The Science of Motivation
[cover image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay]
by Cindy Nebel
Many educators struggle with student motivation and, often, it feels like something that is out of our hands. Why isn’t Johnny succeeding? He lacks motivation. And to some degree, that’s true. There are aspects of motivation that are out of our hands. But there are things that we can do to support motivation in the classroom and to keep it going, even when Johnny would rather be anywhere but here.
Today I’m reviewing some of the aspects of self-determination theory (1). This isn’t comprehensive. Self-determination theory covers everything in the continuum from intrinsic to very extrinsic motivation, but instead of delving into those differences, I want to focus on what we can (or can try to) control. I consider each of these to be “motivation levers”. In order to maximize motivation, we want each of the following factors to exist for our students but below I will talk about how many of these may vary for different students. My advice is to use these levers as a framework for solving motivational issues. When you notice that motivation is low for an entire class, a subset of students, or just Johnny, you can consider each of these components and decide if any are lacking and which lever might be worth pulling for that situation.
Lever 1: Perceived Value
In order to better explain motivation, I want you to consider something that you really really hate having to do. I’m going to use compliance training as an example throughout, but you can replace it with any other activity that you just lack the motivation to accomplish. As an employee at my organization, there are annual, semi-annual, whenever trainings that I have to do so that my employer can say that everyone received that training. My perception of the value of this training for me is pretty close to zero. I did the training last year. I still remember the training. This is the same training. It takes a really long time. It’s really boring.
There are two types of perceived value: intrinsic and instrumental. Intrinsic value is the idea that the activity is enjoyable in and of itself. Maybe you’re one of those lucky people who enjoys exercising. Waking up early to exercise is fine because you like to do it. But for a lot of us, that just isn’t the case. But exercise has instrumental value. I may not enjoy it, but I know it’s good for me. There’s utility in this activity; it will help me in some way.
Compliance training? No intrinsic value there. And instrumental value? Pretty low there too. I don’t see why I have to do it when I’ve already done it. How could we improve this? For intrinsic value, maybe we could revamp the videos to be a little more engaging. Maybe we could make a game of seeing which department could finish first or every department that does could get some kind of small reward. Or maybe we could increase the instrumental value by saying, “Hey, we know this is rough, but we have to do it in order to maintain our accreditation and keep the doors open. If you like having a job, you’ll need to do this.” Ok, ok, fine. I see the point now…
What does this look like in the classroom? For some of us this is easier than others. If you are one of the lucky people reading this who teaches personal finance, you’re all set. Instrumental value is high. But for those of you like me who teach statistics (or the recorder if you pay attention to memes), we have a little work to do. My recommendation is to focus more on the instrumental than the intrinsic motivation here. Make it clear to students that there is purpose to their learning. How will they use this later in life? What foundation is this laying for them? Why do they need to take your class? This is not to say you shouldn’t try to make class enjoyable, but not at the expense of the content itself. If I really wanted stats to be fun, we might not do much stats in class. Instead I might tell some lame stats jokes, use appropriate scaffolding so that it’s not too painful, and use everyday examples so they have something to connect to. There’s benefit to those things, so long as they don’t become seductive details.
Lever 2: Autonomy
No one likes being told what to do. Autonomy is all about providing choice. This isn’t necessarily choice in “whether or not” Johnny has to engage in class, but feeling like I’m not being forced to comply in this exact way feels… good. Autonomy is also about perception. Sometimes we have more autonomy than we realize.
Image by Mahavir Gadhavi from Pixabay
Let’s think about that compliance training again. Ugh, I have to do it and there’s a deadline. I have no choice. But actually, I have quite a bit of freedom and autonomy when it comes to my compliance training. Does it have to be done? Yes. But I have a month to do it. I can choose to do it all in one sitting or to spread it out over the month. I can do it while eating lunch, during work time, even at home if I want to (would anyone want to do that…?)! I could do it by myself or my colleagues and I could work on it together. So many choices! The thing is… I didn’t notice all these choices when I got the email that I had not yet completed my annual compliance training and it’s in the perception of autonomy that motivation increases, not the actual autonomy.
As educators, there are so many ways to provide autonomy. Similar to my compliance training, students can choose to work in class or at home. They can choose where to sit, the topic of a project, who to work with (or if they want to work with anyone at all). But the key here is to make students aware that they are receiving a choice. You want them to perceive autonomy, not just receive it.
Lever 3: Relatedness
We are social beings. And social connections can be a huge motivator. The question to ask here is, “Will anyone care if I do the thing?” We’re more likely to do the thing if the answer is yes. This is one reason why accountability partners are so commonly recommended for exercise programs: if no one will notice when you don’t show up, it’s a lot easier not to show up. Another aspect to relatedness is the feeling of not going it alone. Life can be tough and knowing that someone is going through the same thing can make it a little easier to keep pushing through together.
Compliance training? Oh, totally a lone game. No one really cares if I do the thing, except the HR department. But my participation is not going to make a meaningful impact on the organization or the people in it. No one really knows whether or not I’ve completed my task (again, except that one person in HR whose job it is to make sure the automated emails go out). If the organization made completion a public event, even down to the level of school or department, then people might care that folks in our department get it done. If we were all working toward a collective goal, individual work needed to achieve something as a group… if I am the deciding factor between my colleagues getting that ice cream party or not, well, they’re counting on me aren’t they? (Pssst, can we have an ice cream party if we all do the compliance training??)
Image by Mahavir Gadhavi from Pixabay
In the classroom, there are lots of ways to create relatedness. Group goals where students can cheer each other on in order to win an award of some kind can be a great motivator for younger students. While group work can be painful, if done right, it can encourage students to push forward when they’re not feeling up to working. Much of this has to do with creating a culture that is about teamwork and not competition. More on that in Lever 4… As with Levers 1 and 2, though. relatedness is about perception as well. Students have to see themselves as part of the group and their contribution as important. Any kind of group work needs to still recognize the contributions of each individual to increase motivation instead of creating social loafing.
Lever 4: Self-efficacy
I’ve written about the impact of self-efficacy on achievement before. Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to be successful at any given task at any given time. That is, my self-efficacy in writing this blog post might be high on Monday morning and tremendously low by Friday afternoon. My self-efficacy for writing a blog post might be much higher than it is for writing a book. Johnny’s self-efficacy for reading might be much higher than it is for math (or vice versa). The point is that if we don’t think there’s any way that we can be successful at a given task, why would we put in the effort?
There are multiple factors that impact our self-efficacy (2):
Previous experiences: If you have been successful in the past (and remember that you have) then you are likely to believe that you can be successful now.
Vicarious experiences: If you see that other people like you have been successful with a task, you are more likely to believe that you can be successful too. The “like me” part matters here. Telling a student that I did just fine in my statistics class doesn’t bear much weight. Neither does telling them that the smartest kid in school got an A. But if they have a friend who took my class last semester and did just fine, and they tend to perform similarly in classes, then they might believe they can do it too.
Messages from others: There’s a lot of power in words. Telling someone you believe they can do it can go a long way in their believing it too. The message needs to be authentic and ideally based on evidence (previous experiences) from someone like them (vicarious experiences).
Emotional/physiological state: If you are cranky, tired, hungry, or hangry you are far less likely to believe you can accomplish much at all. And here’s the factor that we have the least control over as educators. If Johnny walks into class after skipping breakfast because he was up all night fighting with a friend, well… Johnny might struggle with motivation that day. And depending on your role and capacity, there might be little you can do about this. But on an average day, in an average school, we can greet students with a smile. We can take a break to stretch. We can let them have a snack if they want or need it. We can see them after class to address their emotional needs. What you can do for this factor is very dependent on the grade level you teach, what kind of school you are in, and who you are as an individual, but the most important thing is not to ignore emotional and physiological needs of students that you perceive as lacking motivation.
Ok, back to our compliance training… I have decently high self-efficacy here. I know I can succeed because I did it last year and last year I knew I could do it because everyone else has done it before me. If it were that difficult, they wouldn’t be able to require it. I didn’t get any messages saying someone believed in me and it would have been pretty inauthentic had they sent it… although it might have heightened my emotional state, which went way down when I got the email saying I had to do it again.
One area I want to highlight here for your classroom is the previous experiences. You have so much control over this as an educator. This is about appropriate scaffolding, creating realistic and achievable goals, and frequent formative assessments. When students receive low stakes opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, it doesn’t just give you an idea of where they are, it feels good! It’s easier for you to say that you know they can do it when you can point to what they’ve successfully accomplished just before. And the best part (in my humble learning scientist opinion) is that it’s good for learning too!! Low stakes retrieval attempts increase self-efficacy, which in turn increases motivation and continued learning but the low stakes retrieval in and of itself increases the likelihood of future success!
Bottom Line
So the next time you find yourself frustrated with Johnny, ask yourself (or Johnny) these questions:
Do you know why you’re being asked to do this?
Are you aware that you can choose how you want to do this?
Do you know that I (or someone else) am counting on you?
Do you think that you can do this?
And last, but not least…
Are you ok? Are you tired, hungry, sad, angry, etc.?
Image by The_Shire_Hobbit from Pixabay
Because as an educator who is reading this blog, I want you to know that paying attention to and influencing motivation is important in your classroom. You have so many different options for how you can try to address it depending on what works best in your environment. Your students are counting on you. And I know you can do this because you already do an amazing job and so many educators before you have been able to solve motivational challenges using this framework. But maybe go ahead and have a nap… and a snack.
References:
(1) Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Self-determination theory. Handbook of theories of social psychology, 1(20), 416-436.
(2) Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.
