Faculty and Student Motivation

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Faculty and Student Motivation

• KFUPM Faculty Perspectives
• M.R.K. Krishna Rao
• Information and Computer Science Department
• College of Computer Science and Engineering
• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

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KFUPM Faculty Perspectives

• Thank you
• Thank you
• Thank you!
• Over 100 faculty members responded within 40
  hours.
• Highly motivated faculty!!

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What is motivation?

• You can take a horse to the water but you cannot
  force it to drink
• It will drink only if it's thirsty
• So is the case with people.
• Whether it is to excel on a sports field or in
  the 'ivory tower' they must be motivated or
  driven to it, either by themselves or through
  external stimulus.
• Motivation is a means to reduce the gap between
  ones actual state and some desired state.
• Extrinsic to get a reward or to avoid punishment
• Intrinsic working without expecting a reward

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Why bother about motivation?

• Are we born with the self-motivation?
• Not really
• Motivation is a skill which can and must be
  learnt.
• performance f(ability, motivation)
• Ability depends on education, experience and
  training
• Its improvement is a slow and long process.
• On the other hand, motivation can be improved
  quickly.

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Maslows hierarchy of needs (1943)

• Generativity and Self Actualization (doing
  things)
• Esteem Needs (internal ones like self respect,
  autonomy, achievement and external ones like
  status, recognition, attention)
• Belongingness (affection, belonging, acceptance,
  friendship)
• Safety (security, protection from physical and
  emotional harm)
• Physiological Needs (hunger, thirst, shelter,
  etc.)
• http//psychclassics.asu.edu/Maslow/motivation.htm
  

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Maslows hierarchy of needs

• Self Actualization
• Esteem Needs
• Belongingness
• Safety
• Physiological Needs
• As the lower needs are satisfied, higher level
  needs become more important

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Question 1 self-satisfaction

• Assessing the highest need in Marlows hierarchy
  of needs, self actualization.
• Over 80 of the faculty strongly agree that they
  are motivated to excel in their work by the
  self-satisfaction and love for the profession.

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Question 2 intellectual challenge

• Again assessing self actualization.
• Filling the gap between (a) the challenges we
  face and (b) the skills we possess
• Over 50 strongly agree

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Question 3 esteem needs

• Assessing the 2nd level in Marlows.
• Baffled many I should have explained.
• About 70 agreed.

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Question 4 new ideas and recognition

• Again assessing the 2nd level.
• New ideas and possible world-wide recognition
  motivate 75 of the faculty.

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Question 5 Motivated students

• Assessing the belongingness need.
• Over 75 of the faculty said that they value
  motivated students and many made interesting
  suggestions on enhancing the motivation

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Question 6 Institutional support

• Assessing the belongingness and safety needs.
• About 75 of the faculty said that they value the
  facilities and other support provided by KFUPM

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Question 7 Promotion / increment

• The two lower (safety and physiological) needs .
• Lowest total of strongly agree and agree
• Some noises about salaries in other countries

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Student Motivation Levels

• Most of the faculty felt that less than 20 of
  our students are highly motivated expected
• 60 of students are performing upto their
  potential
• I feel there is a scope for improving at least 60

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Student motivation 1 Staff development

• 80 of the faculty agree that staff development
  is important
• DAD should continue with workshops in Sept

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Stud. motivation 2 Integrated curriculum

• About 2/3 of the faculty place great emphasis on
  integrated curriculum addressing various levels
  of cognitive skills in Blooms taxonomy - ABET

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Student motivation 3 Language skills

• Our faculty is most passionate about these skills
• 90 agreeing
• Many comments in question 8

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Stud. motivation 4 better assessment

• Assessment techniques like performance tasks and
  projects that model real world problems
• Needs further investigation to adopt them

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Stud. Motivat. 5 employer community

• Work with industry and other employer community
  in designing the curriculum so that the skills
  and techniques needed at work are given more
  emphasis in our programs

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Student motivation 6 student involvement in
material selection

• Least number of strongly-agree responses
• Concerns about student maturity
• Power of student evaluation

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Student motivation 7 Online material

• Least number of strongly-agree responses
• Security concerns Maslows safety
• Yet, 60 see it useful as supporting material!

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Conclusions

• Faculty and student motivation levels at KFUPM
  are comparable to those levels at other good
  universities across the globe
• Both faculty and students enthusiastically
  participated in the surveys
• Over 100 responses from faculty members within 40
  hours really commendable
• Improve the reading skills of our students
• Faculty development workshops on topics like
  critical thinking and active learning
• Work closely with industry and employer community

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Recommendations Stud. Motivation

• Send our students to spend a semester or two at a
  foreign university
• Develops interpersonal skills
• Major 2 exams should be scheduled to finish in a
  short period
• Free mind is an important asset
• Tutorial session for courses with no lab comp.
• Reduce office hours to 5
• Introduce active learning techniques
• Extra-curricular activities
• Sporting activities beyond PE course work

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Recommendations Fac. Motivation

• Salary survey
• Faculty contracts for longer periods, 3 or 4
  years
• After the first renewal
• Get-togethers / surveys to get faculty feedback
• Sense of belonging
• Issues / concerns addressed quickly
• Enjoyable and productive committee work
• Membership in no more than 3 or 4 committees
• Committees with at most 6-8 members
• Committee recommendations acted upon

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Recommendations Fac. Motivation

• Examination center to release faculty members
  from mundane invigilation duty
• Gardens and walkways with overhead covers
• Frequent college-level social meetings
• Encourage quality research
• Emphasis on quality not quantity
• Discourage publications in low quality (money
  making) conferences and journals
• They publish if registration fee is paid
• Saw a journal paper with mistakes in the first 5
  words!

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Faculty Motivation
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Student Motivation