Recapturing Student Motivation

Did you know?

Achievement motivation is linked to both focus and feeling challenged (Zurbriggen & Sturman, 2002). Teachers will evoke the highest levels of achievement when they challenge their students with goals that are challenging.

Students are intrinsically motivated when they are doing things that naturally interest them and that satisfy basic human needs for competence and control (Ryan & Deci, 2002).

Students tend to be more intrinsically motivated to engage in tasks that are novel, optimally challenging, or that pertain to their daily lives (Stipek, 2002).

"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire."
–W.B. Yeats

Now that the school year is in full swing and you and your students have a handle on the daily routine, you might feel like the aura of excitement from the first few days or weeks is waning. How do you recapture those excited feelings and energize your students to learn? How do you motivate your students and recapture that excitement again?

Our job is to motivate students and create motivated classrooms. There are tried-and-true techniques out there that can help us facilitate motivation. Maybe you have tried some of them, and they haven’t worked for you or your group of students. Here are some fresh ideas that offer a new approach for motivating your students.

Check out our related graduate course on Designing Motivation for All Learners .

Read on for tips on capturing student attention

Capturing Student Motivation and Attention
It’s so easy to fall into the rut of “Take out your books and turn to page x and read.” Our students usually do not find meaning, value, or reward—which are integral to motivation—in such activities.

How about freshening it up? Can you take them on a field trip, even if it’s just a stroll around the school yard, before they learn about types of trees or types of weather? Can you show them a DVD of a play you are about to read before assigning roles for students to read aloud? How about creating a live-event learning experience rather than a lecture?

There is a 1984 movie called Teachers in which one of the actors dresses as Abraham Lincoln, donning a wig, beard, and even a fake mole before reading from the Gettysburg Address. The students in his classroom are engaged—they wanted to find out what will happen next. The teacher has their attention. We want to instill the same type of engagement and motivation within our students.

When students inherently ask, “What’s going on?” or “Why is that happening?” we have their attention and need to seize the opportunity to teach them something worthwhile.

Classroom Culture
When students feel comfortable, they are more inclined to learn. When students feel unsafe, physically or emotionally, they tune out. A classroom that naturally motivates student learning fosters academic success and motivation.

How can you create this classroom culture? You can dedicate as much or as little time as you wish. Short daily warm-ups provide an opportunity for students to share what they learned from their homework with a partner, which can help to create a positive classroom culture. Opportunities to work in small groups or as the whole class on a scavenger hunt creates a team feeling. Giving students a chance to let you know how they prefer to learn creates an our classroom rather than a my classroom feeling. Comfort and safety are critical to motivation.

Classmates can build or tear down a culture in which hard work and learning are valued. When students feel that their teacher is on their side, the tendency is to support and motivate one another. By sharing power with your students—allowing them opportunities to make decisions as often as it is appropriate—you work as a team with your students.

Also, have your students make (or help them make) connections between what they are learning and real-life applications. When they have a satisfactory answer to the “Why do we have to learn this?” question, classroom management problems decrease and motivation increases.

Parents and the Community
Oftentimes students are rewarded for good grades with a dinner out, or they receive shopping discounts for good report cards. Grades, however, aren’t necessarily a top motivator for all students.

When communities express interest in student development rather than just grades, students often become more motivated to do something that makes a difference. By emphasizing the importance of passion and commitment, parents and communities drive home the message that school is about more than just grades.

Many parents become too wrapped up in wanting their child to be the smartest or the best. We can help to alter this mindset by making parents aware that they can motivate their children by valuing and supporting the effort, learning, and progress that take place at school.

As educators, we are partners with parents in the development of children. Parents and students alike need to see the value in the work the students are assigned. You can do your part in contributing to the community by avoiding busy work and judiciously asking yourself: “What is the learning goal of this assignment?” Once you can provide a satisfactory answer to that question, chances are high that your students will feel more compelled to complete it. You have taken the extra step to make sure that the work is meaningful.

Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). When rewards compete with nature: The undermining of intrinsic motivation and self-regulation. In C. Sansone & J.M.
Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 14-54). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Stipek, D.J. (2002). Motivation to learn: From theory to practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Zurbriggen, E.L., & Sturman, T.S. (2002). Linking motives and emotions: A test of McClelland’s hypotheses. Personality and Social Psychology, 28(4),
521-535.

Source: The tips above are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Designing Motivation for All Learners® . For more information see "Featured Graduate Course" to the right.

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