Motivating Your Students (and Yourself) in Trying Times
Join Ellen Usher and Anita Woolfolk for a discussion on motivational strategies to engage the minds and emotions of students at a time when teaching and learning are challenging and rapidly changing.
Dr. Ellen Usher, University of Kentucky
Dr. Anita Woolfolk Hoy, The Ohio State University
There is no shortage of motivational theories, but which explanations provide valuable guidance and strategies? In this webinar we explore two particularly useful approaches — one that focuses on basic human needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, and the other that highlights the role of how we perceive the value and costs of our efforts.
We all need to feel capable, to have control and the ability to make our own choices, and to have meaningful and supportive connections with other people. When these needs are reasonably met, both students and their professors are more likely to be engaged and intrinsically motivated. But how can we meet these needs in the disconnected world of teaching and learning today?
Also, people are not likely to be motivated if they don’t really value the outcome — why work hard if you don’t care about the goal or if doing so comes at too high a cost? How can professors help their students value learning and see the beneficial side of putting forth the effort needed to learn? We will explore some specific strategies and share cases from recent K–12 and college classrooms that bring these ideas to life.
Recorded:
Duration:
About the speakers
Dr. Ellen Usher, University of Kentucky
Ellen L. Usher spent her early childhood in Roswell, Georgia, where she had diverse educational experiences that included attending a private nature-based school and public elementary and middle schools. She went to high school in rural South Carolina and urban Atlanta. A lifelong Francophile, she earned her Bachelor’s in foreign language education and began her professional career teaching French to elementary school students in Atlanta public schools. Inspired by her own favorite former teachers, Ellen transitioned to teaching fifth and sixth grades while pursuing a master’s degree in middle grades education from Oglethorpe University.
After earning her PhD in educational studies from Emory University, Ellen began her career in higher education at the University of Kentucky in 2007, where she is director of the P20 Motivation and Learning Lab, an intergenerational, interdisciplinary team of researchers engaged in projects that explore human motivation in a variety of teaching and learning contexts. Ellen is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and past Chair of the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.
Dr. Anita Woolfolk Hoy, The Ohio State University
Anita Woolfolk Hoy was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where her mother taught child development at TCU and her father was an early worker in the computer industry. After receiving her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Texas, she was a psychologist serving students in elementary and secondary schools in 15 counties of central Texas. She began her career in higher education at Rutgers University in 1973, then moved to The Ohio State University in 1994. Today she is Professor Emerita at Ohio State.
Anita’s research focuses on motivation and cognition, specifically, students’ and teachers’ sense of efficacy. For many years she was the editor of Theory Into Practice, a journal that brings the best ideas from research to practicing educators. She is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association, and has been President of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of APA and Vice-President for Division K (Teaching & Teacher Education) of AERA.
Anita has authored or coauthored over 120 books, book chapters, and journal articles. Her seminal text, Educational Psychology (15th edition, 2023) has been translated into over a dozen languages and adapted for a worldwide audience. The latest edition was coauthored with Ellen Usher. Anita also has collaborated with Nancy Perry, University of British Columbia, to write the 2nd edition of Child Development (2015) and with her husband, Wayne Hoy, to complete the 5th edition of Instructional Leadership: A Research-Based Guide to Learning in Schools (2020).