Engaged and motivated students are more likely to not only attend classes and seminars but also to enjoy the experience. Here are 10 tips for motivating your students: Students' names: learn students’ names if possible and address them by name. If there are names of which you are unsure how to pronounce, make sure you ask the student for the correct pronunciation or their preferred name. This shows cultural respect and awareness. Care and support: develop awareness of your students' strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledge and give credit to their strengths and work on improvement strategies where a need has been identified. This demonstrates you care about your students' academic progress. See Teaching diverse learners for addressing the needs of student diversity. Fairness: be fair and consistent in how you treat each student. Classroom layout: think about classroom layout to maximise student interaction. Ask students to shift into a u-shape arrangement if possible. Use grouped seating to encourage collaborative learning. Motion: walk around the teaching space to make closer connection with students. Eye contact: make eye contact and gesture toward your students to enhance interaction. Visibly show you are listening to students by nodding and affirming their contributions. Relevance: engage student interest in unit content by making it relevant to their experiences and the world they live in and know. Liveliness: convey your own excitement, passion and enjoyment in teaching and discussing unit content. Vary the way you speak. Monotone and 'dead-pan' delivery will disengage students quickly! Encouragement: ask students to 'have a go' and share their thoughts, perspectives and understandings even if they are unsure of being 'correct'. Make clear that you want to know what they don't understand and that 'there is no such thing as a silly question'. Availability: if your teaching schedule allows, be available for informal individual chats or discussion with students before or after class/seminar or during a break. (Adapted from University of Nebraska 2017) See also tips from Griffith Institute for Higher Education (now Griffith University Learning Futures) for engaging your students and creating a culturally inclusive classroom (PDF 52.3KB) (Barker, Fredericks & Farrelly n.d.).