The class was a required class for teachers to get their education degree. Back then, they had to have that degree in order to teach in the schools.

I doubt that many of them were thrilled for math, especially the more foundational topics we were going through so yes, their intrinsic motivation was mostly not high.

However their extrinsic motivation should have been off the charts. They literally couldn't get their degree without passing the course. Many were repeating the course having failed it before, so their chances were running out.

I do not recall any of the students being the normal 18 to 21 college students - - they were all older. They better understood why they were choosing their degree (looking back, based on demographics, I suspect many were divorcees prepping for a career or moms whose children had started school).

I gave the memorization question as a way to see how much of it was the work they were putting in and much was my inability to explain the difficult material in a way they could understand.

I boiled it down to "just write the equation down" to see if it were my teaching or their desire.

The inability for many to successfully replicate the formula indicated to me that they weren't putting the time in to memorize.

Since these were more adult learners going for their teaching degree, and many repeating the class having failed to pass it the first time, my observations beyond "I wasn't capable" are: - the course material was difficult (a rapid survey of math foundation, including some group theory) - they couldn't make the time because of other life commitments, exacerbated by being a summer course where we met every day.

I had one student, who had never scored higher than 50 on a test, show up after the final to ask if there was anything she could do to pass the class as it was required and she had flunked now 3 times and couldn't repeat it. "All I want to do is teach 3rd grade, I don't need any of this" she explained. There was nothing i could do...