Charismatic Teaching: Cultivating Motivation in Community College Classrooms

Abstract

There are over six million community college students in the United States. Many non-traditional students face unique obstacles as they balance work, school, and familial responsibilities. As a result, community college students can become unmotivated in their classes, and this lack of internal drive can negatively impact their success and longevity in school. Therefore, college faculty must learn new strategies to cultivate motivation in their classrooms, whether in person or online. One technique instructors can utilize is charismatic teaching, which includes teachers’ professional knowledge, positive character traits, sense of humor, and quality teaching techniques. This quantitative predictive correlational study examined if, and to what extent, a predictive relationship existed between charismatic teaching and students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in community colleges in the Northwest United States. The results indicated that the global score of charismatic teaching (professional knowledge, positive character traits, sense of humor, and quality instruction techniques) was the highest predictor of intrinsic motivation (R2=.51). Educators can cultivate intrinsic motivation in community college classes, whether in person or online, through charismatic teaching techniques. However, charismatic teaching did not significantly predict students’ extrinsic motivation. College faculty may consider employing charismatic teaching techniques to improve community college students’ intrinsic motivation in their classes.