Motivating the Unmotivated:

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Motivating the Unmotivated
Alternatives to Simply Killing Them

• Lorin W. Anderson
• The Anderson Research Group
• andregroup_at_sc.rr.com

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To Truly Improve Teaching Effectiveness,
we must look at schooling through the eyes of the
students.
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• BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Today's high school students
  say they are bored in class because they dislike
  the material and experience inadequate teacher
  interaction, according to a special report from
  Indiana University's High School Survey of
  Student Engagement (HSSSE). The findings,
  released today (Feb. 28, 2007), show that 2 out
  of 3 students are bored in class every day, while
  17 percent say they are bored in every class.

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• Some of the key findings were
• Fewer than 2 percent of students say they are
  never bored in high school.
• Seventy-five percent of students surveyed say
  they are bored in class because the "material
  wasn't interesting."
• Nearly 40 percent felt bored because the material
  "wasn't relevant to me."

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What is Motivation?

• From a practical perspective, motivation is
  putting forth the effort needed to be successful
  at something.
• Students who dont pay attention, dont do their
  work, and dont hand in homework are said to be
  unmotivated.

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What Explains Student Motivation?

• A rather simple equation. M f (V, E)
• Motivation is a function of the value a student
  attaches to something and the students
  expectancy of success in achieving that something.

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So How Does It Work?
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So How Does It Work?

• Example 1 Cheerleading
• For Bert, becoming a cheerleader is very
  important (high value)
• Initially, Bert experiences great difficulty
  learning the cheers and is a little awkward in
  performing them (little success).
• However, because cheerleading is very important
  to him, Bert practices cheerleading two hours
  every day (motivation). Eventually, he makes the
  cheerleading team (high success).
• Lesson Value can trump lack of initial success.

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So How Does It Work?

• Example 2 Dating
• Ernie values Tanya (that is, he is interested
  in getting to know her better).
• However, Bert, Ernies best friend, tells him
  that he doesnt have a chance with Tanya (that
  is, he is not likely to be successful in his
  attempts to date her)
• Even though Bert values Tanya, he doesnt put any
  effort into getting to know Tanya better because
  he believes he will not be successful.
• Lesson At other times, a fear of failure can
  trump value.

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So How Does It Work?

• Example 3 Mathematics
• Bert does not believe that mathematics has any
  relevance in his life (that is, he does not value
  it).
• Despite this fact, Bert initially tries to learn
  math, but after several months he realizes that
  he just cant seem to get it (that is, he is
  not successful).
• With no perceived value and no expectation of
  success, Bert is unmotivated to learn math. He
  stops paying attention in class and rarely turns
  in completed assignments.
• Lesson When both value and success are
  negative, motivation will almost always be
  lacking.

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So How Does It Work?

• Example 4 Reading
• Ernie thinks that reading is just about the best
  thing in the world (that is, he values it
  greatly).
• In addition, Ernie is a very good reader (that
  is, reading comes easy to him and he is a
  successful reader).
• During free time at school or at home, Ernie is
  more likely to read a book than do anything else.
• Lesson Value Success MOTIVATION

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Exploring Value

• The student values the thing itself (intrinsic)
• Bert studies science because he thinks science is
  important
• The student values the rewards associated with
  the thing (extrinsic)
• Bert studies science because he gets good grades
  in science
• The student values the thing because valuable
  others believe the thing to be valuable
  (socio-emotional)
• Bert studies science because his father is a
  scientist and he wants to be like his father

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Exploring Expectations of Success

• The best predictor of future success is past
  success. In other words, past success will most
  likely lead to expectations of future success.
  Conversely, past failure will most likely lead to
  expectations of future failure.
• Success, like beauty, is in the eye of the
  beholder. It is NOT objective reality. Students
  must see themselves as successful. If a student
  answers 10 incredibly easy questions correctly,
  he or she is not likely to perceive himself or
  herself as successful. A certain amount of
  challenge is needed before a student is likely to
  see himself or herself as successful.

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To Motivate the Unmotivated Then We Must Find
Ways of

• Increasing the value they attach to various
  aspects of schooling, AND
• Increasing their expectancies of success.

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Five Ways of Increasing Value

• Establish personal, caring relationships with
  students (social-emotional)
• Talk with each student one-on-one for five
  minutes every month with an emphasis on listening
  to them
• Show students that you are human for example,
  make mistakes purposely and have students catch
  them, and dont be afraid to say that you dont
  know something.

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Five Ways of Increasing Value

• Incorporate student interests whenever possible,
  offering limited choices (intrinsic)
• Use popular song lyrics to introduce a unit on
  poetry use familiar objects to introduce
  counting, adding, and multiplying.
• Give students a selection of five research
  projects from which to choose.

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Five Ways of Increasing Value

• Connect schooling with their out-of-school
  experiences (intrinsic)
• Use cereal boxes to introduce a unit on vitamins
  and minerals (or other appropriate concepts).
• In discussing a character in a story, ask
  students if they know someone who reminds them of
  that character.

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Five Ways of Increasing Value

• Arouse curiosity using mystery, controversy, and
  contradictions (intrinsic)
• Use Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) materials in
  science.
• Use mysteries to teach reading and ELA.

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Five Ways of Increasing Value

• Give reward and recognition (extrinsic)
• Strive for a goal of 4 positive comments to 1
  negative comment for each student.
• Initially recognize and reward improvement,
  rather than some absolute level of performance.
  Sometimes you cant get there from here directly.

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Five Ways of Increasing Success

• Provide challenging, yet attainable, assignments
• Use Vygotskys zone-of-proximal development as
  the basis for determining appropriate
  assignments. This may require that different
  assignments are given to different students.
• Provide encouragement and assistance to those who
  have struggled with assignments in the past.

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Five Ways of Increasing Success

• Establish clear and reasonable criteria of
  success on assignments
• When assigning a worksheet or problem set,
  establish X-in-a-row correct as the criteria for
  completing it (e.g., 5 in a row, 7 in a row,
  etc.).
• On longer assignments, distribute rubrics and
  model papers or projects so help students
  understand your expectations. Also, require
  students to hand in pieces of the assignment or
  drafts of projects on a regular basis.

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Five Ways of Increasing Success

• Give corrective feedback
• Have students correct errors and misunderstanding
  when the occur so they dont accumulate and
  interfere with future learning.
• Provide clues to help students correct their
  errors and misunderstandings on their own, rather
  than correcting them for them.

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Five Ways of Increasing Success

• Provide worked out examples
• When giving students a problem set, include a
  sheet on which a couple of problems are worked
  out. This allows students to go back
  periodically and check how theyre doing.
• Help students learn to use the textbook as a
  resource or reference book. Move away from
  having students read chapters as though they were
  reading fiction.

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Five Ways of Increasing Success

• Have students work with partners
• Have students correct each others papers as you
  give the correct answers. Then, have them work
  together to correct errors on each paper.
• Have students engage in paired reading, stopping
  periodically to ask and answer questions about
  the meaning of what they read.

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Two Final Thoughts

• Even when students engage in strategies that are
  ultimately self-defeating (such as withholding
  effort, procrastination, cheating, and so on),
  their goal is actually to protect their sense of
  self-worth.
• Students must be helped to see the connection
  between effort and accomplishment. Work harder,
  learn more.

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