What role does student motivation play in encouraging deep learning?
A theme in responses to this question was the complicated subject of student motivation. Connecting students’ personal interests to course material was one way mentioned to help motivate students to engage in deep learning. Panelist Susan Kevra described an assignment in which students were asked to design a fund-raising campaign for a good cause of their choice. The assignment was connected to the study of a French writer who conducted similar campaigns. By surfacing student interests through this assignment before studying the writer, she helped motivate her students to see more value in studying the writer. She noted that this strategy worked particularly well for some students who took her course because they “had to” not because they wanted to. Other aspects of student motivation raised during the discussion included the role of challenge (assignments that are not too hard nor too easy are often more motivating), choice (giving students some level of choice in topics, assignment t
