Literature review Motivation

The second piece of literature which I have chosen to review is "Knowing Dance- A guide for creative teaching- Motivation- Marion Gough" 

After reading this book, I have decided to review the section on Motivation, because I also want to look into what makes a great dance teacher great. Motivation is a key aspect of teaching, getting the students interested in what you are teaching is very important. In this chapter of the book Gough states that people learn best when "they are well motivated, the work is relevant and meets their needs, they are actively involved, the atmosphere is conductive to learning and when they feel respected" These are all true but are hard to put into practice I find. For example If you are working a a dance piece over a long period of time with a class, its hard to keep them motivated every class. Where as my lessons that I teach where I change what are doing from week to week always seem more open to ideas and more excited about the choreography. One point which I found interesting that Gough talks about is peoples motivation for joining in that specific class. I had never though about someone joining in, to "meet others" or to "gain confidence". I know that within my lesson I am always trying to get my students to be more confident with their dancing but had never thought about someone actually joining to gain confidence out of the lesson. Gough then goes on to write about "Motivating Factors" and how factors like space, ammount of students, temperature of the room can affect the students motivation. I feel that yes these could effect the motivation of the students at the beginging of the lesson but its should be your responsibilitiy as the tecaher to change their way of thinking and get them motivated and get on with the class so they can forget about all these factors. "Individuals bringing negative attitudes" is something that got me thinking as this often happens at one of the dance schools that I teach at where one child might of had a bad day or isnt feeling well and I always feel that the other students bounce off this and I find it hard to get the others to snap out of it. I always say to my students "leave your troubles at the door, we are here to dance and be creative, if you come in with a  negative attitude everything you do will become negative." Gough then says "they are more likely yo respond to a teacher who demonstrates positive motivatig factors- such as their commitment, enthusiasm and passion for the subject." I completely agree with the statement I feel it sums up what I was trying to state above. The last thing that Gough talks about is how students feel motivated, the one point that Gough makes about the students having "some measure of responsibility, of decision making." This is a great point I know that when I used to be taught and we got asked questions and asked for chreographic ideas I loved it. It made you feel part of the class and feel needed. I know that when I teach the students sometimes ask if they can put in some chreography and I always say maybe we'll see how it goes, and dont normally get round to it. After readig this section of the book I now know the students like to feel needed and have their own personal stamp in the class. They bounce of "realsitic challenges and goals" and love to feel part of the process.
Brilliant book would reccomned it to dance teachers.