Motivate Your Students or Die

Trying: How Can We Keep

Teachers Alive?
Emily M. Lens
Erin S. Ulrich

A Presentation on the Teacher’s Role in

Motivating Students

Moti-what?
Who knows a child in
need of serious
motivation?
Motivation describes a QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
student’s drive to
participate in their own
education.
Sounds like a dream
come true.

Why should we care about

motivation at 7:30 pm when
we are all tired?
Students cannot succeed academically
if they are not motivated to learn.
When there is a disconnect between
students and their academic tasks, it is
unfair to expect them to complete these
tasks with any type of enthusiasm.

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 Why should we care?
Students who become academically
disconnected may be at greater risk for
dropping out of school (Fredricks,
Blumfield, & Paris, 2004).
Decreased behavioral engagement in
school has lasting effects on a child’s
academic future (Birch & Ladd, 1997).

That’s not my problem...

Older models of
motivation have
proposed that
motivation is a student- QuickTime™ and a
centered construct TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
A student is seen as
either “motivated” or
“not motivated”
(Linnenbrick & Pintrich,
2002).

Motivation Seems Internal,

Not Social... Attribution theory
related to motivation
looks at how students
view the causes of
academic successes
QuickTime™ and a and failures (Levesque
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture. & Lowe, 1992).
Newsflash: Teachers
attribute reasons for
student academic
behavior and
performance too.

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 Motivation as a Social
Construct
Johnson (2008) looked at two school
structures: “traditional” and “non-traditional”
The “non-traditional” school put more
emphasis on relational and collaborative
learning.
These students were more engaged than the
students in the “traditional” high school.

Multifaceted Motivation
Linnenbrick & Pintrich (2002) suggest
four parts of student motivation:
– Attribution
– Self-efficacy
– Intrinsic motivation
– Goal orientations

Multifaceted Motivation
Performance v. Mastery
Performance Goals: Focus on completion
and competition
Mastery Goals: Focus on understanding and
comprehension of the material
Performance goals are not as conducive for
student motivation

(Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002)

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 Multifaceted Motivation
Fredricks, Blumfield, and Paris (2004)
suggest that motivation is influenced by
all of the following:
– School-level Factors
– Classroom Contexts
– Teacher Support

Kohn (2008)
“The more we fault people for lacking self-
discipline and try to help them control
their impulses, the less likely we are to
question the political, economic, or
educational structures that shape their
actions.”

Summing up Motivation
Motivation does involve internal
thoughts and feelings of the student
However, these thoughts and feelings
are heavily influenced by schools,
teachers and the educational
environment

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Who’s Really Responsible?
EVERYONE

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Why Pick on Teachers?

Teachers have the most individual contact
with students
Teachers have the opportunity to dramatically
change a student’s life and influence
motivation
“For kids who aren’t self-motivated and don’t
have support at home, we need to stand over
them and say, get this done...” (Kennedy-
Manzo, 2008).

Dolezal, Welsh, Pressley, &

Vincent (2003)
Compared nine third-grade teachers in
Catholic schools
Looked at the different characteristics
between engaging teachers and those
who do not motivate their students as
well

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 Dolezal et al. (2003)
Behaviors that undermine motivation:
– Neglecting to encourage cooperation
– Emphasizing ability over mastery
– Struggling with classroom management
– See luck and task difficulty as determinants
of success/failure
– Tasks may not be appropriately
challenging

Dolezal et al. (2003)

Engaging teachers:
– Use cooperative learning
– Scaffolding
– Making connections across curriculum
– Encouraging autonomy and choice
– Individual, one to one interactions
– Make class fun!

Ryan and Patrick (2001)

Looked at classroom social environment
fostered by teachers
Evaluated the outcomes of:
– Promoting interaction
– Mutual respect
– Performance goals

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 Ryan and Patrick (2001)
Found that classroom environment
affected students’ self-regulation,
efficacy and disruptive behavior
After accounting for prior levels of
engagement, achievement and
demographics

Murdoch and Miller (2003)

The better the relationship between a
student and teacher, predicts stronger
academic motivation in students
This research suggests that teacher
effects on motivation can mount year
after year and eventually have a large,
lasting effect

Turner, Thorpe, and Meyer

(1998)
Studied the importance of mutual
respect in the classroom
Respect among classmates and in
student-teacher relationship
Students worried about their teachers
reactions will not feel compelled to
engage in their work

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 Students Are People Too...
Teacher’s actions, as well as reactions
are linked to a student’s level of
motivation
Children pick up on a teachers
attributions and perceptions

Pay Special Attention To:

Interactions with students
How you’re presenting materials
Encouragement of interactions and
collaboration
Management of the Classroom

Suggestions for Teachers

Encourage collaboration
Reduce the amount of time spent
lecturing and doing seatwork
Place and emphasis on interaction
between students

(Johnson, 2008)

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 Suggestions for Teachers
Provide students with tasks that are within
their “range of competence”
Use prior knowledge as a stepping stone for
new skills
Decrease social comparison (performance
goals) and increase understanding (mastery
goals)

(Linnenbrick & Pintrich, 2002)

Suggestions for Teachers

Use a variety and multiple forms of
assessments
Allow students to pick their own report
and project topics
Monitor your reactions to student
success and failure

(Linnenbrick & Pintrich, 2002)

Suggestions for Teachers

Use scaffolding, embrace autonomy
and make class as fun as possible
(Dolezal et al., 2003)
Be fair and flexible in rule setting, help
children feel accepted and encouraged
(Fredricks et al., 2004)

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 Can We Go Home Yet?
Motivation is a very broad topic, usually
viewed in terms of a students internal
drive and attributions
However, it’s better described as a
dynamic quality that exists at different
levels, influenced by different constructs
in each human being

Almost time...
As education is the key
to success in life, QuickTime™ and a
academic motivation TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

comes to the forefront

of a student’s learning
style
It is increasingly clear that the teacher plays
a significant role in a student’s motivation to
succeed

Just a Few More Seconds...

Since, as educators, it is only possible
to affect change relative to our personal
roles in schools and education
Focusing on ourselves becomes the
best way to incite change in a student’s
life

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Just a Couple More Points...
Our role as educators is beautiful and
frightening
We have a huge impact on the
academic success and failure of
students
It is up to us to ensure that motivation is
spread widely across every classroom

Finally...

It is crucial that teachers are motivated to

motivate their students!

References
Birch, S., & Ladd, G. (1997). The teacher-child relationship and children’s early school adjustment. Journal of
School Psychology, 35, 61-79
Dolezal, S. E., Welsh, L. M., Pressley, M. P., & Vincent, M. M. (2003). How nine third-grade teachers
motivate student academic engagement. The Elementary School Journal, 103(3), 239-267.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state
of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.
Johnson, L. A. (2008). Relationship of instructional methods to student engagement in two public high
schools. American Secondary Education, 36, 69-87.
Kennedy-Manzo, K. (2008). Motivating student in the middle years. Education Week, 27(28), 22-25.
Kohn, A. (2008). Why self-discipline is overrated: The (troubling) theory and practice of control from within.
Phi Delta Kappan, 90(3), 168-176.
Levesque, M. J., & Lowe, C. A. (1992). The importance of attributions and expectancies in understanding
academic behavior. In F. J. Medway & T. P. Cafferty (Eds.), School psychology: A social psychological
perspective, (pp. 47-81). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Linnenbrink, E. A. & Pintrich, P. R. (2002). Motivation as an enabler for academic success. School
Psychology Review, 31(3), 313-327.
Murdock, T. B. & Miller, A. (2003). Teacher as sources of middle school students’ motivational identity:
Variable-centered and person-centered analytic approaches. The Elementary School Journal, 103(4),
383-399.
Ryan, A. M. & Patrick, H. (2001). The classroom social environment and changes in adolescents’ motivation
and engagement during middle school. American Educational Research Journal, 38(2), 437-460.
Turner, J. C., Thorpe, P.K., & Meyer, M. K. (1998). Students’ reports of motivation and negative affect: A
theoretical and empirical analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 758-771.

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