go
out and supervise elementary schools. There's a feeling tone in a school
and it's exhibited through the principal, the secretary, the custodian, the
media specialist as well as the teachers. Okay, as I indicated just a
second ago a feeling tone can be positive, it can be neutral or it can be
negative. A positive feeling tone can increase and motivate to a high
degree. The teacher in this case makes positive comments about students'
work, the teacher has pleasant facial expressions, smiles, looks students
in the eyes, is pleasant to be around, she speaks with a pleasant voice and
she also has a sense of humor. That's critical in teaching a sense of
humor. A neutral feeling tone does nothing to motivate. The teacher has
very little expression in his face, the teacher's voice quality is very
monotone. The picture there is actually of a movie entitled Ferris
Bueller's Day Off of a teacher who is teaching economics and it's probably
one of the most boring lessons that a student could ever experience in his
or her life and the teacher has a monotone voice and no excitement in it
and no expression, no smiling, it's just straight monotone the whole time.
A negative feeling tone increases motivation but to a lesser degree than a
positive one. For example, the teacher might say if you do not finish your
math work you will not be able to go out to recess or the teacher walks
close to the student who is misbehaving and stands behind him or her or the
teacher makes eye contact with the student who is not paying attention.
Okay, the sixth extrinsic variable is entitled rewards and rewards may
include extra credit, free recess time, extra computer time, trinkets and
so forth. Rewards say to the student if you will do what I ask then I will
give you something. Teachers can think of times when extrinsic rewards have
worked however they are not long lasting and I think we all recognize that
but they have a place. This presenter by the name of Rick Smith has said
the following concerning extrinsic I think he is right on. He goes around
the United States doing presentations on classroom management but he talks
about extrinsic rewards and the value they have in keeping students on
task. He says this, overall I believe it's ideal if teachers can motivate
students intrinsically so in other words students want to do the task
because they just feel good about it and feel it's the right thing to do.
But then he says but there are many times especially in the beginning of
their careers when teachers need to use strategies that won't work right
away regardless of the long term issues. But then Rick Smith says this, he
suggests that over time these extrinsic rewards lose their power to
motivate and students become numb to them. Well, we're back where we
started. Teachers can increase the probability of student learning by
skillfully using extrinsic variables of motivation. Level of concern we
talked about it, success we talked about that, knowledge of results or
feedback, interest, feeling tone and rewards. And just for your information
these are the sources that I've taken this information from today and that
concludes my presentation. Madrid, we just concluded our presentation. If
there are any questions. Thank you. to our American colleague. I would like
you to tell us if in your classrooms the level of motivation can be one of
the causes that leads to school failure because for example in Spain most
students who attend the classroom especially teenagers say that the main
reason for school failure is the student's lack of motivation. Is this the
case in your country? What can you comment about What can the professor
tell us about this great conference? Thank you. The question is if in Spain
they are having some issues on motivation is perhaps one of the leading
causes to student's withdrawal from school or lack of obtaining good grades
and so forth. Is it the same issue that they are facing appears to be the
same issue that we may face in regards to student withdrawal poor grades
and so forth. I mean is there a correlation are we looking at the same
problem from both ends of the Atlantic? I believe we are. Motivation here
is an absolutely big issue and it's not just dropping out in junior high
and senior high and it was because of the issue of motivation so it's not
just unique to Spain or any other area. It's very much unique to the United
States. And I feel the same way with the university students too. Now you
are looking at multiple variables you are looking at individuals that have
a family to feed they work to go to and so other factors of motivation take
place which actually can lead into school withdrawal and some other Yeah
and it's interesting to me because especially on a university or college or
university level where they know that it's kind of high stakes and what
they do on that level will determine whether or not they'll be successful
in their career in life but it's amazing to me not a lot but some students
who don't take that seriously and it ends up costing them like you say
their university or college career they just they're not motivated and yet
there's a real extrinsic motivation there because this is what I'm going to
do for a livelihood correct you know it's interesting what he's talking
about that what it takes place in the classroom from very early age and the
student lives have consequences down the road and if a student is not
motivated to perform well in the classroom we may see some consequences as
they become into the labor or employment or job setting which I think is
very interesting what you're saying very well they start thank you very
much for the answer a student tells us that thank you very much for the
magnificent conference congratulations professor they tell me from the chat
and they want to ask when a teacher perceives intrinsic motivation in a
student what tools are the most important that a student has being
intrinsically motivated what kind of tools can a teacher use to reinforce
the motivation I think with intrinsic motivation a lot of the reinforcement
is the teacher going over and acknowledging that the student has done well
if I'm intrinsically motivated and you say to me John good job you're doing
a great job I like the way that you were able to comprehend that particular
passage and do it so well that to me is a reward in and of itself because
if I'm intrinsically motivated that motivates me when somebody praises me
or tells me I'm doing a good job so praises would be a very good indicator
of reinforcing this intrinsic motivation any other you know another thing
to enforce it is actually an extrinsic variable and that is students even
though they're intrinsically motivated they like rewards and recognitions
of that type as well and so certainly I wouldn't eliminate that or rule
that out because you want that intrinsic motivation to continue now you
don't want them to become dependent upon those rewards or those extrinsic
rewards but certainly I would incorporate those into the process so kind of
in a okay so an extrinsic motivator one thing that I've noticed in my life
as a teacher I've even got involved you know when I've noticed that a
student was finally catching up and being motivated himself or herself I
would even get in contact with the parents and say I'm and at home then the
mom and dad can actually indicate hey good job for what you have done which
again goes back to this cycle that you're talking about yeah actually
what's interesting when I served as a teacher were doing and I was very
interested in what doing and I was very in what you were doing and first of
all I would like to thank you for the presentation I think it's very
related to practice and so I'm from Russia and we have actually the same
problem in Russia too motivation especially on the level of secondary
school and high school and well I think now everybody's looking for new
methods in teaching just to improve the motivation and I would like to ask
your opinion about the group work and collaborative learning in this
context so do you think that this kind of methods can actually increase the
motivation and maybe you know some kind of researchers which have been made
to prove this method is quite efficient or not thank you okay good question
you know actually this collaboration that you're talking about is an
important issue not just for students but for teachers as well and I that
will help bring other students along when you organize groups of students
you don't organize all the top end students into one group but you kind of
mix them in or at least I used to with those students who were doing okay
but not necessarily as well as those that were on the top end and I would
mix them in with students who were having difficulties as well because
they're a group and there's this group dynamic that they wanted to perform
and achieve and be part of the group and so I think that's valid I think
it's also valid on a teacher level the collaboration takes place there two
heads are better than one in the local districts here I'll speak of three
that I know they're all here in Utah County in the state of Utah in Alpine
school district in Nebo school district and in Provo school district they
have teacher collaboration programs not just student collaboration programs
because teachers get together and they collaborate on how they can help
motivate students better and they'll ask themselves questions such as what
is it the students need to know how will we know if they know it what will
we do with those who don't know it and what do we do with those who already
know it now this collaborative process and I know I'm speaking of teachers
right now and I know you talked about students but I think it applies to
students as well but teachers are the ones who can really make a difference
and can really motivate those students as teachers get together and do this
collaborative effort the spin off is great with the students as a matter of
fact in these three districts they have a designated day every week like
Alpine is Monday and Nebo is Wednesday and Provo is Friday when they let
the students go home an hour and a half early so the teachers can get
together to address the four questions I just talked about and that has a
great spin off in the classroom because what one teacher might not know
another teacher might so you share that information with one another and
you look at all your students on your grade level or in your content area
and see how you can help make them all more successful but the cooperative
learning groups back to the students the cooperative learning groups with
the students those cooperative learning groups learning groups are highly
effective and yes I think they need to be a part of the classroom I think
what Professor Burton is talking about I think is very important I don't
know if the current Spanish educational system allows for faculty
collaboration or teachers collaboration and I wonder if someone may answer
that question back there in Spain just for our information maybe let me ask
this question in Spanish so maybe I can get some other feedback the
question that Professor Burton has established is in the United States
there is a factor that is very important and it is the collaboration
between teachers in elementary school both in elementary school or
secondary education one day a week students leave school for an hour with
motivation etcetera the concept of coordinating teachers with common issues
that can be useful I don't know if this practice is used in Spain or not
and maybe it would be interesting if we could listen to your opinion yes I
can tell you that in Spain there is this form of collaborative work and
that strategy that you propose that is carried out in the United States
does not have to be something standard in Spanish centers but it is done
through teachers centers in which groups of teachers work that join them in
a specific theme a specific theme in a specific area in a specific stage
yes exactly the same exactly the same happens here there are occasions
where usually groups are grouped by departments sections or areas common or
elementary schools for example and collaborate the same by theme primarily
by department and they do collaborate that way in the Spanish school
systems ok I want to make one more comment the young lady that asked the
question as far as research I don't have anything in front of me for the
student cooperative learning groups but as far as research for teacher
collaboration there are two gentlemen in the United States now who are
really big pushers of that and one of these individuals name is Dr. Rick
DeFore and the other one is Dr. Bob Aker and they go around the nation
communicating with groups of teachers all over the United States talking
about these collaborative groups and finding time to collaborate and see
how they can make the learning better for students what I'll do is I'll
post on our blog those references for everyone to know in regards to the
research that has been conducted in the U.S. in regards to group working
and collaboration with the students especially teenagers because of the
lack of motivation these students have so the question is what could this
American teacher us for our Spanish teachers what can they do to really go
to the classroom motivated more than teacher well obviously Professor
Burton is a teacher of pedagogy education here at the university but he has
had a career for the last 25 years as school director and administrator of
schools and as I said at the beginning the national award by the president
of the United States as the best educational administrator and I think it's
a good question to answer Professor Burton the question is we have many
teachers not now students that are motivated and then obviously that
reflects back to the education realm of things as an administrator what
have you done to motivate faculty so they can move on well one of the
things I just talked about and I'm not trying to keep emphasizing this but
this teacher collaboration has been incredible as I've watched it
specifically in Alpine School District in Utah County where I was an
administrator for many years what happens a lot of times there is a lot of
students who are really motivated they're on fire they really want their
students to learn they're doing all they can within their power to have
that happen and then let's say you've got a third member of that team that
just kind of goes along for the ride not really doing not pulling his or
her share it's interesting with this collaborative process and I've seen
this happen how the two can ignite a fire under this third individual and
really bring them alive because some of what these teachers lack that are
not motivated is the experience the ideas the concepts and so forth that
not no person is an island any longer in the teaching profession we have to
share we need to cooperate and we need to interact with one another you
know another thing I used to do too I mean I did this as an administrator
there was certainly all types of praise for things that were going well and
we used to do recognitions of at least three or four teachers in each of
our faculty meetings saying let's just talk about some of the things that
they've done well these last two or three weeks with our students and we
tried to find something that every teacher was doing well now there are and
I'm sure this is true in your country as well there are a few teachers who
should not be in teaching and we need to help them find a different
profession someplace but I really believe deep down in the majority of
teachers are good conscientious people who want the best for students and
sometimes they're just looking for a way to give the best to students and I
think this collaborative process helps thank you very much what can we do
for the family so that all the parts of the triangle the teacher the
student the family can work together what do you recommend very good thank
you the question that has been brought up is what about the family what's
the family's role in motivating a student as a mother that she is what can
she do to motivate her children and within the triangle what they call the
triangle of education which is the student the school and the family how
the family can support this motivation initiative you know and that depends
on the family I'm sure if I were a child in your family I'd be highly
motivated in education because you have a strong belief in the education
system and you push for the best and I'm sure you do that with your
children you know in some of our schools right now we actually have parents
who want to know how they can motivate their students better and we
actually have classes in the schools held in the evening to help them
fulfill that we have in more and more and you need to know that Utah for
the longest time was basically a Caucasian area but over a period of time
we've had a lot of other nationalities move into our area I'm thinking of
some of the schools in Alpine school district some of the elementary
schools in Alpine school district and the Hispanic population is greater at
a few of the schools than the Caucasian population and part of the problem
there is we have parents who bring their children north from Mexico and
other areas in South America and the children speak English a little bit so
that they can learn English so that then they can understand what the
assignments are so that they can help their students they can motivate
their students to do better if they don't understand the language and don't
understand the homework coming home and the petitions from the teachers to
help out it's difficult for them to do anything when they don't speak the
language but one of the things we found we've had to do is help them learn
the language because English is the basic language in our schools one thing
that I would like to add as well and as a parent myself in regards to the
family's role or the parental role over the motivation of the children's
motivation in education one of the systems that has been created throughout
our educational system or framework here in the state of Utah and I imagine
across the United States is now there's an internet platform where parents
can access immediately not only the attendance of the student in the
classroom but also the assignments the homework their grades so as soon as
a teacher has passed role or has taken role in the class he actually puts
that information on the computer and a parent at any given location can
actually open up the internet and see what the student is doing or how
they're performing the student always with the understanding that teachers
and parents help the student to again to be motivated towards learning not
to demote that student or what would be the word that I'm looking for
depress the student or any other sense of actually get on the computer and
see what my children are doing at this point I can see if they're in class
at this point I can see what kind of scores they have received in their
last exam so that communication that constant communication is really
helping the whole educational system at this point you know this might
sound trite but it's something we continue to encourage in our schools and
that is parent participation in the school we welcome volunteers into our
schools we want them there we realize some parents because of work
schedules can't do that but sometimes they can work it into their schedule
where they can give some time in a classroom in a particular classroom
where their child might be for maybe 20 minutes a week but at least they
can come in and see what's going on in the classrooms and we always welcome
that and in some of our schools we get great parent participation in others
not as much but we do welcome parental participation in the classroom as
well great I hope it answered the question I think we have taken advantage
of the afternoon I wanted to tell you that on Thursday Thursday the 24th
continuing with this topic we are working on motivation we are to touch the
university motivation of the university student we are going to touch the
motivation of the student and we are going to focus especially on the topic
of mentoring I don't know if the teacher is going to be with us on Thursday
but I would like to know if he knows some experience about mentoring it
doesn't have to be university but I don't know if he knows about this
process because on Thursday we are going to focus on the process of
university mentoring as a possibility to motivate that student to that
young who is not a teenager or to that adult student who is coming to the
classroom so my question is do you have any kind of mentoring experience in
the university of Utah very well I will explain to the teacher in English
but I answer you briefly the university not only has an excellent program
regarding mentoring but it occupies large amounts of budget within the
university to carry out these types of program from laboratories from
mentoring centers from hiring exemplary students or students who have
finished the course so that there can be a follow-up through these mentors
there is teamwork departments for example work directly with recruit
somehow students who have finished the career so they can help in the
system to all these students obviously funded by the university we have
physical places infrastructure established for those types of program our
goal university is essential and it is the help to the student so that they
can overcome their university career and enter into the work world and be
successful as a person in society I will comment exactly what professor
Burton has in English to give some answers next Thursday they will have a
presenter that will talk about motivation at the college level and how
mentoring can help the students in the college realm I have shared with
them some of the initiatives that we have at the university level such as a
tutor labs like the math department the English department even the
language department all the different labs that we have and how we not only
have the infrastructure but also the funding to be able to help students to
grow and learn and progress through the university years any comments that
you may want to share with them no I think you've covered it but I think
there are ways to help students address their needs and I think about you
used the example of math and there are students who have a difficult time
with math but through the tutoring programs they are helped along their way
and it's made a difference in their lives and I know some of the students
that come over to the school of education in our elementary education
program some of them have a difficult time passing the prerequisite math
courses before they come over to the school of education and so tutors have
been a real viable program to help them get their math skills to the point
where they can come over there and then can continue on with the math
methods classes that are over in the elementary ed program have the
opportunity to direct right now I have hired 26 tutors who are exclusively
dedicated to improving the acquisition of the language and practice of the
language for example the math department I don't know how many tutors you
think the math department may have quite a few we are talking about maybe
100 200 tutors in the department the same with philology including English
language you can think well Spanish language English language in English
there are very established programs in the university I think it will be
interesting the presentation that will happen on Thursday so you agree with
Do you agree with the idea that mentoring can be a factor that facilitates
the motivation of the student? Totally, totally. The question is if we feel
that tutoring and mentoring could be a factor of motivation for the
student. Yes. Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, and the curious thing
is that, for example, many students cannot pass or do not manage to pass
their mathematics courses if they had not had a mentoring process, for
example. That is vital. And the same with other courses. Yes. Well, I am
very happy that... Yes. I am very happy to know this data, because when we
talked with Baldomero about this week, about motivation, we were not clear
what topic we could offer from UNED. And in the end, between the teacher
who is going to offer it that day and me, we thought that the topic of
mentoring could be very interesting, especially seeing the PowerPoint that
the teacher had already posted. Yes. It would be great to talk about a
concrete experience, since I think we can offer a lot of information on
this subject. And if you are also great experts in mentoring, how could we
not have talked about this topic before, Baldomero? Well, yes. How is it
possible? Here we are. There are so many things to talk about, that's for
sure. Well, I think it can be a great start to the day and it can be the
big highlight of this session. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you
very much, of course, for how magnificently well the teacher has done it,
for you, Baldomero, for being there trying to translate, trying to reach
everyone. And well, seeing that this continues, that we have more and more
followers, we have more and more people following us in the chat, in the
blog, and building learning or building knowledge. Very good. I insist.
Thank you. And I would like to thank you and move on to Thursday, the 24th,
to talk about mentoring, to continue talking about motivation, of course.
Very good. We want to thank you also from this end, and we want to thank
personally to Professor John Burton for his outstanding presentation on
motivation. We look forward to hearing from Madrid in regards to mentoring
and tutoring as a factor or a seeking factor as part of the study. And we
will continue to promote this. We believe this is a good tool of learning
and from both ends, the European continent as well as the American
continent. So we thank you again, and we look forward to seeing you on
Thursday. Muchas gracias a todos por vuestra participacion y colaboracion
en el proyecto. Muy bien. Pues nada. Hasta el dia 24. Gracias. Thank you.