Yet most schools extinguish that excitement. While 74 percent of fifth graders report feeling engaged in school, just 32 percent of high school juniors say the same. It all comes down to motivation. In many schools, students do their work because their teachers tell them to. Or because they need to do it to get a certain grade. For students like Destiny, getting a good grade and outshining their peers — not learning itself — becomes the goal of school.
For other students, they need minimum grades to be on sports teams or participate in extracurricular activities or please their parents, and that becomes their motivation. Decades of research, both about educational best practice and the way the human brain works, say these types of motivators are dangerous.
Offering students rewards for learning creates reliance on the reward. If they become less interesting to the student or disappear entirely, the motivation does, too. Students actually learn better when motivated this way.
They put forth more effort, tackle more challenging tasks, and end up gaining a more profound understanding of the concepts they study. The problem is that the balance, in most schools, is way off. And preparing students to succeed on state tests tends to discourage the lessons that let them explore their own interests. Teachers who want to inspire intrinsic motivation have to swim against the current. Instead of getting increasingly uninterested and disconnected from school, she became more engaged.
The Met is at the extreme when it comes to tapping into intrinsic motivation. They spend virtually all of their time learning independently, with support from advisors or at internships. Students all have individual learning plans and accumulate credits toward traditional subject areas through projects, self-directed study, internship experience and dual enrollment with local colleges. Education researchers have been studying student motivation for decades, identifying the best classroom strategies to promote an intrinsic drive to learn.
The Met puts many of them to use. And the impact on students can be profound. Destiny started high school with the academic zeal she left middle school with — meaning very little. American psychologist , 55 1 , Vansteenkiste, M. Intrinsic versus extrinsic goal contents in self-determination theory: Another look at the quality of academic motivation.
Educational psychologist , 41 1 , Wigfield, A. Expectancy—value theory of achievement motivation. Claire is a Ph. Previously, Claire conducted research as a consultant for the non-profit organization Opportunity Education, as well as teaching in K settings for four years.
She holds a B. Claire enjoys developing guides with The Education Hub for teachers as they support students in their personal and academic lives. Please provide your email address and confirm you are downloading this resource for individual use or for use within your school or ECE centre only, as per our Terms of Use. Other users should contact us to about for permission to use our resources.
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Check out our ECE webinar schedule here. The role of motivation in learning. Home School resources Motivation. Theories of motivation Intrinsic vs. Expectancy Value Theory Goal orientation has a strong impact on persistence through a rigorous task, as described in Expectancy Value Theory. Flow Theory Flow is described as a psychological state in which an individual is purely intrinsically motivated and in which their sense of time is muted.
Nature versus nurture Each of these theories points to the malleability of motivation. Why is motivation important? Motivation fosters creativity and critical thinking Students who are intrinsically motivated treat learning like play. Motivation cultivates resilience and self-assurance When a student is truly engrossed in a task, they have less cognitive and emotional energy to focus on social image.
How do we cultivate motivation? Practise growth mindset Students who feel like they will improve through hard work will exert more effort than those who believe that their success is based on intelligence. Encourage self-efficacy Students who are paralysed by low academic self-confidence will struggle to drive their own motivation. Normalise the struggle Students may give up because they falsely believe that, if they were going to succeed, it would be easy.
Develop optimally challenging, mastery-oriented goals Differentiating tasks so they are appropriately challenging allows students to maintain optimal engagement. Create quiet space Despite the popular idea that fidgets or music support student focus, brains generally need quiet or ambient noise to stay engaged. Avoid tangible rewards Some learning is simply not particularly interesting, and no amount of differentiation can make every learning experience enjoyable for every student all of the time.
However, on a fortnightly or monthly basis, teachers can informally gauge student motivation by asking the following questions: How often do you do the following? References Anderman, E. Claire Chuter Claire is a Ph. Download this resource as a PDF. Discover how two teachers used real-world problems drawn from their local community to engage students in collaborative problem-solving. The role of social connection, self-regulation and motivation in student achievement and wellbeing.
Key principles from Harry Fletcher-Wood on motivation. Give students the responsibility of tidying up or decorating the classroom. Assign a student to erase the blackboard or pass out materials.
If you are going over a reading in class, ask students to take turns reading sections out loud. Make students work in groups and assign each a task or role. Giving students a sense of ownership allows them to feel accomplished and encourages active participation in class. Setting expectations and making reasonable demands encourages students to participate, but sometimes students need an extra push in the right direction.
Offering students small incentives makes learning fun and motivates students to push themselves. Incentives can range from small to large giving a special privilege to an exemplary student, to a class pizza party if the average test score rises. Rewards give students a sense of accomplishment and encourage them to work with a goal in mind. Avoid monotony by changing around the structure of your class. Teach through games and discussions instead of lectures, encourage students to debate and enrich the subject matter with visual aids, like colorful charts, diagrams and videos.
You can even show a movie that effectively illustrates a topic or theme. What we find is that not only does this intervention stop the decline of motivation , but it raises student achievement. This is because many teachers confuse the value they find in the topic with the value that a student finds in a topic.
Our third-grade son valued learning new and interesting things and hanging out with his friends. His teacher valued preparing students for high school. Research indicates this is not an uncommon experience. According to a recent set of studies , telling students that math was an important skill for their future decreased interest in learning for the students who were least confident in their abilities.
Instead of imposing reasons for valuing learning on students, educators can help them make their own connections between their lives and what they are learning. For students who have a good handle on who they are and what they are interested in, simply prompting them to reflect on connections may be enough to increase their motivation.
Here is a sample prompt from one of our studies with high school science students. Prior to reflecting on how school connects to their lives, students are first prompted to think about their interests, hobbies, and personal goals.
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