Week 3: Learning Theories and Motivation

Question 1: Discuss which theory/ies might be most applicable to your instruction and outline a specific activity/assignment/exercise that would facilitate learning according to that theory.

I have designed the following project using a constructivist theory. The idea of focusing on real-world applications appeals to me. That is one of the biggest challenges that my class presents -- helping students to understand that the literature they read represents real lives and experiences.

For my first-year seminar in non-Western literature, I would like to have my students collect, edit, and present oral histories. The county next to the one where my university is located has a large population of African immigrants. My friend "Mary Ann" works at the public library there, performing outreach to African families in the community. 

Prior to the event:
I would ask Mary Ann to help me identify about a dozen families where one or more members were willing to talk with my students about their experiences in their countries of origin and in the U.S. I would work with Mary Ann to organize a low-key coffee hour to which we would invite the families. We would discuss the parameters of the project beforehand, and make sure that they were okay with their stories being recorded on audio and played for the class at a later date. I would also work with my students to teach them the procedures and etiquette of recording oral histories.

On the date of the event:
I would bring my students to the library where Mary Ann works. All attendees would be invited to have coffee and snacks, and to chat informally before interviews began. One pair of students would work with each individual or family who chose to attend. Student pairs would have come up with their own list of interview questions. I would ask them to broadly approach the topics of the immigrants' lives in their countries of origin and their lives in America. In cases where several members of a family attended, students would ask them to tell their intertwining stories as a family. The students would make audio recordings.

The project:
Pairs of students would edit the audio using Audacity or other simple audio software. They would prepare a presentation that combined their recordings and their own live commentary. The students would share their interviewees' thoughts on their lives in the two (or more!) countries. They would also tie the interviews in with literature that we have read in the course.

Question 2: Consider what you learned from Small's article on motivation and address how you are going to motivate your learners/students.

The portion of the article that interested me the most was the section on motivating through relevance (page 7). 

For some students, reading literature from a developing nation or culture is a call to action, period. They may have natural, broad inclinations to help others. They may be majoring in a subject with a human focus (such as education or social work), or with an international focus. It's easy to hook those students in.

I would like to work on hooking the other students -- those who do not naturally see the connections between the literature we read and their own life plans. 

One idea I have for increasing motivation in this area is based around an activity. (I have not yet tried this, so it may go badly! Or it may go well!) I would ask students to arrange for a brief (10-15 minutes) telephone, Skype, or in-person interview with a person in a career that interests them. Each student would ask his or her interviewee four questions:

1) What types of business/work interactions do you have with people from other countries or cultures?

2) What countries or cultures do the people you serve through your work tend to come from?

3) What are some skills or techniques that you have learned for working with people from other cultures in your job?

4) [Come up with a question of your choice.]

I would have an informal presentation day where the students shared the two most interesting answers they received. We would work to make connections among individuals' interviews and connections with the literature we have read.

There is a slight risk of an interviewee saying that he or she does not have significant intercultural interactions. There is also a slight risk of negative answers. I think that this activity would be quite revealing for the class as a whole, though. It would be especially interesting to talk about the ranges of interactions that interviewees mentioned for specific parts of the world.