As a student, and someone interested in education, I find it very demotivating when I end up with bad teachers. Deep down I know that the teacher isn't the subject that they teach, but it seems to be human nature to make that association in our mind and begin to dislike a subject as much if not more than how much we dislike the teacher we have of that subject. That is exactly what has been happening to me lately, I'm so close to the end of my undergraduate degree, but I feel like I am fighting an uphill battle to keep my motivation. I particularly notice that my motivation fades after I log on to our university learning network (Moodle) and see the lack of interest, draconian or authoritarian attitudes or just plain bad teaching from my lecturers. Further my motivation wanes when I see how few of my fellow classmates are engaging in conversation (this is an online course), for one subject I am the only student who posts on the forums. For another subject some of the students have been caught handing in previous years reports. These type of things get me down, then I get down about the fact that I let it get me down.
Ever trying to be optimistic (what other choice do I have other than to crawl into bed and never come out?), I try to learn from these experiences. About 2 years ago I started writing a book which lists and explains all the teaching mistakes I have come across in my undergraduate degree, how they could have been avoided and what makes them mistakes. One thing I am yet to write about is how bad teaching in general negatively affects students, their attitude toward life, the subject and their study and on the opposite side, how good teaching positively affects students (does bad teaching have any positive effects on students? Maybe only by seldomly getting people like me to consider what makes it bad in the first place. Does good teaching have any negative effects? hmmm interesting question).
One interesting thing I have found is that I prefer lecturers who show no interest in even trying to teach over the ones with the draconian, arrogant or authoritarian attitudes. Since the ones with the bad attitudes often seem to think that they're actually doing a good job, but I generally find their methods hinder my learning. Whereas the ones who don't even bother, well at least I can carry on trying to teach myself the information without feeling quite as negative about the course and subject.
How to get my motivation back? Well that I am yet to figure out, usually it just means that I have to complete the unit and start fresh again with the next unit. I'd like to be able to let the frustration go, so I can get on with what is important to me; my degree, my education. But somehow their bad attitudes never cease to pervade my mind, making me frustrated and annoyed, making me question their motives, their reasoning (if it exists).
Well at least it helps me gather data on my quest to figure out the ins and outs of what makes a good teacher good and a bad teacher bad.
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