Motivation is a huge issue - becoming clearer and clearer to staff in schools around the country. The speaker for this session is Ian Smith – you can find videos and information with Ian on the Learning about Learning site – new this week from Learning & Teaching Scotland.

Deepen our understanding about motivation in schools and classrooms. His success criteria – we take 1 of the 100 ideas he gives us to try out in school.

Ian was once given this response from a secondary teacher - "If they came into my class motivated to learn then I could do anything with them” – there is an assumption here that it"s not part of our jobs to motivate. Clearly it is.

Emotions are contagious – we can clearly affect how motivated our students are.

Ian is asking us to consider how motivating we are as teacher. From a scale of 1 – 10 (as an aside, 1 is fine by the way – it means we are a little motivated!)

What makes outstanding teachers? High levels of support and challenge.

Bill O"Hanlon mentioned again in this session – coincidence? Maybe it"s time to check out more about solution-focused therapy. This is used a lot in life-coaching.

Positive praise all the time is not good – narcissism is just as damaging as low self-esteem.

We already know what behaviours affect other people"s self-motivation.

What"s the most important subject in the secondary curriculum? The answer is probably Maths, English – at the bottom of the pile is Personal and Social Development. This needs to be top of the list. If we are not focusing on this, then we"ll never achieve a Curriculum for Excellence. More than that though, it needs to be taught by the most able in this field, not just those that have a free spot on their timetable. Not just taught in the areas of deprivation either – this is just as important in the leafy suburbs.

"We are what we continually do” Aristotle

You can find out more about the work of Ian Smith and Learning Unlimited on their site or their stall D57 in the exhibitors hall.

An interesting session, which highlights the work of Learning Unlimited.

Categories: ScotLearnFest07