Goal:

Something that I would really want to explore is finding effective and creative ways to motivate my students. Teaching Automotive is a passion of mine however, during my practicum automotive was certainly not of an interest for my students as opposed to other Technology Education subjects such as woodwork and drafting Automotive is different, students cannot really take any cool projects home, they are learning technical hands on skills without an external “prize” at the end. This could be the reason why the students in my automotive class were drastically less motivated to work.

Implementing a business like model to motivate students in class.

Rationale:

Reflecting on my practicum with my inquiry question in mind: how to motivate students in a technology education class, it seemed that those students in woodwork and drafting were more intrinsically motivated because they became passionate about their project that they would then finally take home and be proud of. I want to motivate my students to come to class. I had students skip class all the time, I want students to feel that the class is worthwhile.

Model:

I am hopeful that I will get more advice and insights from seasoned Tech-Ed teachers in terms. However, at the end of the day I will be working with my students. I anticipate mutual respect between my students and myself. I will present to them the classroom expectations and this business like model and hopefully my students will be more motivated to be productive and useful in class.

Action Plan:

Reflecting on ways to motivate these students in automotive, I thought greatly about modelling the class as an imitation of how a typical automotive shop is run. There is the boss, there is the Forman and there are the workers. Workers get payed based on how many successful jobs they complete. This being said, I can play the role of the boss in the classroom, gifted or more experienced students will have the role of the shop foreman and the rest of the class are the mechanics. We will generate money for the Tech Ed program as always, however some of the money will go towards “student awards” that I will be distributing to students who performed well through the month. Very similar to a pay increase or a bonus or pay cheque in a real shop setting. I believe some extrinsic motivating factor needs to be implemented to increase productivity in an automotive classroom.

Timeline:

I would like this to be accomplished whenever I established the confidence experienced teacher. As of now I can only reflect upon my practicum experience. I will be learning an abundance along this journey as an educator. If I were to give a firm date, I would like to have this business like model fully established after 5 years of teaching, while reflecting and making necessary adjustments to the model along the way.

Signs of Success

I will know when I have succeed when my students will know exactly what to do at the start of class. They will not need me to direct them anymore, I should be there to facilitate their learning. This may take a while, however I want my expectations and my business like model to be clear. Students should still be just as productive even when a TOC is to teach for a specific class. I should not have to remind students to get to work, they should know already. By doing so, I as a teacher must be organized, stick to my plan and care for my students.