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This has become a hot topic for me: What things do you do to improve student motivation towards learning? Do you motivate using extrinsic factors? Intrinsic factors? Both? What works the best in your classroom?

Looking forward to your comments.

Hi Susanne! It's funny that I was just thinking about this yesterday. Well, I was mostly thinking about the contagious nature of enthusiasm. It doesn't matter how mundane the topic, if I'm excited my students will be excited too. That led my brain down the path of how important it is for teachers to seek out support, encouragement, and to be a part of a professional community within the discipline they teach. Teaching is, by it's very nature, emotionally and psychologically draining. It's no wonder that so many teachers burn out, especially if they don't seek out a community of support (and a good massage from time to time). That's just one of the reasons why organizations such as NSTA are so vital to our success as teachers. This might not have been what you were looking for...but it just so happens that it's where my brain was today. :) Kendra

Kendra, That is a great point...motivation can be accomplished through enthusiasm!! I agree! Thanks for the feedback! Sue

Susanne, I think both motivations can work, but I would recommend using intrinsic motivation more rather than extrinsic. The reason I say this is because using too much extrinsic motivation will cause the student to expect to be rewarded every time they perform a task. As a teacher it is important to have the student to develop a desire from within for the subject. In order to do this it is important to make activities that are educational yet interesting for the students. In a school I worked in the teacher had the students construct a roller coaster in order to learn about Force and Motion. After the activities the students not only learned about the topic but wanted to learn more! This is a great way to work on intrinsic motivation. Now there's nothing wrong with extrinsic motivation but its good not to over do it. Hope this helps! :) Luis

Arlene, Thanks for posting about how to involve students in real change. Middle and high school students are especially passionate. When we can funnel that passion in the classroom for a good cause, the outcomes can be nothing short of awe-inspiring. Thanks again! Awesome suggestion! Kendra

I have found a few great articles while researching this topic: The RISE Model: Motivating At-Risk Students to Learn by Edward W. Hootstein (1996) and Some Strategies for Motivating Students by J. Michael Palardy (1999). While the article written by Palardy (1999) offers 15 strategies for motivating students, most of the strategies can be summarized by the four major conditions cited by Hootstein (1996): 1) establish relevance of the learning - how is it important to them 2) present interesting instruction - in other words, change it up and present content material using different strategies 3) optimize students sense of satisfaction - help them feel successful by providing formative feedback and opportunities to demonstrate success 4) and finally, help students expect success - allow students to feel in control of their learning. This all goes back to what Luis and Arlene have already mentioned. Thank you for your input!! I am going to begin to investigate problem based learning in connection with motivation. I really like the idea of adding a school or community service opportunity. I will investigate the website you posted Arlene, along with other opportunities... I am wondering if these activities can be completed within a traditional middle grades science classroom? Any additional suggestions?

Luis, Your comment rang so true today. One of my kids came in (summer program) and asked why teachers are giving them treats and rewards to do the things that they are supposed to be doing anyway! Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. I did math intervention last year, in a school that had implemented a PBIS program. There were rewards for everything. We had tickets for school-wide drawings, tickets for classroom behavior, with weekly drawings, and all other crazy reasons. I did have penny candy to reward adequate progress on a daily basis, but greatly diminished that when kids came to expect it, and they regarded it as a birthright! When they began to complain that I didn't have the kind they wanted, I completely pulled the plug on even the intermittent treats. It's pretty hard to intrinsically motivate kids in remedial math- they really want to be anywhere else. Most have situations complicated by family, language, or behavior problems. The administration was not happy when I pulled the plug, but I found that I could reach individual students more effectively and bolster their confidence. Some needed the "cold, hard truth," and others a bit of "tough love" to get them on track. Unfortunately, some just shut down, and I found that neither intrinsic or extrinsic motivation were effective. Wish that weren't the case. Perhaps a change in the underlying issues would be more effective.

Jennifer, It's so sad that some of the kids just shut down, and it's very true that solving some of the underlying issues would solve so many of the challenges we face in the classroom every day. What are some of the ways you (and others) have found to overcome these challenges in the classroom? I agree with the comments about intrinsic motivation, but what are some specific methods to encourage students to be motivated from within? I found one good article in the Learning Center on fostering intrinsic motivation in the classroom and attached it below. I really hope others will chime in and share their personal experiences and methods as well! Thanks! Kendra

Attachments

Point of View: Dissecting Motivation—The Will-Skill-Thrill Profile (Journal Article)

I like this topic. I find it difficult to motivate all my students all the time. Instead, I have found that if my learning goals are the big picture, my students fill in the details through their investigations...some in groups and some individually. I changed the way I assess and that made a huge difference. Although Texas students take multiple choice tests, I give various application tests all year. Students must demonstrate mastery in many different ways. My students keep portfolios of their work, assessments, and they must include a journal entry detailing why each portfolio work is representative of mastery in the portfolio. I do not correct spelling or grammar for their journal entries. My students are motivated to create a great portfolio. This coming school hear we will be including "missed" mastery pieces. I would like more self-assessment even on failures. Any suggestions?

I must agree with the many others...enthusiasm makes a HUGE difference! I think students don't care about what we know but they do become motivated, interested, and involved in content when they know how much we care... Students have fun when we have fun..they enjoy learning when the content can be related to who they are and what they already know...making the connections to real life available to them. They need to know that teachers are also human. Last year, our team threw out a challenge for our students. If 70% of them passed the Language Arts HSA and 60% of them passed math (I think these were the percentages - could've been a little higher) then we would dye our hair blue. Students worked for this goal and made it!! They get motivated when they know that we are on their side and that we care about them....

I agree with what everyone is saying, when trying to get students motivated in topics I think that a teachers own optimism and excitement can help the students. Making things fun for the students by knowing who they are and what interests them can help you make those connections to the topic and students feel interested and it can help things make more sense.I know that for myself if a topic seemed so far away from my life I had a hard time seeing the point but if a teacher grabbed my attention with something from a movie or song or even an exciting experiment then they had my interest and attention. I have not started teaching yet but I have heard of the term "burn out" before and it made me think that when a teacher gets tired of things they should motivate themselves and maybe just try something different in the classroom like a science themed game, or try teaching a class outside or having the students play teacher for a topic then they have to motivate each other. I know that when I start teaching I will run into this problem and I have found great ideas in these posts and just think that as teachers we must love learning and the students so if we can get that across to our students they will gain at least some motivation. Best of Luck, Emily F.

I found that when I give my students the opportunity to try things on their own with little instruction or direction they are more interested in learning. I love using this technique when doing science. Having the students think on their own makes learning fun for them. I recently did a foil boat experiment with my class and I basically gave them the materials and told them their objective, which was to create a boat that will hold the most paperclips. I didn’t tell them what size or shape the boat had to be. I left it up to them. When the students are able to explore using their own background knowledge they are more likely interested in learning and motivate to learn. I plan to use the same technique when I have my students create their balloon rockets in 4th quarter. I love to see the engineering of their rockets and their logic on why they created their rockets the way they did.

Hi, Susanne! As educators, I believe we should concentrate on emphasizing intrinsic motivation, rather than extrinsic motivation. As Luis mentioned, if we get students accustomed to receiving a physical reward every time they complete a task, students will begin to complete the task for the reward, rather than for the sake of learning. This is a shame! I believe there is no greater reward than working hard at something and feeling accomplished once you're all done. That being said, I think praise is a great intrinsic motivator. You'd be surprised to see how far a student will go after receiving a "Great job!" comment from his/her teacher. Best of luck! :)

You might be interested in the NSTA MsMentor blogthat addressed a question about motivation.

Beyond saying 'good job' or 'I like this' to a student, it might be useful to describe why the work was good or what specifically you liked about it. The student then knows what to continue doing in the future.