TeachersTopic is a periodical feature on www.teacherscount.com about a subject of interest to the teaching community written by a prominent expert in the field. Here, Ms. Susan Graham answers questions about motivating students to succeed. Susan Graham connects learning to life in her Family and Consumer Science classes at Gayle Middle School in Stafford County. She is a Virginia Education Association “I Can Do It” trainer, a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in Career and Technical Education, a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards/State Farm Liaison for Virginia (NBPTS), a participant in the Virginia Teacher Quality Forum, and a Senior Fellow with the Teacher Leaders Network (www.teacherleaders.org). Motivating Students and Teachers, answers by Ms. Susan Graham
What are specific techniques that can increase student's motivation?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a right answer to this question? The reality is that there are as many techniques to motivate as there are students to be motivated. Maslow, the great theorist about human personality, had it right—every human response is tied to addressing some need. Motivation is directly connected to meeting needs and we all have different needs, so motivation is really a pretty individual matter. Sometimes teachers struggle because they get so caught up in asking themselves, “How can I get these kids to do what I need or want them to do?” The more effective question might be “How can I present these concepts, skills and understandings as a solution to the needs of these kids?” Knowing what individual students need requires knowing students as individuals, and I think this might lay at the root of small class size discussions. With homogeneous groups, the needs may be somewhat similar, but with diverse groups of children, differentiation is not just about ability level or learning styles, it must also address diversity in the value systems and goals of those students.
If college entrance is a motivator for high school students and teacher excitement motivates the elementary level, what is a significant motivator for the middle grades?
Well, middle school is definitely a world of its own, and I do believe the middle school learner might present the greatest motivational challenge. (Of course that might be colored by the fact that I teach middle school.) As you’ve pointed out, young children will work for the approval of the teacher because they need that approval to feel safe and accepted. Young adults in high school are focused on independence and that takes money. If they connect earning potential with learning, then their need to prepare for the future motivates them to perform well in school. Middle schoolers are driven primarily by their need for peer acceptance and approval from their peers. They do not feel the economic pressure of becoming self-sufficient that comes with young adulthood, and they are detaching themselves from their dependence on adult approval. In fact, adult approval can be a disincentive for a middle schooler. In my mind, the challenge of middle school is to create an atmosphere where achieving scholastic success buys status among one’s peers. Achievement should relate to be being “cool” and included because exclusion is often the greatest fear of the young adolescent. Students are more likely to be motivated in a win/win classroom environment where there are multiple paths to success, competition is group oriented, short term and low stake, and risk of public failure and embarrassment is very low.
Do you agree that students in high-needs schools are more difficult to motivate? If so, what techniques can be used to encourage success for these students?
Absolutely not! The higher the need the greater the hunger for success. But we have to address the needs of these students in sequential order. Until the basic needs of food, shelter and safety have been met, motivation to learn is likely to be limited. But what of children of poverty in other parts of the world who seem to value education even under extreme hardships? A friend who recently returned from visiting schools in South Africa was intrigued by children who lacked these basics, had minimal school facilities and yet were highly motivated to participate in school. I think the answer is that they saw a clear connection between education and survival. We assume American kids see that, but they are often distracted by highly visible but low probability avenues to success such as athletics, music, or even playing the lottery. The marketplace has a much clearer understanding of motivation than education. High need students who have moved beyond learning in order to win the safe harbor of a supportive teacher’s approval may need help seeing how learning can get them what they want. When students perceive learning as the best way to meet their personal needs they become motivated. This will probably involve beginning with low risk learning that has visible measurements of success and lots of short-term goals. As students build confidence and can assess their own progress, they will move toward self-motivation. But we must provide a connection between conceptual learning and practical doing if we are to keep them engaged long term.
