Motivation Solution 4: Education Policy

Motivation Solution 4: Education Policy

Education Policy: change the curriculum

To be honest, I don’t know what teachers can do to solve some of these problems. Some of them seem to be out of the hands of the educators. The state mandates what to teach, we can not go against them on curriculum and if the student wants to leave school we can only try to council them and tell them the benefits of staying in school, but in the end it is up to the learner because they are the “adult”. -- -Ry* Feb 1, 2008, EDCI 4322-60

Education Policy: tougher laws

I believe tougher laws should be implemented to make sure that parents keep their kids in school and maybe reward those students who excel in their studies, besides it is in the best interest of the country to have an educated population.—Homer, Feb 1, 2008, EDCI 4322-60

Education Policy: raise teacher salary

I believe that in order to have good students, we need to have good teachers. By good teachers, I mean those teachers who are devoted in this profession and are determined to make a difference. Unfortunately, we don’t have that many “good teachers”. While we are concerned with the students’ motivation problems, teachers’ motivation problem is equally disturbing: many teachers quit their job after first several years. Of course, they have many reasons to quit, such as having no control in the curriculum, test-driven instruction, pressure on passing the students, being blamed for students’ failure, troubled students, over-working…, but I think one fundamental reason for teachers’ motivation problem is they are underpaid. If we really take this problem seriously, we should raise teachers’ salary. Not just to ensure the teachers that they can make a comfortable living, but also to make them feel that their hard work, devotion, and commitment is being appreciated by the society and it is worthwhile.—Lisa, Sep 26, 2007, EDCI 4322-61

Links to motivation:
http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/Areas/Developmental/SchoolMotivation/#MotGen

Drop out cure:
http://www.dropoutcure.org/

Middle School Drop out prevention
http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/

More links to dropping out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1882419270757255861&q=High+school+dropping+out&total=1138&start=0&num=20&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

ASCD, Education Update (Jan. '08) has a brief article, "The ABCs of Student Motivation" in the Conference Report section. The summary is from the presentation by Richard Sagor.

To learn more about Low Motivation, High Dropping Out

Low Motivation, High Dropping Out-- Understanding ...
Demotivator 1: The Individual
Demotivator 2: The Teachers
Demotivator 3: The Parents
Demotivator 4: Education System
Demotivator 5: The Environment
Motivation Solution: Pay them?
Motivation Solution 1 & 2: The Individual & Parent...
Motivation Solution 3: The Teachers
Motivation Solution 4: Education Policy