One of the most popular set of pages on the SERC website is about the Affective Domain -- student attitudes and motivation: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/index.html. I think we all realize that motivation is a prerequisite for learning. If you've ever "tried" to learn something that you just weren't that interested in learning, you know how much of an impediment to learning a lack of motivation presents. But whose responsibility is it to motivate a student to learn?

I used to think that it was my students' responsibilities to be motivated to learn. After all, they were paying tuition to be students, right? And then I had my epiphany: if I put the responsibility on them, I also give up whatever power I might have in the situation. That is, if a student wasn't motivated to learn, there was nothing I could do to change the situation. I don't like feeling powerless, so I decided to "try on" an alternative perspective. Students came to my classroom with some level of motivation to learn, and my actions would either increase, decrease, or make no difference in that level of motivation. It turns out that we are nowhere near powerless to motivate our students.

This page is full of strategies for motivating students to learn, as well as a wealth of examples of how to implement the strategies: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html. I would love to hear about how you are doing this, or ideas you get from reading this site. Have you had any epiphanies of your own about motivating students to learn? Tell us about them....