Attendance for the semester runs 50-65 percent.
Students tend to pay attention in a polite yet non-committal way.
Attendance runs near 95 percent. Students have a focused look, and the questions they ask are often insightful and challenging to the instructor and to each other. All three of these factors affect the students' motivation. Older students tend to be more motivated, students focused on a subject tend to be more motivated, and some teachers seem to motivate students better than others. The third factor, the teacher factor, is the one I wish to explore in this article.