Motivating Instruction? There’s an App for That!

Abstract

Keeping students engaged in the curriculum is extremely important when attempting to close the achievement gap for students with and at risk for disabilities. This is particularly important for students with learning disabilities or behavior disorders. This article discusses the use of applications (apps) for mobile technologies that may be used to motivate and thus engage students in the classroom by supporting best instructional practices. These apps are matched to specific strategies that researchers have suggested for increasing motivation and engagement.

The Implementation of Cooperative Learning Model ‘Number Heads Together (NHT)’ in Improving the Students’ Ability in Reading Comprehension

“…Step five (5), the teacher called the students with the particular number, then the students whose numbers were the same raised their hands Step 1 to step 5 were performed on the first cycle although it was not optimal. The next step was the step six (6) in which the teacher distributed sheets of paper and asked the students to rewrite down the answers to each question asked in the worksheets.…”

“…Furthermore, an effort to manage the classroom effectively is that the mistake should be avoided by teachers are the excessive interference, imprecision in starting and ending the learning activities, irregularities, and long-winded in presenting the lessons. Teaching process will be significant in case teachers can create learning atmosphere that can activate students to learn [5]. There are many methods that can be employed to make students active in the teaching and learning process and one of them is Number Heads Together (NHT) method.…”

Tablet Devices for Students with Disability in the Inclusive Classroom

“…Motivation: Motivation is critical in keeping students, including those with disability, engaged in curriculum and learning tasks (Bruhn, Hirsch, & Vogelgesang, 2017). Bruhn et al (2017) provided an overview of apps that are useful in motivating students with disability in engaging in instructional tasks. They grounded these in three Cs of motivating instruction: challenge, context and control.…”

Integration of Mobile Technology Into Evidence-Based Practices for Students With Emotional and Conduct Disorders in Classroom

“…This would have otherwise been difficult to do in inclusive or multi-level classrooms (Flower, 2014). The opportunities for students to be autonomous learners while participating in instructional practices (Bruhn, Hirsch et al, 2017;Flower, 2014;Stephenson & Limbrick, 2015) could save teachers' time (Maich & Hall, 2016) and permit other forms of ongoing support (Haydon et al, 2017).…”

“…In order to reduce their achievement gap (Bruhn, Hirsch, & Vogelgesang, 2017), students with ECD need access to ongoing support and best practices (Haydon et al, 2017). Particularly, teachers are encouraged to use evidence-based practices (EBPs), which are practices that have been supported by multiple high-quality experimental research studies (Cook, Cook, & Collins, 2016), to address students' academic and behavioral needs.…”