How to Motivate Students: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators and Parents

An unmotivated student is unlikely to learn much at school, making motivation a critical factor in education. While there's a wide range of opinions on how to instill motivation, research suggests that teachers are more influential than parents in sparking student motivation. This article explores strategies for fostering intrinsic motivation in students, drawing on research and practical tips for educators and parents alike.

The Power of Intrinsic Motivation

Internal or intrinsic motivation is crucial for student success, persistence, and well-being. According to a theory explained by Julien Bureau, the way that teachers and parents influence motivation is an indirect one, by satisfying three psychological needs. Two types of internal motivation were most strongly associated with success in school, persistence and well-being. Bureau describes the three needs - competency, belonging and autonomy - as “kindling” for intrinsic or internal motivation. When students feel competent, connected, and autonomous, they are more likely to enjoy learning and want to continue.

Competence

In Bureau’s analysis of the nearly 150 underlying studies, a sense of competence rose to the top for helping kids feel motivated to learn. The concrete things that teachers can do may seem unrelated to student motivation at first glance. Assisting students in developing their self-esteem is critical. Help students see their strengths and refer to their strengths often. In addressing competence, students must feel that they can succeed and grow. Provide small opportunities for success early.

Belonging

Relatedness refers to the students’ sense of belonging and connection. Build this by establishing relationships. Facilitate peer connections by using team-building exercises and encouraging collaborative learning. Develop your own relationship with each student.

Autonomy

Generate students’ autonomy by involving them in decision-making. Give students autonomy and ownership of what they learn. One suggestion is to explain rules and requirements so that students can understand why they’re being asked to do them, and he recommends that teachers give students choices and allow them to personalize assignments.

Practical Strategies for Teachers

Instructors have control over the learning environment, the course materials, teaching strategies, learning activities, and assessments. Few teachers would deny that motivated students are easier to teach, or that students who are interested in learning do, in fact, learn more. Attempt to align course activities to students’ goals.

Creating a Positive Learning Environment

Students need to feel safe in their classrooms. A teacher can foster this environment by setting clear expectations of respect between students. Address any deviation from these agreements and praise students often. Students who are comfortable in a learning space are better engaged, which leads to more meaningful, impactful learning experiences.

Building Relationships

First and foremost, it is critical to develop relationships with your students. Build relationships by getting to know your students’ interests. Try incorporating a show-and-tell opportunity where students can display and talk about objects from around their home that are important to them.

Communication and Empathy

Bureau recommends that teachers listen to the thoughts and feelings of students and respond to them with empathy.

Engaging Teaching Practices

Vary your teaching methods. Try new teaching activities, such as inviting a guest speaker to your classroom or by implementing debates and role-play into your lessons. Vary your instructional strategies; use lectures, demonstrations, discussions, case studies, groups, and more.

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Student-Centered Approach

A student-centered approach engages students in the learning process, whereas a teacher-centered approach involves the teacher delivering the majority of the information. Talk less and encourage the students to talk more.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is definitely a strategy to implement in the classroom. You may try assigning group or partner work where students work together on a common task. This is also known as cooperative learning. You may want to offer opportunities for both partner and small group work. Peer-to-peer relationships should also be encouraged, and accomplishing this feat in an online class can be difficult.

Integrating Technology

Find additional ways to integrate technology. Game-based response systems such as Kahoot! may increase motivation.

Encouraging Questions

When students ask questions, they demonstrate they are thinking about their learning and are engaged. Further, they are actively filling the gaps in their knowledge. Provide students with graphic organizers such as a KWL chart. Tools such as these will allow students to process their thinking and grant them time to generate constructive questions.

Clear Expectations and Relevance

Discuss the definition of participation and put it in the syllabus. Let students know what is expected of them. Do students need to read material before class in order to discuss it? Are you taking attendance? The relevance of the material is critical for instilling motivation. Be sure students see how the content relates to them and the world around them. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further.

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Providing Choices and Personalization

Offer choices with assignments and assessments when possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you.

Recognizing and Celebrating Achievements

Positive reinforcement in the classroom is a powerful tool for helping students to achieve certain behaviors. Celebrating achievements reinforces to students that reproducing those good outcomes leads to more good outcomes. By celebrating with students when they achieve the desired mastery they will be motivated to achieve that mastery going forward.

Goal Setting

Help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Use goal setting to motivate students and help them with accountability. When creating goals, start small and meet students where they are. Classworks has a SMART Goal Tracker to support students' academic goals. Remember that we want to create new and more frequent memories of successes and celebrations.

Providing Feedback

Return assignments and tests to students as soon as reasonably possible. Provide constructive feedback. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer.

Addressing Diverse Needs

It can be difficult to provide students with exactly what they are ready to learn if you have a large classroom of students with diverse needs. This is where instructional technology is particularly impactful. For example, Classworks provides every student with an individualized learning path based on their latest assessment results. Students are always working on instruction that is challenging but at the level they are ready to learn. They receive insight into their scores immediately and the ability to redo activities if they feel they didn’t do their best.

Involving Parents

Involve parents and solicit their aid to help encourage students. It is important to develop your relationship with these crucial allies. Try making positive phone calls home prior to the negative phone calls to help build an effective relationship. Involve parents by sending home a weekly newsletter or by inviting them into your classroom for special events. To further develop strong relationships with students and parents, remark on the relevancy of the materials and instill a student-centered learning approach that addresses autonomy.

Strategies for Students

Even the most dedicated students sometimes struggle to stay motivated and engaged with their school work. But studying doesn’t have to feel like a chore. With the right approach, you can stay on track, create a positive learning atmosphere, and build self-discipline skills.

Active Recall and Engagement

One of the easiest ways to retain information is to put it to a tune! This is especially helpful when trying to remember hard-to-retain material like mathematical equations or historical dates. Consider making physical flash cards based on your notes with questions on the front and answers on the back. Then quiz yourself or have your Learning Coach quiz you.

Minimizing Distractions

For many students, distractions prove to be one of the primary barriers to a productive study session.

Regular Breaks

While it can be tempting to just power through a dense or difficult study session, taking regular breaks to rest and recharge is key. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to take a short break every 30-60 minutes to grab a snack, take a quick nap, go for a walk, or check in with your loved ones.

Studying with Others

There are many benefits of studying with a partner or study group, both academic and social.

Goal Setting and Rewards

Studying without a clear plan or structure can feel overwhelming and uninteresting, which can be detrimental to your motivation. One of the most helpful student motivation techniques is to set achievable personal goals and a motivational reward system. When establishing a system that works for you, your goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and timely). Having a specific reward to enjoy once you meet your goal can also be a great way to stay motivated and make the process more fun. Your reward should be specific to you and your preferences.

Seeking Help

When it comes to staying motivated while studying, who better to ask than your teacher? Every good teacher cares about their students and wants to help them succeed. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to staying motivated in your school work, don’t hesitate to ask.

Extrinsic Motivation: Incentives and Rewards

Although intrinsic motivation is preferred, incentives should also be used when appropriate. Tangible and intangible incentives may be used to motivate students if they have not developed intrinsic motivation. Intangible items may include lunch with the teacher, a coupon to only complete half of an assignment, or a show-and-tell session. Many schools have opted to use Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Rewards. This curriculum nurtures a positive school culture and aims to improve student behavior. Perhaps using kids’ reward coupons such as these may help increase motivation.

The Role of Technology

One of the benefits of virtual school, homeschooling, and other alternative forms of K-12 education is that you can incorporate technology, which makes learning more fun and more effective! All SLC students learn valuable technical skills that will help them in the classroom, their future careers, and beyond. Studying is much easier and more enjoyable when you take great notes during class! If you’re taking digital notes in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you can still make them dynamic by highlighting, bolding, underlining, and using colorful text.

Motivation in Online Learning

Just as in the face-to-face setting, relationships are crucial for online student motivation as well. If students are unwilling to ask questions in front of the class, try implementing a large poster paper where students are encouraged to use sticky notes to write down their questions. Teachers may refer to the questions and answer them at a separate time.

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