A large number of the high school graduates in the United States have been reported to drop out of college and fail to exhibit the required academic and practical life skills and hence something has to be done to equip students with best skills to fit the 21st century.
There should be professional training and development of teachers especially on using the education technology. Teachers should be trained on the latest teaching technologies, provided with the level of current professional development and adaptive learning tools. This will enable teachers to respond quickly to student needs.
A new School curriculum that is responsive, flexible and relevant to the needs of students should be developed. The education system needs to be rigorous to match the best standards. The curriculum should also focus on developing the critical skills. The curriculum should be able to provide the student with specific knowledge and life skills for success in the current century workforce and have the flexibility to design their own courses of study based on their career interests (Santrock 2012).
The school should engage the students always in learning and pay attention to the various psychological factors which motivate students. Should show a great concern in the students’ lives and create a supportive social environment. This will promote self-discipline and a feeling to belong among the students and the drive to perform well and be self-disciplined.
In the transition from high school to college, most students are overwhelmed by the freedom and self-responsibility of their lives in college since they had not learnt how to manage their finances and time. Students in high schools should have the opportunity to be taught about the practical life skills and be able to relate academic concepts to real-world problems and how to solve them.
Achievement motivation is one’s ability to compare their performance with that of others and against a set standard performance. Achievement motivation involves the stimulation of personal abilities, constant efforts and obtaining a sense of success and satisfaction. The main factors which shape the adolescents achievement motivation include self-efficacy, purpose and mindsets (Schunk and Meece 2005).
Adolescents experience changes in their school environments, family relationships and peer groups which have profound effects on their learning and motivation. Self-efficacy is the capabilities of one to learn and perform various activities at certain levels. Self-efficacy is majorly influenced by personal, social and contextual variables. The changes in self-efficacy in adolescents create implications for their school performance, friend relations and career choices.
Mindsets can either be fixed or growth mindset. The growth mindset is whereby people believe that primary abilities are developed through dedication to a purpose and working hard towards the goal. The growth mindsets believe is very critical in moulding the motivation of the adolescents since they strive to achieve a particular purpose in life and create a love for learning and resilience for huge accomplishment.
References
Santrock, J. W. (2012). Adolescence. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Schunk D., H. and Meece J., L. (2005). Self-efficacy development in adolescents. Retrieved 7 December, 2013 from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/03SchunkMeeceAdoEd5.pdf
