Allowing students to have input on lessons, assignments, pace, etc. gives students perceived control and autonomy over their learning builds motivation. Provide supportive and clear feedback to students and encourage questions.
allow interaction with students in laying out the course objectives
Security is the student's belief about his or her ability to perform the tasks assigned and autonomy is the student's belief about the amount of control they have over the learning process. Providing these two things in the classroom is very important to student motivation.
Adult learners are doers and thinker's vs sitters and listeners. Allowing students to choose from a list or group of appropriate tasks or assessments may improve security and autonomy. I especially liked the wait time information, where the instructor waits before responding, allowing students ample time to formulate their answer.
adults are motivated due to past life experiences
I teach students from 17-60 years of age, and you can definitely see a difference from the younger learners to the older adult learners. The older learners seem to take things more seriously and try harder and don't miss as much class time as the younger ones who may still be living at home with their parents. Possibly the older learners have more to lose than the younger ones and have already developed a good sense of security and autonomy.
It is important for adult students to feel secure when they are in a classroom.
I was surprised to learn the degree in which flexibility plays a role in the development of student autonomy. Partitioning assignments is one such example, where students are tasked to work upon groupings of assignments rather than all the assignments, while still adhering to the principles of the curriculum. For some trades in post-secondary schools this might work better than others, but overall it is a great way in which we as teachers can provide our adult students with levels of autonomy. One thing that I have been using in class to answer the question of security is to provide students with group worksheets that are needed to be solved. These group assignments will often get all my students involved, even the more placid.
Always from a positive upbeat attitude.
Influencing student motivation that you offer to your students.
