Description: The student is assigned several tasks to complete during a work period and given the opportunity to select the assignment that he or she will do first.
Purpose: Allowing the student choice in the sequence of academic tasks can increase rates of compliance and active academic engagement. The power of allowing the student to select the sequence of academic tasks appears to be in the exercise of choice, which for ‘biologic reasons’ may serve as a fundamental source of reinforcement (Kern & Clemens, 2007; p. 72).
Materials: Student work assignments
Preparation: The instructor selects 2 to 3 separate academic tasks that the student is to complete during an independent work period and prepares all necessary work materials.
Intervention Steps: The use of choice for student assignments can be prepared and implemented through these steps:
Meet individually with the student just before the independent work period. Present and explain to the student each of the 2 or 3 assignments selected for the work period. Ask if the student has questions about any of the assignments.
Direct the student to select the assignment he or she would like to do first. [Optional] Write the number ‘1’ at the top of the assignment chosen by the student.
Tell the student to begin working on the assignments. NOTE: The student is allowed to switch between assignments during the work period.
If the student stops working or gets off-task during the work period, prompt the student to return to the task and provide encouragement until the student resumes working.
Adjusting/Troubleshooting: Here are recommendations for using student selection of task sequence as an intervention strategy and addressing issues that might arise:
Provide the student with support during independent work. The student who has chosen the sequence of tasks to work on is more likely to remain engaged in those tasks if there are adequate classroom supports in place for independent work. Prior to beginning independent work, for example, the student should fully understand the assigned tasks and possess all necessary skills to complete them, have all work materials required, and know how to request assistance from the instructor or peers when needed.
Consider grouping assignments to ensure a similar level of reinforcement. Research into student choice of task sequence has often either limited assignments in the choice pool to those that the student had previously failed to perform (e.g., Kern, Mantagna, Vorndran, Bailin, & Hilt, 2001) or developed assignment choices that are similar in format and content (e.g., Ramsey, Jolivette, Patterson,, & Kennedy, 2010). It is unclear whether allowing a student to select task sequence would be as effective if that student were to find one of the assignments much more reinforcing than the other(s). If possible, then, the instructor will probably want to select assignments that are of roughly similar apparent reinforcing value-whether negative, positive, or neutral.
One of the greatest frustrations mentioned by many teachers is that their students are often not motivated to learn. Teachers quickly come to recognize the warning signs of poor motivation in their classroom: students put little effort into homework and classwork assignments, slump in their seats and fail to participate in class discussion, or even become confrontational toward the teacher when asked about an overdue assignment. One common method for building motivation is to tie student academic performance and classroom participation to specific rewards or privileges. Critics of reward systems note, however, that they can be expensive and cumbersome to administer and may lead the student to engage in academics only when there is an outside 'payoff.' While there is no magic formula for motivating students, the creative teacher can sometimes encourage student investment in learning in ways that do not require use of formal reward systems.
Here are some alternative ideas for promoting student motivation
1. Build in rewarding opportunities for social interaction. A student may find an otherwise tedious or frustrating task to be more motivating if it provides an opportunity for social interaction. An adult tutor, for instance, can provide support and encouragement that can kindle motivation for a student. Cross-age peer tutoring, cooperative learning groups and informal 'study groups' are other examples of social situations that students may find to be both motivating and good settings for reviewing academic skills. One caution, though: social interactions can be so entertaining in their own right that they interfere with learning! Instructors can minimize social distractions in academic situations by making their expectations for student work very clear from the outset and by monitoring social groupings to ensure that academics always remain the main focus.
2. Provide audiences for student work. One social context that can be extremely motivating is to have an audience that will eventually evaluate one's creative work. Instructors can encourage students to submit their work to publications, for example, to post it on web sites, or to present it to live audiences (e.g., a poetry reading).
3. Reduce the 'effort' needed to complete an academic assignment. Research indicates that the amount of effort needed to undertake an activity (effort threshold) will play an important role in how motivated a person is to attempt the activity in the first place. If a task is made more difficult, it is likely that people will be more likely to put off trying the task. If a task is made easier, people will more willingly attempt it.
Teachers and parents can use this well-documented (and common-sense) fact to increase a student's willingness to engage in academics. Here are some examples that show how reducing the effort connected with a learning activity can lead to greater student participation:
A difficult and complex task (e.g., researching and writing a term paper) can broken down into easier-to-accomplish sub-steps for the student to complete as separate assignments.
A peer helper may assist a student who is chronically disorganized to set up and clean up their work area each day, making the task less time-consuming.
If a child typically does not read for entertainment and will not go to the library for a book, a parent can leave interesting books around in the home for the child to read.
4. Connect academic requirements to real-world situations. The media are full of true stories that demonstrate the application of knowledge from various academic areas to real-world problems. When students see that content covered in their coursework can help to explain how actual, high-profile problems were created or solved, they can sense the real power of academic knowledge and its potential to affect human lives.
Here is one recent real-world example that a teacher might use to illustrate potential dangers in attempting to coordinate translation of measurements across competing systems: The radio signal of a NASA interplanetary probe sent to orbit Mars vanished suddenly on September 23, 1999, just as it was nearing the red planet. An investigation revealed the source of the problem. It appears that engineers planning the mission had failed to translate calculations of rocket thrust from the English measurement system (pounds of thrust) to a metric measurement system (1 newton = 4.45 English pounds of thrust). During the final leg of the probe's journey through space, mission managers assumed wrongly that rocket thrust calculations were in metric, rather than English, units and maneuvered the rocket accordingly. As a result, the probe went off course, probably entering the Martian atmosphere and being destroyed.
5. Offer students meaningful choice wherever possible. One intriguing element that teachers can explore to increase student motivation is that of choice. It appears to be a general principal that, when students are offered some degree of autonomy and choice in selecting or carrying out an activity, they are more motivated to take part in that activity. Of course, the teacher must decide to what degree they can build choice into academic activities. As examples of how choice can be applied in the classroom, teachers may permit students to:
select the order in which they will complete several in-class or homework assignments;
bring a book of their own choosing to a session with a reading tutor;
be given several short, timed breaks during a work period and allowed to choose when to take them.
6. Make learning fun! Teachers have always used game-like formats to liven up academic material and engage student interest. A teacher may decide, for example, to have a class review for an upcoming test by playing a game that follows the format of the TV gameshow, Jeopardy! -- the teacher presents test review items and requires competing teams to try to phrase questions for which review items are logical answers. Humor and fast-paced instruction are also methods for making learning more lively and interesting.
Teachers can feel overwhelmed when faced with students who are unmotivated to learn. The task becomes less daunting, though, when teachers realize that they can boost student motivation in five important ways: by (1) making positive changes to the learning environment, (2) fostering a sense of community in the classroom, (3) enhancing the interest of classroom activities, (4) responding to individual learning challenges, and (5) building in additional outcomes/pay-offs for learning. Here are some ideas:
The setting in which we work can encourage us to give our best effort or discourage us from even trying to perform. Ideas to motivate by influencing factors in the student's environment:
Reduce distractions in the classroom.
Create a consistent room arrangement, with predictable materials and routines.
Let students choose their seat location and study partners.
Enlist students to come up with rules and guidelines for effective classroom learning.
Create a memory-friendly classroom. Post assignments and due dates, written steps for multi-step tasks, etc.
Use a mix of verbal and environmental cues to keep students focused and on-task.
Hold class in different locations occasionally ("within-building field trip"). For example, think about 'swapping' classrooms with another teacher on a given day.
Ask for student advice on how to make the classroom a more inviting and useful learning environment.
We define ourselves in relation to others through social relationships. These connections are a central motivator for most people. Ideas to motivate by fostering a sense of a learning community:
Be as inviting a person as possible by actively listening to students and acknowledging their contributions.
Greet students at the classroom door. 'Check in' briefly with students at the start and end of a work period.
Ask students to complete a learning-preferences questionnaire.
Assign 'study buddies' who help each other to get organized, start work projects, encourage one another, and provide peer feedback.
Train students to be peer editors or evaluators of others' assignments.
Hold weekly 5-minute 'micro-meetings' with the group or class. Check in with the group about topics or issues important to them. Record important points brought up and get back to students if necessary.
Keep 'dialog journals'. Have students write daily or weekly comments in a journal to be kept in class. Respond to student comments with short comments of your own.
Circulate through the classroom. Be interactive and visible to kids. Use words of praise and encouragement.
Motivated students are engaged in interesting activities that guarantee a high success rate and relate to real-world issues. Ideas to motivate through selection and development of learning activities:
Use humor.
Keep miscellaneous work supplies on hand (e.g., paper, pencils, etc.) for students to borrow.
Set a timer (e.g., for 60 seconds) and challenge students to finish routine tasks or transition between activities before timer runs out.
Set up academic 'culminating event' fieldtrips. On these fieldtrips, have students use skills learned in class (e.g., drafting questions in social studies to be used in an interview with a member of city government).
Invite interesting guest speakers into the classroom to speak on academic topics. Prepare index cards with review questions and answers based on material covered in class. Have guest speaker 'quiz' teams; award points to teams based on their mastery of material.
Offer students meaningful choice in setting up their assignments (e.g., selection of work materials, type of activity).
Select fun, imaginative activities for reviewing academic material. In order to get students to assemble material for a research paper, for example, you might send them to the library on a fact-finding 'scavenger hunt.'
Encourage active student participation.
Use motivating 'real-world' examples for review, quiz, or test items.
Keep instructions and assignments short. Have students repeat instructions back.
Celebrate student achievement.
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities for learning.
Prior to assignments, have students set their own short-term work or learning goals. Periodically, have students rate their own progress toward their self-selected goals.
Structure work period so that more difficult activities are in the middle, with easier tasks at the start and end.
Liven potentially dull student review activities by conducting them as class-wide or small-group drills. Use a game format to maintain interest.
Use novel, interesting materials for instruction.
Allow students to set their own pace for completing work.
Select activities that make a community contribution. Students may, for instance, work on writing skills by publishing a monthly newsletter for the 7th grade.
Every learner presents a unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. We unlock motivation when we acknowledge and address unique learning profiles. Ideas to motivate by accommodating challenges to learning:
Avoid 'stigmatizing' as low performers those students who require remedial academic support.
Lead students through the first part of an assignment as a group before having them complete it independently.
If an assignment requires use of new or difficult terms or concepts, first pre-teach or preview this material.
Make the classroom a 'safe' setting in which in which students can identify and work on their own skill deficits.
Give students credit and recognition for effort on assignments as well as for mastery of content.
Be honest in telling students how challenging a topic or activity is likely to be to master. Never downplay the difficulty of an assignment!
Use a 'think-aloud' approach when introducing a skill or strategy.
Select academic activities that guarantee a high degree of student success.
Allow students to take a brief break when tired or frustrated.
Help students to get organized and started on an activity.
Have students keep a schedule of work assignments and due dates.
Encourage students to use memory aids such as notes and lists.
Assist students in breaking large, multi-step tasks into smaller subtasks. Have students write those subtasks down as a personal 'to-do' list.
Teach students to use a notebook organizer.
Give reminders of upcoming transitions between activities.
Help students to highlight key information to be remembered.
Provide frequent review of key concepts.
Periodically remind students of timeline of upcoming assignments.
Learning is a motivating activity when the learner can count on short- or long-term payoffs for mastering the material being taught. Ideas to motivate by arranging or emphasizing payoffs to the student for successful learning:
Reward student effort along with quality of completed work. (One way to do this is to use frequent encouragement for good effort along with praise for finished work.)
Build in short-term rewards (e.g., increased free time, pencils, positive note home) for student effort, work completion.
Create high-visibility location for displaying student work (e.g., bulletin board, web site). Encourage students to select their own best work to be posted.
Have students monitor their own progress in accuracy/work completion. For example, have students create graphs charting homework assignments turned in. Tie student-monitored performance to reward programs.
Motivation is central to student academic achievement. And research shows that there is one crucial factor that greatly impacts academic engagement and performance: whether a student has a 'fixed' or 'open' mindset (Dweck, 2006). Students with a fixed mindset view intelligence, or general ability, as having a fixed upward limit. Viewed from this perspective, accomplishments are explained largely by one's intellectual potential, with effort playing only a minor role. In contrast, students with a growth mindset see intelligence as 'malleable': they have faith that increased effort will result in more effective learning and accomplishment. When growth-mindset learners are challenged by academic tasks, they interpret these struggles as "an opportunity for growth, not a sign that a student is incapable of learning" (Paunesku et al., 2015; p. 785).
Why should teachers be concerned about students having a fixed mindset? When such students encounter difficulty or setbacks, they are likely to respond by becoming discouraged, withdrawing effort, or even giving up entirely. Of even more concern, a fixed mindset can result in learners 'disidentifying' with (i.e., disengaging from) those academic subjects or tasks that they find difficult. Research indicates that rates of cheating may also be higher among students with a fixed mindset (Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007).
Yet students with a growth mindset have a much more positive reaction to setbacks. When they experience difficulty with schoolwork, they respond by viewing the setback as an opportunity to learn, putting more effort into mastering the task, and analyzing where their work or study processes fall short and correcting them. It's no surprise, then, that--because growth-mindset learners remain optimistic and engaged in the challenging task-- they are likely to be successful (Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007).
Teachers have an important role to play in promoting a growth mindset among their students. First and foremost, instructors should take care not to use statements in their classrooms that reinforce a fixed-mindset. For example, a teacher who says "Excellent essay, Rebecca. You are a natural-born writer!" is implying that writing is an innate talent, immune to skill-building. Similarly, when an instructor responds to the student with a poor math-test grade, "That's OK. Not everyone is good at math", the educator has suggested that "math ability" is a fixed quantity that cannot expand much despite the learner's efforts.
On the other hand, when instructors structure their statements of praise, process feedback, and encouragement to reflect a growth-mindset attitude, even learners with a habitual negative fixed-mindset attitude can receive a boost of optimism and motivation. 'Growth mindset' statements can be as varied as the educators, students, and situations they address. However, they typically:
·lay out a specific process for moving forward.
·recognize difficulties or struggles to be faced and frame them as opportunities to learn.
·convey optimism that the student can and will move toward success if the learner puts in sufficient effort, follows the recommended process, and makes appropriate use of any 'help' resources.
In their day-to-day communication with students, instructors have many opportunities to craft statements according to growth-mindset principles. Below is a sampling of statements--praise, work-prompts, encouragement, introducing of assignments-- that teachers can use to foster motivation in their classrooms:
Praise
Effective teacher praise has two elements: (1) a description of noteworthy student academic performance or general behavior, and (2) a signal of teacher (Hawkins & Hellin, 2011). Because this 'process praise' ties performance directly to effort, it reinforces a growth mindset in students who receive it. Here is an example of process praise:
"Your writing is improving a lot. The extra time you put in and your use of an outline has really paid off."
Work-Prompt
When students stop working during an independent assignment, the teacher can structure the "get-back-to-work" prompt to follow a growth-mindset format. An example of such a work prompt is:
"Sarah, please keep reading....you still have 10 minutes to work on the assignment. It's a challenging passage, so if you get stuck, be sure to use your reading fix-up skills. Remember, it's also OK to ask a neighbor or to come to me for help. Use your strategies and you WILL be successful!"
Note in this example how the teacher directs the student to resume the assignment, acknowledges the challenging nature of the work, reminds her to use her fix-up strategies and that she has the option to seek peer and teacher assistance, and ends by linking effort to a positive outcome.
Encouragement
Students can become discouraged if they are unsuccessful on an academic task or receive a low test or quiz grade. The teacher can respond with empathy, while also framing the situation as a learning opportunity, describing proactive steps to improve the situation, and expressing confidence in the learner. An example of growth-mindset encouragement is:
"I can see that you didn't do as well on this math test as you had hoped, Luis. Let's review ideas to help you to prepare for the next exam. If you are willing to put in the work, I know that you can raise your score."
Introducing Assignments
The teacher can make assignment directions motivating by giving them a growth-mindset spin--describing the challenge(s), offering a realistic appraisal of the effort that will be required, reminding learners of the strategies or steps to apply, and closing with a confident statement tying methodical effort to success. Here is an example:
"You should plan spend at least an hour on tonight's math homework. When you start the assignment, some problems might look like they are too difficult to solve. But if you give it your best and follow your problem-solving checklist, you should be able to answer them."
Closing Thoughts: Use Growth-Mindset Statements. Frequently. Instructors who want to attain the full motivational benefit of growth-mindset statements should ensure that they use those statements often to promote an optimistic 'can-do' climate. In busy classrooms, teachers may feel so pressed to cover the demanding curriculum that they overlook the need to use growth-mindset statements as a daily motivational tool. They wrongly assume that all students are already adequately motivated to do the expected work. In fact, though, many learners have fallen into a pattern of 'learned helplessness' and choose to withdraw in the face of challenging academics (Sutherland & Singh, 2004).
But the right teacher communication, if sustained, can motivate even students with negative, fixed mindsets to apply their best effort on an assignment or test . Yet research shows that process-praise is often dramatically underused in both general- and special-education classrooms--even though it is a prime means of shifting students toward an optimistic view of themselves as learner (Brophy, 1981; Hawkins & Heflin, 2011; Kern, 2007). So, as their own optimistic goal, teachers should adopt the regular use of a variety of growth-mindset statements to promote student achievement.
Description. A learning contract is a voluntary, student-completed document that outlines actions the learner promises to take in a course to achieve academic success. This contract is signed by the student, the instructor, and (optionally) the parent. Benefits of all such contracts, however, are that they provide academic structure and support, motivate struggling learners by having them pledge publicly to engage in specific, positive study and learning behaviors, and serve as a vehicle to bring teachers and students to agreement on what course goals are important and how to achieve them (Frank & Scharff, 2013). (View an example of a completed learning contract )
Procedure. The learning contract is typically completed in a meeting between the student and instructor. (In middle and high schools, the parent may also be a participant.) While there are many possible variations on the learning contract, they often contain these components (Frank & Scharff, 2013; Greenwood & McCabe, 2008):
Statement of Purpose. The contract opens with a statement presenting a rationale for why the contract is being implemented. A sample statement might be: I am taking part in this learning contract because I want to improve my grades and pass this course.
Student Actions. The contract lists any actions that the student is pledging to complete to ensure success in the course. Suitable targets for learning contract items might include attendance, class participation, completion of classwork or homework, seeking of instructor help, etc. See Figure 1 for a listing of sample actions that might be written into a learning contract.
Teacher Actions. The learning contract can be strengthened by adding a section detailing those actions that the instructor agrees to undertake to support the student. For example, the contract might state that the instructor will respond within 24 hours to course questions emailed by the student or will check weekly and alert the student to any missing course work. Listing teacher responsibilities on the contract emphasizes that success in the course is a shared endeavor and can prod the student to take advantage of instructor supports that might otherwise be overlooked.
Sign-Off. Both student and teacher sign the learning contract. If the parent is participating in the development of the contract, he or she also signs the contract. Because this document is a kind of 'promissory contract' (Rousseau & Parks, 1993), the student signature in particular indicates a voluntary acceptance of the learning contract and a public pledge to follow through on its terms.
Tips for Use. Here are additional ideas for using learning contracts:
Contracts and Whole-Group Instruction. If a number of students in a class would benefit from learning contracts as a motivational tool, teachers can incorporate them into whole-group instruction. For example, an instructor may write a series of learning-contract goals on the board (similar to the list appearing in Figure 1) and direct each student to select 3 or 4 to include in his or her own contract. The teacher would collect copies of all learning contracts and hold every student accountable for their use.
Contracts & Enrichment. Learning contracts can also be a convenient way to document individualized plans for enriched instructional activities. Advanced students can fill out contracts detailing their ambitious, self-directed learning goals; these contracts can also describe extra credit or other forms of recognition that students will earn for these enrichment activities.
Download This InterventionnEntry in PDF Format: How to: Increase Motivation: Learning Contracts
Version 1: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract
Version 2: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student lacks essential skills required to do the task. Areas of deficit might include basic academic skills, cognitive strategies, and academic-enabler skills. Here are definitions of these skill areas:
Basic academic skills. Basic skills have straightforward criteria for correct performance (e.g., the student defines vocabulary words or decodes text or computes ‘math facts’) and comprise the building-blocks of more complex academic tasks (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009). The instructional goal in basic skills is for students to become ‘automatic’ in the skill(s) being taught.
Cognitive strategies. Students employ specific cognitive strategies as “guiding procedures” to complete more complex academic tasks such as reading comprehension or writing (Rosenshine, 1995). Cognitive strategies are “intentional and deliberate procedures” that are under the conscious control of the student (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009; p. 127). The instructional goals are to train students to use specific cognitive instruction strategies, to reliably identify the conditions under which they should employ these strategies, and to actually use them correctly and consistently.
Question generation is an example of a cognitive strategy to promote reading comprehension (Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman, 1996); the student is trained to locate or write main-idea sentences for each paragraph in a passage, then write those main ideas onto separate note cards with corresponding questions.
Academic-enabling skills. Skills that are ‘academic enablers’ (DiPerna, 2006) are not tied to specific academic knowledge but rather aid student learning across a wide range of settings and tasks. Examples of academic-enabling skills include organizing work materials, time management, and making and sticking to a work plan. The instructional goal is to train students to acquire these academic-support skills and to generalize their use to become efficient, self-managing learners.
What the Research Says: When a student lacks the capability to complete an academic task because of limited or missing basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills, that student is still in the acquisition stage of learning (Haring et al., 1978). That student cannot be expected to be motivated or to be successful as a learner unless he or she is first explicitly taught these weak or absent essential skills (Daly, Witt, Martens & Dool, 1997).
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher collects information (e.g., through observations of the student engaging in academic tasks; interviews with the student; examination of work products, quizzes, or tests) demonstrating that the student lacks basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills essential to the academic task.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem: Students who are not motivated because they lack essential skills need to be taught those skills.
Direct-Instruction Format. Students learning new material, concepts, or skills benefit from a ‘direct instruction’ approach. (Burns, VanDerHeyden & Boice, 2008; Rosenshine, 1995; Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009). When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:
ensures that the lesson content is appropriately matched to students’ abilities.
opens the lesson with a brief review of concepts or material that were previously presented.
states the goals of the current day’s lesson.
breaks new material into small, manageable increments, or steps.
throughout the lesson, provides adequate explanations and detailed instructions for all concepts and materials being taught. NOTE: Verbal explanations can include ‘talk-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher describes and explains each step of a cognitive strategy) and ‘think-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher applies a cognitive strategy to a particular problem or task and verbalizes the steps in applying the strategy).
regularly checks for student understanding by posing frequent questions and eliciting group responses.
verifies that students are experiencing sufficient success in the lesson content to shape their learning in the desired direction and to maintain student motivation and engagement.
provides timely and regular performance feedback and corrections throughout the lesson as needed to guide student learning.
allows students the chance to engage in practice activities distributed throughout the lesson (e.g., through teacher demonstration; then group practice with teacher supervision and feedback; then independent, individual student practice).
ensures that students have adequate support (e.g., clear and explicit instructions; teacher monitoring) to be successful during independent seatwork practice activities.
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: Although the student has the required skills to complete the assigned work, he or she perceives the ‘effort’ needed to do so to be so great that the student loses motivation.
What the Research Says: Research indicates that (1) as the perceived effort to complete an academic task or other behavior (‘response effort’) increases, people are less likely to engage in that behavior, while (2) as the effort to complete the same behavior decreases, people are more likely to engage in it (Friman & Poling, 1995).
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher first checks to see that the student has the requisite skills needed for academic success. The teacher then looks for evidence that, in specific situations, the student is reluctant to undertake academic tasks because they are perceived to require too much effort. Tell-tale signs that a student may be unmotivated because of the required response effort include procrastination, verbal complaining, frequent seeking of teacher help, and other avoidant behaviors.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem: Teachers can increase student motivation through any method that reduces the apparent ‘response effort’ of an academic task (Friman & Poling, 1995). - so long as that method does not hold the student to a lesser academic standard than classmates (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005).
Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Reducing Response Effort: Here are ideas that use reduction in response effort as a motivation tool:
Start Assigned Readings in Class. Whenever the teacher assigns a challenging text for students to read independently (e.g., as homework), the teacher (or perhaps a skilled student reader) reads the first few paragraphs of the assigned reading aloud while the class follows along silently in their own texts. Students are then expected to read the remainder of the text on their own.
Begin Challenging Homework Assignments in Class. When assigned challenging homework, students are paired off or divided into groups and given a small amount of class time to begin the homework together, develop a plan for completing the homework, formulate questions about the homework, or engage in other activities that will create the necessary momentum to motivate students then to complete the work independently.
‘Chunk’ Assignments. The teacher breaks a larger student assignment into smaller ‘chunks’. The teacher provides the student with performance feedback and praise for each completed ‘chunk’ of assigned work (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005).
Select a Supportive Peer or Adult to Get a Student Started on Assignments. If a student finds it difficult to get organized and begin independent seatwork activities, a supportive peer or adult in the classroom can get the student organized and started on the assignment.
Provide a Formal Work Plan. In advance of more complex assignments such as research papers, the teacher gives the student an outline of a work plan for completing those assignments. The plan breaks a larger assignment into appropriate sub-steps (e.g., ‘find five research articles for the paper’, ‘summarize key information from research articles into notes’, etc.). For each sub-step, the plan provides (1) an estimate of the minimum amount of ‘seat time’ required to complete it and (2) sets a calendar-date deadline for completion. The teacher then touches base with the student at least weekly to ensure that the student is staying current with the work plan. (TIP: Over time, the teacher can transfer increasing responsibility for generating work plans to the student.)
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student is distracted or off-task because classroom instruction and learning activities are not sufficiently reinforcing to hold his or her attention.
What the Research Says: In classroom settings, students can choose to respond to a variety of reinforcing events—for example, watching the teacher, interacting with peers, looking out the window at passing traffic. The fact is that classroom instruction must always compete for student attention with other sources of reinforcement (Billington & DiTommaso, 2003; Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005). There are two ways that the instructor can increase the student’s motivation to attend to classroom instruction: (1) by decreasing the reinforcing power of competing (distracting) stimuli, and/or (2) by increasing the reinforcing power of academic activities.
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher observes that the student is engaged in behaviors other than those related to instruction or is otherwise distracted by non-instructional events occurring in the classroom. Furthermore, the teacher has verified that the student’s lack of attention to instruction is not due primarily to that student’s attempting to escape or avoid difficult classwork.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem: The teacher can increase the inattentive student’s focus on instruction and engagement in learning activities by using one or both of the strategies below:
Reduce the Reinforcing Power of Non-Instructional Activities. The teacher identifies any non-instructional activities in the classroom that are competing with instruction for the student’s attention and takes steps to reduce or eliminate them.
Increase the Reinforcing Power of Classroom Instruction. The teacher strives to boost the reinforcing quality of academic activities and instruction to better capture and hold the student’s attention.
Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Reducing the Reinforcing Power of Non-Instructional Activities:
Use Preferential Seating (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). The teacher seats a student who is distracted by peers or other environmental factors in a location where the student is most likely to stay focused on instructional content. All teachers have an 'action zone', a part of the room where they tend to focus most of their instruction; the instructor seats the distractible student somewhere within that zone. The ideal seating location for any particular student will vary, depending on the unique qualities of that student and of the classroom.
Create Low-Distraction Work Areas (U.S. Department of Education, 2004. For students who are off-task during independent seatwork, the teacher can set up a study carrel in the corner of the room or other low-distraction work area. The teacher can then either direct the distractible student to use that area whenever independent seatwork is assigned or can permit the student to choose when to use the area.
Restrict Student Access to Electronic Devices and Other Potential Distracting Objects. The teacher creates a list of personal possessions that can pose the potential to distract from instruction (e.g., cell phones, personal game devices, etc.). The teacher either completely bans use of these items of student property at any point during a course session or restricts their use to clearly specified times or conditions.
Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Increasing the Reinforcing Power of Classroom Instruction and Activities:
Use Bellringer Activities. The teacher routinely gives students ‘bellringer’ activities to work on as soon as they enter the classroom. The point of this strategy is to capture students’ attention at the outset with academically relevant activities. Ideally, bellringer tasks should be engaging but also should review and reinforce previously taught content or prepare students for the upcoming lesson.
Provide Opportunities for Choice (Kern, Bambara, & Fogt, 2002). Teachers who allow students a degree of choice in structuring their learning activities typically have fewer behavior problems in their classrooms than teachers who do not. One efficient way to promote choice in the classroom is for the teacher to create a master menu of options that students can select from in various learning situations. For example, during independent assignment, students might be allowed to (1) choose from at least 2 assignment options, (2) sit where they want in the classroom, and (3) select a peer-buddy to check their work. Student choice then becomes integrated seamlessly into the classroom routine.
Structure Lessons around High-Interest or Functional-Learning Goals (Kern, Bambara, & Fogt, 2002; Miller et al., 2003). A student is more likely to be engaged when academic lessons are based on ‘high-interest’ topics that interest the student (e.g., NASCAR racing; fashion) or that have a ‘functional-learning’ pay-off—e.g., job interview skills; money management skills --that the student values and can apply in his or her own life.
Incorporate Cooperative Learning Activities into Instruction (Beyda, Zentall, & Ferko, 2002; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Teacher-directed cooperative learning activities can be highly reinforcing for adolescent students, who typically find opportunities to interact with classmates to be a strong motivator. Cooperative learning tasks have the added advantages of promoting active student engagement and allowing the instructor to get real-time feedback through direct observation about the abilities and learning of individual students.
Maintain a Brisk Pace of Instruction (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002). Instruction that is well-matched to the abilities of the classroom and moves at a brisk pace is most likely to capture and hold student attention. Additionally, the teacher is careful to avoid ‘dead time’, interruptions of instruction (e.g., time-consuming transitions to other activities; etc.) when students may get off-task and be difficult to redirect back to academic tasks.
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student requires praise, access to rewards, or other reinforcers in the short term as a temporary ‘pay-off’ to encourage her or him to apply greater effort.
What the Research Says: The use of external rewards (‘reinforcers’) can serve as a temporary strategy to encourage a reluctant student to become invested in completing school work and demonstrating appropriate behaviors (Akin-Little, Eckert, Lovett, & Little, 2004). It is expected that as the student puts increased effort into academics and behavior to earn teacher-administered reinforcers, the student will in turn begin to experience such positive natural reinforcers as improved grades, increased peer acceptance, a greater sense of self-efficacy in course content, and higher rates of teacher and parent approval. As the student enjoys the benefits of these natural reinforcers, the teacher can then fade and perhaps fully eliminate the use of programmed reinforcers or rewards.
Here are recommendations for using reward programs with students:
Do not use reward programs with students who are already demonstrating acceptable academic effort or general classroom conduct (Akin-Little, Eckert, Lovett, & Little, 2004). While incentives can be a good way to ‘jump-start’ the academic motivation of a disengaged learner, they are not likely to benefit a student who is already making an adequate effort to perform in school.
Adjust rewards to match a student’s developing academic skills (Daly, Martens, Barnett, Witt, & Olson, 2007). During initial acquisition of a skill, provide reinforcement (e.g., praise, exchangeable tokens) contingent upon on-task behavior (time-based reinforcement). This approach avoids ‘penalizing’ students for slow performance. As the student moves into the fluency-building stage of learning, change to reinforcement based on rate of performance (reinforcing both accuracy and fluency in the skill). This approach explicitly reinforces high response rates. Then, as the student reaches acceptable rates of accuracy and fluency, maintain high rates of academic performance through such efficient methods as intermittent reinforcement or reinforcer lottery (e.g., the student earns tickets for each successful performance of target behaviors and those tickets are used for periodic lottery drawings for possible rewards).
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: Through direct observation, student interview, and/or other means, the teacher has verified that instruction is effectively delivered and sufficiently engaging for most of the class, that the target student has the academic and related skills required for the academic work, and that the student has failed to be motivated by existing incentives such as grades that are typically available in classrooms. In the teacher’s judgment, the target student needs additional incentives (e.g., praise, rewards) to promote motivation to complete academic tasks.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem:
Praise the Student. The teacher praises the student in clear and specific terms when the student engages in the desired behavior (Kern & Clemens, 2007). The teacher uses praise statements at a rate sufficient to motivate and guide the student toward the behavioral goal.
Use Rewards. The teacher establishes a reward system to motivate an individual student by implementing these steps (e.g., Kazdin, 1989):
Define the Target Behavior. The teacher writes a definition of the undesired student behavior to be decreased or the desired behavior to be increased as a result of the reward program.
Establish Criteria for Success. The teacher defines the minimum acceptable criteria for student success in the target behavior, which may include information about time intervals, cumulative frequency, and/or percentage of compliance.
Choose Student Incentives. The teacher selects incentives (positive reinforcers or ‘rewards’) that are likely to motivate the student.
Decide Whether a Point System Will Be Used. The teacher decides on one of two options in delivering rewards: the student is either given earned rewards directly whenever those rewards have been earned or the student can is assigned points (or tokens or tickets) each time that he or she meets the teacher’s behavioral expectations and then is allowed at some point to redeem these points for items from the reward menu.
Decide How the Reward is to Be Delivered. The teacher selects a means for the student to receive earned rewards (e.g., from the classroom teacher, from another school staff member, from the parent).
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student has a low sense of self-efficacy in a subject area, activity, or academic task and that lack of confidence reduces the student’s motivation to apply his or her best effort. NOTE: Self-efficacy is the student’s view of his or her own abilities specific to a particular academic area (e.g., mathematics) and should not be confused with self-esteem, which represents the student’s global view of his or her self-worth.
What the Research Says: Students who believe that they have the ability to complete a particular academic task (self-efficacy) do better and have higher levels of motivation (Jacobs et al., 2002). Yet students often sabotage their academic performance by engaging in negative self-talk about their abilities and by making faulty attributions to explain poor academic performance (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002).
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: Teachers can tap students’ impressions of self-efficacy by asking them to ‘think aloud’ about their abilities in the academic area of interest. Instructors will find the information that they have collected to be most useful if students are encouraged to:
talk about their perceived strengths and weaknesses as learners in particular subject areas
give examples (with details) about specific successes and failures that they have experienced on academic assignments
discuss how they complete a range of common academic tasks (e.g., undertaking a term paper, completing a chemistry lab exercise, doing homework)
disclose their routine for preparing for quizzes and tests.
As the teacher evaluates the student’s comments, the instructor may conclude that the student’s attributions/explanations are unrealistically negative and do not adequately acknowledge the role of effort or other controllable factors in improving that student’s academic skills or performance.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem:
Challenge Faulty Student Attributions about Ability. As a student articulates attitudes toward learning and describes techniques that he or she uses as an independent learner, the teacher can use this information to identify whether a low sense of academic self-efficacy may be holding the student back.
A useful framework for analyzing student views about their academic abilities is presented by Linnenbrink & Pintrich (2002). The authors analyze student attributions along three dimensions: internal/external; stable/unstable; and controllable/uncontrollable. As explained below, the teacher can use this framework to analyze and challenge a student’s faulty attributions about self-efficacy and help the student to reframe those attributions in a more optimistic (and motivating) light.
Internal/External. The student may view the explanation for his or her poor academic performance as internal (tied to aspects of the student’s own personality, abilities, or other personal factors) or external (linked to factors other than the student, such as teacher behavior, school policies, state curriculum requirements, etc.). When listening to student explanations about his or her academic standing, the teacher considers whether the student should reframe that explanation to acknowledge internal factors that may have been overlooked.
For example, when a student blames the teacher for giving unannounced quizzes that catch the student unprepared (external explanation of the problem), the instructor can point out that the student has the option to review course content regularly and thus always be prepared for quizzes (shifting the focus by tying the internal explanation of student preparation to the goal of improving academic performance).
Stable/Unstable. The student may view the situation relating to poor academic performance as stable (likely to last for a long time) or unstable (likely to change soon). The teacher evaluates whether the student is realistic in estimating the stability of the situation.
For example, when a student laments to her math teacher that her difficulty in grasping concepts relating to negative numbers shows that she ‘will never get a good grade in math’ (a view that the problem is long-term and therefore stable), the teacher can help the student to reframe the problem as unstable and likely to improve soon by noting that many students struggle with negative-number concepts but that the student should find upcoming math instructional modules to be much easier to comprehend.
Controllable/Uncontrollable. The student may see him or herself as having substantial control over the factors relating to academic performance or instead view the situation as beyond personal control. When listening to student explanations of academic problems, the teacher considers whether the student may be overlooking or minimizing his or her own influence and responsibility.
For example, a teacher may point out to a student who complains about the requirements of a particular course as arbitrary and unfair (uncontrollable) that the student was given a syllabus at the start of the semester spelling out all academic requirements to be used as a roadmap for the course, that the syllabus will allow the student to complete assignments ahead of time if he wishes, and that furthermore the student is welcome to seek help from the teacher whenever he chooses (controllable factors).
Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student appears indifferent or even hostile toward the instructor and thus may lack motivation to follow teacher requests or to produce work.
What the Research Says: Because humans are highly social beings, positive teacher attention can be a very powerful motivator for students (e.g., Kazdin, 1989). However, teachers often do not make adequate use of simple but effective tools such as praise to promote positive interactions with their students (Kern & Clemens, 2007). At times, instructors and students can even fall into a ‘negative reinforcement trap’ (Maag, 2001; p. 176) that actively undercuts positive relationships. In this situation, a student who has difficulty with the classwork misbehaves and is then sent by the teacher to the principal’s office. Both teacher and student are reinforced by the student’s exclusion from the classroom: The teacher is negatively reinforced by having a difficult student removed from the room and the student is also negatively reinforced by being allowed to escape the challenging classwork. Because this scenario is reinforcing to both parties, it is very likely to be repeated with increasing frequency unless the teacher intervenes to break the negative cycle.
How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher looks for evidence that the student lacks a positive relationship with the teacher, such as:
the student’s apparent avoidance of opportunities to talk to the teacher
a lack of eye contact, sarcastic or defiant student comments
a general pattern of defiant or non-compliant behavior.
NOTE: Because teachers as well as students are social beings, an instructor’s impression of whether a student ‘likes’ them or not can often be a good predictor of the actual state of the teacher-student relationship.
How to Fix This Motivation Problem:
The teacher provides the student with increased doses of positive attention at times when the student is engaging in appropriate behavior (Kazdin, 1989). (At the same time, the teacher keeps interactions with the student brief and neutral when that student misbehaves—although the student otherwise is held to the same behavioral expectations as his or her peers.)
Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Improving the Teacher-Student Relationship: Here are ideas that promote an improved teacher-student relationship as a motivation tool:
Strive for a High Ratio of Positive Interactions with Students (Sprick, Borgmeier, & Nolet, 2002). A general, proactive rule of thumb to promote positive teacher-student relationships is for instructors to maintain a ratio of at least three positive interactions with any student for every negative (disciplinary) interaction that they have that student.
Commit to a Short Series of Positive ‘Micro-Conversations’ (Mendler, 2000). The teacher selects a student with whom that instructor wants to build a more positive relationship. The instructor makes a commitment to spend 2 minutes per day for ten consecutive days engaging the student in a positive conversation about topics of interest to that student. NOTE: During those two-minute daily conversations, the teacher maintains a positive tone and avoids talking about the student’s problem behaviors or poor academic performance.
Emphasize the Positive in Teacher Requests (Braithwaite, 2001). The teacher avoids using negative phrasing (e.g., "If you don't return to your seat, I can’t help you with your assignment") when making a request of a student. Instead, the teacher request is stated in positive terms (e.g., "I will be over to help you on the assignment just as soon as you return to your seat"). When a request has a positive 'spin', that teacher is less likely to trigger a power struggle and more likely to gain student compliance.
Strive for at Least One Daily Positive Verbal Interaction (Fields, 2004). The teacher makes a point early in each class session to engage in at least one positive verbal interaction with the target student. Whenever possible, the teacher continues to interact in positive ways with the student throughout the rest of the class period through both verbal (e.g., praise comment after a student remark) and non-verbal means (e.g., thumbs-up sign, smile.). In all interactions, the teacher maintains a polite, respectful tone.
Schools seek effective but workable classroom interventions to address the problem behaviors of younger students. School-home notes are one strategy that holds promise for the primary classroom: the teacher sends home a daily note rating the student's school behaviors (Jurbergs, Palcic, & Kelley, 2007). Based on the teacher report, the parent provides or withholds a home reward. School-home notes have the advantages of both strengthening communication between teacher and parents and including the parent in the intervention as dispenser of praise and home rewards.
Preparation. Here are the steps to setting up a school-home note:
Select target behaviors. The teacher and parent decide on 2-4 behaviors to track through the school-home note. Behaviors listed on the note should be phrased as desired 'replacement' behaviors (that is, positive behaviors to replace the student's current challenging behaviors). For example, a behavior target for a non-compliant child might be " The student followed teacher requests."
Design a school-home note. The teacher and parent design a note incorporating target behaviors. While any rating format may be used, a simple version may be best--e.g., Yes (2 pts)...So-So (1 pt)......No (0 pts). See the attached school-home note for a generic example. A free application is also available on Intervention Central to create Behavior Report Cards, which can be used as school-home notes: http://www.interventioncentral.org/teacher-resources/behavior-rating-scales-report-card-maker
Decide on the cut-point for an acceptable daily school-home note rating. The parent and teacher decide on the minimum daily points that the child must earn on the school-home note to be eligible to earn a reward. For example, a teacher and parent create a school-home note that has 4 behavior-rating items, with a maximum of 2 points to be earned per item. The maximum points that can be earned per day on the school-home note therefore is 8 (4 items times 2 points per item). The teacher and parent initially decide that the student must earn a minimum of 5 points to earn a daily reward.
Develop a reinforcer menu. Based on a knowledge of the child, the parent develops a reinforcer ('reward') menu containing 4-8 reward choices. Whenever the student attains a positive rating on the school-home note, he or she can select a reward from this menu.
Implementation. Here are the daily steps for using school-home notes:
Rate the student's school behavior. At the conclusion of the school day, the teacher rates the student's behavior on the school-home note. The teacher meets briefly with the student to share feedback about the ratings and offers praise (if the ratings are positive) or encouragement (if the ratings are below expectations).
Send the completed school-home note to the parent. The teacher communicates the school-home note results with the parent in a manner agreed upon in advance, e.g., in the student's backpack, via email or a voicemail report.
Provide the home reward. The parent reviews the most recent school-home note with the child. If the child attained the minimum rating, the parent provides praise and allows the student to select a reward from the reinforcer menu. If the student failed to reach the rating goal, the parent withholds the reward but offers encouragement.
Maintenance. These are two items that are periodically updated to maintain the school-home note program:
Refresh the reinforcer menu. Every 2 to 3 weeks, the parent should update the reinforcer menu with the child to ensure that the reward choices continue to motivate.
Raise the school-home note goal. Whenever the student has attained success on the school-home note on most or all days for a full 2 weeks, the teacher and parent should consider raising the student point goal incrementally.
Download This Blog Entry in PDF Format: School-Home Notes: Enlisting the Teacher, Parent, and Student to Improve Behavior