Motivation in the classroom

We’ve all had those days when the space beneath the duvet is so much more tempting than what the day has in store for us, and it takes every last drop of get up and go to get yourself up and gone. If this sounds familiar, you’ll know from observation that the same applies to your pupils, but integrating some simple motivational techniques into your teaching could help make for a brighter outlook all round.

Why motivate? 

Personal motivation is generally accepted, in the wider world of education, to be the key to the rate of success and attainment of a child. The immortal words ‘I can’t be bothered’ are a pretty big hint that a pupil’s desire to learn has, at that moment, withered beyond reach.

Without motivated learners, your ability to deliver the curriculum effectively is impaired and children’s social, emotional and psychological blocks to learning will dominate. Without motivation, your pupils will have no urge to learn and progress will be slow, patchy and short-lived. Yet perhaps most significant is the perceived link between motivation and behaviour. A lack of motivation to progress can evidently lead to poor behaviour demanding constant correction and management from you, the teacher.    

Motivational conditions

Although some pupils will seem inherently self-motivated, regardless of the situation in which they find themselves, if the following are in place in your classroom, it is likely that you will be more able to encourage self-motivation in all your pupils:

• A learning environment that is as supportive and nurturing as possible, where failure is tolerated and built upon
• Safety for your pupils in terms of the rules, routines and rituals you negotiate with them. The more you stick to these the more secure your pupils will feel
• Cohesion among pupils. Pupils should have an identity as individuals as well as members of a class, house and school 

Intrinsic motivation 

Every child, however apparently disinterested they appear to be, will have an internal drive to progress in their life – an intrinsic motivation. While teachers can strive to encourage motivation externally, the most effective source comes from within each child. There are ways of developing intrinsic motivation in the pupils you teach:

• The sense of reward a child may get for achieving something should come from within. With intrinsic motivation comes intrinsic reward. Encourage pupils to recognise simply feeling good about what they have done. Use verbal praise and show pupils that you don’t rely on extrinsic reward (such as grades, marks and tangible rewards) in your lessons. Studies have shown that extrinsic rewards rarely lead to permanent change in a pupil.
• Teach your classes to value their personal satisfaction at successfully completing a task. Talk to them about the possible sources of encouragement; from within and from others. Teach them to value that intrinsic motivation and reward at least as much as any that comes externally. This is a building block of self-reliance.
• Learn what intrinsically motivates your pupils and aim to tap into this as much as possible. What naturally arouses their curiosity?  

Classroom motivators

Motivation has numerous sources, but these ideas may help to encourage self-motivation in your classroom:

• Spend time creating a harmonious classroom. Ask yourself how much enjoyment could you derive from working in the environment in your room?
• Think about how cohesive your groups are. Do they enjoy working together? Are they supportive of each other? Do they thrive as a unit? Can you group together those with similar interests rather than those of similar ability?
• Offer choices for the tasks and projects your pupils do. They may all achieve the same goal, but can you offer flexibility within that, or a variety of points of entry into the work? For example, on one theme, some may do a written project, some may produce a play, some may do some artwork, and so on.
• Offer flexibility in terms of the order in which work is completed. This has the benefit of encouraging personal organisation as well as self-motivation.
• Create an end goal within which mini-goals can be ticked off regularly.
• Make sure pupils know the intended outcome of the work. Why do you want to achieve these goals with them?
• Stress the importance of finishing. Don’t allow work to fester uncompleted as there’s a danger pupils will not value reaching the end product. Better to achieve one completed project than countless smaller half-botched attempts.
• Encourage originality in how work is tackled. If the guidelines you issue allow for personal adaptation, pupils will be able to create meaning by engaging their interests.
• Give positive feedback as an extrinsic motivator, but encourage pupils to praise themselves and each other. Saying ‘that’s good’ about their own work isn’t enough though! They need to be encouraged to explore exactly what has worked well and what could be improved. Why do they think their work is good? Is that justified? Can they see where progress has been made? Are they able to articulate how that makes them feel?
• Utilise discovery in your lessons. Rather than tell, are there any occasions when you can lead pupils to discovering knowledge?
• Encourage learning without your input. The acquisition of knowledge independent of another person is one of the most empowering experiences a child can have and leads to a virtually inevitable curiosity for learning more.
• Think about how you use questioning. The psychologist Jerome Bruner noted that people are less likely to fall asleep when speaking and writing than when listening and reading!
• As early as possible, explain, repeatedly if necessary, that personal behaviour is a personal responsibility. No matter what external influences may be pressing on each child, they still have an element of choice in the way in which they decide to respond to situations in the classroom.  

One of the main goals of teaching is the development of continuous and lasting intrinsic motivation in pupils. They need to feel happy taking risks within the boundaries you set for them and able to bounce back no matter what. The influence of teachers to this end is necessarily limited, but the encouragement you offer will not only propel your pupils through their work in the short-term, it will also serve them well through the motivational crises that will inevitably pepper their lives.