According to LeiLani Cauthen, CEO & Publisher, Learning Counsel News Media & Research, “Motivation was really the number one issue in our pre-survey nationally, before we started this tour of regional events. I think it's changing a little bit now as some of the schools go back to actual physical schooling, but motivation of students is a lot about what Terri Vest and I were talking about earlier, which is, they have to have some agency to learn remotely. And it seems like remote's going to be part of the flavoring of all education for here on out - hybrid learning, simultaneous learning and parallel learning, whatever you want to call it. But you have to get yourself out of bed and get online. You know, that's a problem for some kids. Other ones were doing fantastically well, they're, they're like, this is my jam. They are succeeding brilliantly. So, we learned something about the disparity among students.”
Joining LeiLani Cauthen in the discussion are Dr. Paul O’Malley, Superintendent at Butler School District 53 and Dr. Victor Simon, Superintendent at Gower School District 62. According to Dr. Simon, “I was struck by much of what you shared and what I find fascinating and maybe it's anecdotal at this point, but I've seen some data published from individual school districts, particularly high schools that say, Hey, at this point, we've surveyed our families. We're in March, we're trying to find out how many of our families want to come back to school for in-person, how many want to stay remote? How many would prefer two days a week, if that's the hybrid model or however they have it set up. And it's discouraging to see some of this data come back with a higher number than I would've ever expected of individual families, that whether that's generated only by the student or it's a family decision, say that they're most comfortable staying remote right now.”
Motivation is a big subject, and these experts have some very interesting insights to offer. In these changing times, keeping learners (and their families) motivated feels like job one. Here’s what you need to know.
