Technique 1: Motivational Interviewing and OARS

What is Motivational Interviewing?

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation style designed to strengthen a person's own motivation for change rather than imposing it from outside. In educational settings, it has been adapted for work with students who present as resistant, unmotivated, or disengaged. Its practical core is the OARS framework, which organises the method into four teachable skills:

Why it Works

Students who refuse to participate are rarely being defiant for its own sake. More often they are protecting themselves from something: a fear of incompetence, a history of failure in front of peers, or simply not yet trusting the environment enough to take a risk. Motivational interviewing works because it does not push. It creates conditions in which the student finds their own reasons to engage, rather than being told what to do or why they should do it. Research consistently shows that intrinsic motivation produces more sustained and meaningful behaviour change than external pressure, a finding central to both MI and self-determination theory (ADD REFERENCES TO THIS RESEARCH HERE).

One on One Support Context

A support worker using OARS with a withdrawn student might spend the first few sessions asking open questions that have nothing to do with the task at all: what the student is interested in, what they find hard, what a good day looks like for them. Affirmations are used to name what the worker genuinely observes, not to encourage compliance. Reflective listening keeps the student talking and signals that their perspective has value. The goal at this stage is not participation; it is trust. Participation follows from trust, not the other way around.

Classroom Adaptation: Class of 30

Context

Imagine you are ..... (set-up the questions below by describing a typcial situation in one of your lessons (24 sudents, moxed abilutym in teams, workingtowards...) and then how the strategy could be used for one or two students or applied to the whole class. Key is gettign yoru peers to imagine the context like the one they will experience).

Open questions at the whole-class level: instead of asking 'Did everyone understand?' ask 'What is the first thing we do when we go back to the game? or after a task 'What was the hardest part of that for you?' Direct the question at the class as a whole, not in general to everyone or at the resistant student specifically, but create space for them to answer if they choose.
Written open questions can be used to collect students insights such as a brief prompt on a card or exit slip
('What would make this easier for you today?') creates a private channel for the student who will not speak publicly. You get the information without the social exposure. This can also work for the whole class and is often called an exit slip as students leave a lesson. (Create an exit slip you have used or could use and attached below as a pdf file)
Affirmations during transitions. Use the natural low-audience moments, moving between activities, collecting equipment, to make a brief and genuine observation to a specific student. 'I noticed you stayed with the group today.' Short exchnages, no audience, no expectation of a response, just showing you noticed.
Summarising as a class ritual. At the end of each activity with offer a brief group reflection on what happened. The means..... This models the skill and gives withdrawn students a moment of low-pressure reflection rather than performance. Typical all lessons should involve some type of clsoure (Rink, 2014), however in this case the intent is.....

Sample exit slips

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