Motivation

It would be nice if all students got excited about learning, but unfortunately this is not the case. As students get older and school gets harder, the general atmosphere about education goes downhill. Think about; it’s easy to enjoy something that you are good at, but when difficulties arise, you generally don’t look forward to it as much. It is for this reason that motivation is a vital ingredient in teaching students.

According to Hinchman in the book Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, “Developmental trends indicate that a marked change occurs in students’ motivation as they progress through school. Research findings show us that the school learning climate becomes increasingly performance oriented (vs. mastery driven) as students move through the grades (p. 38).” Students who grow up struggling with reading and writing are going to come across performance issues quickly as these skills are involved in everything. These students believe themselves to be less capable and competent in higher-level education (Hinchman, p.39). It is important that teachers motivate their students so that they don’t hit these “road blocks” and lose courage at the first sign of difficulty. Junior high and high school students particularly look for approval from their peers. This can also influence their desire to do well or bad.

Teachers need to be aware of the ways in which they can motivate their students to do their best. One issue that often interferes with motivation is the stereotypes that shape teachers’ opinions. Beers talks about this in the book Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice. They suggest that teachers can easily give up on students who are lower-achieving students, rather than learning how they can help those students. However, when teachers give up and stop engaging with their students, they are depriving them of one of the most important forms of motivation they might receive in their education. “The type of engagement so vital to them for school learning is the engagement that comes through relationships with their teachers (Beers, p. 246).” Teachers need to leave stereotypes behind and “argue against those who believe that some students deserve less because they are less deserving or less able (Beers, p. 256).”

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.