How can we Motivate Unmotivated Students?

Jennifer Partrick
Mar 07, 2011

Students can be motivated either intrinsically or extrinsically. When students are intrinsically motivated the desire to learn comes from within. These students are interested, fascinated, or find some type of meaning with the subject or task. One of the advantages of intrinsic motivation is that it can be long lasting, and the students already have a vested interest in the subject before the teacher does anything.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of individuals. Extrinsic motivation is generally geared towards behaviors and expectation. Students are often extrinsically motivated by parental expectations, grades in order to play sports, and gain admittance into colleges, treats from the teachers, and so on.

Entwined in motivation is effort. Motivation and effort are linked. We will most likely make an effort to complete a task because we are motivated to complete the task. The origin of the motivation may be intrinsic or extrinsic.

Recent research shows us that motivation is the key to an individual paying attention to a task (Sousa, 2006). The more interested we are in a subject or task, the more motivated we will be to complete the task, and the more effort we will put forth in order to complete the task. We are motivated to do certain tasks because of specific reasons. Students, like us, are no different. As adults, we are often able to choose what we want to do. We choose what we want to eat, where we want to work, the type of job we want, who we will marry, where we will worship, the list could go on indefinitely. However, our students are not given the choice to go to school. They have to go to school, at least until they are 16 years old, are required to learn subjects of which they may have little or no interest, and are graded for this without any input from the students. To counteract this there are some strategies that teachers can use in order to motivate unmotivated students.

The power of feedback

Feedback is a powerful motivator.  Brookart (2008) wrote, “Good feedback gives students information they need so they can understand where they are in their learning and what to do next-the cognitive factor. Once they feel they understand what to do and why, most students develop a feeling that they have control over their own learning-the motivational factor (p.2).” How many of you have turned in a paper or a completed task to your principal and when it was returned, you looked for feedback? When none was there, you were disappointed. You crave feedback and want to know how you are doing with whatever the task was that you had to complete. Give your students verbal and written feedback. Be careful to use specific language when giving feedback. Stay away from broad terms like:  Good job!  Well done! What does that mean? Instead, consider responses like these.

• Your essay was well written. Your use of language and imagery was excellent.

• Great job on your math test! You have demonstrated interesting ways to solve math problems!

• You ran like a cheetah today! I could barely see you when you were running.

• Good feedback contains information that students can use. They must be able to understand what you said or wrote, and understand what they did that was good. When you are specific, students can repeat the task.

Relationships

Build relationships with your students. Know their names. Know their likes and dislikes. How many of you feel uplifted when someone does something nice for you? It does not have to be much either. Little pats on the back can be the difference between a student having a great day and a student having a terrible day. It can make the difference between a student making an effort or not making an effort.

Opportunities for success

One of the biggest reasons students are unmotivated is because they have failed too many times. When you often fail, you begin to believe that you can never succeed. If you believe that you will never succeed then there is no need to put out any effort. The result then is unmotivated students. To counteract this, give students opportunities to be successful. The more success you feel, the more you are motivated to continue doing a task, thus leading to success.

Relevance

Begin your class by explaining to your students why the information they are learning will be helpful to them and their lives. Explain how the information will help them as adults. Make the information relevant to their lives. Have students see the parallels between their lives and lives past. There was an English teacher who began her lesson on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare by having a discussion about gangs. After the discussion, she introduced the play from the point of view of gangs. It was an excellent introduction and the students enjoyed the play.

Interesting

Set the tone in your classroom. Drive what happens in your classroom. How interesting are you? Just as you enjoy and appreciate a good speaker, so do your students. Do you stand in front of your class and drone on an on? Are you teaching the same information in the same way you taught it last year? Are you in a rut? Your students know a world of fast and furious technology where information is at their fingertips. They surf and scan the internet, have discovered their own code for texting which is short yet interesting, can tape any show to watch it at their convenience, play video games that have countless rules, with players manipulating lots of information in order to make choices in the game so that they can get to the next level, watch movies that are colorful, noisy, action packed, suspenseful, frightening, lovely, sad, funny, weird, and then they come to you and you lecture. You ask boring questions that require little or no thinking. How interesting is that? Think about different ways that you can deliver instruction. You need to switch up how you instruct. You could lecture, show snippets of videos to build interest, bring in a speaker, conduct a simulation or experiment, put students in cooperative groups, ask probing questions that require thought and discussion, begin with a quote that will entice and create interest, and the list could go on for several pages. Discussion is a huge motivator because you all like to talk.  However, do your questions leave room for discussion or is there only one correct answer? How interesting are you?

How to learn

There are many students who have no idea how to learn. They do not know different strategies that they can use in order to help them learn. We need to teach our students how to learn. Do they know how to take notes, how to listen actively, how to interact with text, how to study for a test, and how to check for understanding, to name a few of the strategies that students need to know in order to learn? Sometimes,y our students need support on how to learn.

Choice

Choice is a powerful motivator. Do you plan assignments and tasks that offer choices? What is appealing to one person is unappealing to another. Think about how you can create choices with your tasks. For example, if your task involves written output, are there different writing modes that students can use in order to complete the task? Could students write an essay, or a letter, or bulleted notes, create a brochure, or write a play, to name a few? Think about how assignments can be differentiated in order to motivate all students to complete the task.

Accountability

Students must be held accountable for their work. When your students hand in work that is beneath their ability and you accept it, what message are you sending to them? What behaviors are you creating and supporting? What happens to you when you turn in poor work? Hold your students accountable. There must be realistic expectations in place for each of your students.

There are many strategies we can use to motivate the unmotivated. Take a good, long, hard look at how you run your classroom. Think about giving assignments where there is an element of choice. Consider giving students opportunities to work together in groups. Remember that some students enjoy working alone so that could be an option as well. Remember that students must have success if they are going to be motivated to learn. Some students do not know how to learn, so they may need support there.

You are the rudder in your classroom. You set the tone in your classroom.

References:

Brookhart. S., M. (2008). How to give effective feedback to your students. Alexandria; VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Sousa. D. A. (2006) How the brain learns. Thousand Oaks; CA: Corwin Press