What is the best way to motivate people? There are three general answers to this question:
Money, power and sex.
What is the best way to motivate students? There are, as well, several answers:
Money, alcohol and sex.
Now, as the University Maastricht is not very likely to pay its students in the near future, serve free drinks in the lectures or take care of their sexual satisfaction, there has to be a different way. Let me tell you something about my personal experience concerning motivation:
A few days ago, Concordantia, the Study Association of European Studies, had its General Member’s Assembly and the new Board was elected. I am now one of the two Executives, which means my task is to stay in touch and communicate with seven of our fourteen Committees, such as the Activities Committee, the Rhetoric Society or the Education Committee. Furthermore, I have to do Office Hours once a week, attend a weekly Board Meeting and take care of my personal projects. All in all, this means a workload of up to 20 hours per week in the very busy times. Is that feasible next to University and why would you want to do this job on a voluntary base? What is the motivation for such an intense engagement?
One explanation is that you certainly learn a great deal about event management, organizing an office, working in a team, taking responsibility and developing your own personal skills. When I started my job on the Board, I was deeply surprised about how professional and seriously students can work and about how deeply they are committed to their tasks. They sacrifice a lot of time and energy and are able to work astonishingly hard. Another explanation would be that the experience of influencing your personal environment and being able to change things that have a very direct impact on your student life, is highly appealing.
Why is it so much less frequent, to see this kind of commitment of students towards their studies? Is there a way to mobilize this potential, that young people certainly have, for academic purposes? I guess, that the more you have the feeling that your personal input counts the more you are willing to contribute to a process. If your participation is acknowledged and changes the status quo, than you will be willing to proceed with it.
But if you are only rushed through your courses, with the single goal to pass the exam, than that is exactly what you will do. You will not spend one more minute on your paper than is needed to meet the faculty’s requirements. Unless you belong to the very few gifted who seem to cope with the workload effortlessly, you will end up with some sort of “minimize the work, maximize the result”-principle. Any kind of “thinking across borders”, personal engagement and further interest than your list of compulsory literature requires, will not take place, as long as you are not given the space and the stimulus to think.
I see my work on the Board as a “professional playground”. If studying would be an “intellectual playground”, students would probably be willing to work harder, more creative and also would think more controversial. In my opinion, it is a flaw of the strictly organised PBL-system that long-term project work and an interdisciplinary approach are left aside, thereby keeping most of the students at an average level.