Alex Burazin
ASPED. 602
04/26/13
Student Motivation
Building a classroom community where your students are highly motivated and engaged
on a daily basis may be the most important aspect of successful teaching. When thinking about
difficulties teachers face, the top response you’ll hear is typically classroom management. For
me, improving classroom management starts with building a great classroom community and
motivating your students by developing engaging lessons. As better stated by Lisa Bloom in the
book Classroom Management: Creating Positive Outcomes for all Students; “Students who are
willing learners and who are active participants in the learning process have little desire or time
to misbehave (Bloom 2009).” This is what I’ll strive for when I begin teaching. I’ll focus on
building a community of learners who are intrinsically motivated to work hard and have a desire
to learn.
Prior to tapping into student motivation, the importance of building great relationships
with your students cannot be understated. Without having the foundation of a positive
relationship in place, students are less likely to respond to your efforts to motivate them.
“Practices that allow students to work together, as well as maintaining a sense of community and
positive student-teacher relationships have been shown to increase student motivation (Bloom
2009).” If you are not able to establish a positive relationship with a student you are also likely to
fail at motivating this student. I am very confident in my ability to build great relationships with
students. Throughout this semester my experiences in my 6th grade practicum placement as well
as my experiences as an AVID (Achievement via Individual Determination) program tutor, I
have built positive relationships with students in almost every secondary grade level. This is one
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of my strong suits as a future teacher. I know coming in on day one of my first year teaching I’ll
be able to connect and build great relationships with students.
Once a strong classroom community has been established I can begin to motivate my
students. There are many theories surrounding student motivation and how to best approach this.
Goal theory focuses on how behavior, motivation, and engagement are influenced by the types of
goals that students adopt (Bloom 2009). There are two types of goal orientations under goal
theory, learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation (Bloom 2009). A student with
a learning goal orientation will seek out new knowledge and will have a desire to acquire new
skills and develop competence in a certain subject (Bloom 2009). A student with a performance
goal orientation, however, will complete tasks for the sake of receiving favorable judgment
(Bloom 2009). More simply stated; students with learning goal orientation are intrinsically
motivated to learn, whereas performance goal oriented students are more concerned with
receiving good grades and praise from their teacher/parents. Ideally, students will be learninggoal oriented, as this will lead to a higher level of motivation and a more consistent level of
motivation (Bloom 2009). Expectance-value theory states that student’s motivation levels are
affected by the level of value students place on a given activity, as well as their perceived level
of potential success on that activity (Bloom 2009). This is a fairly straightforward theory, the
more a student feels an activity has value and the higher their perception of potential success, the
more a student will be motivated. How much a student values a particular activity can also be
related to their level of interest in that activity (Bloom 2009). Self-efficacy theory surrounds the
idea that everyone has a perception of their level of competence, and the level of one’s selfefficacy determines the level of effort put forth to given tasks (Bloom 2009). The level of selfefficacy an individual has is based upon their experiences (Bloom 2009). If a student has
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generally had success in most tasks in school this student is likely to have a high level of selfefficacy. Whereas a student who has met failure at tasks in school is likely to have a very low
level of self-efficacy. The next theory is attribution theory. This suggests that students who
attribute success to ability and effort level and attribute failure to a lack of effort, as opposed to a
lack of ability, tend to have higher levels of motivation (Bloom 2009). If a student believes that it
was a lack of ability that caused failure, however, that student is likely to be less motivated. Selfdetermination theory states that “learners are most motivated when the basic psychological needs
of belonging, competence, and autonomy are met (Bloom 2009).” The last theory covered is
behavioral theory. Behavioral theory can be simply summed up as; a student’s level of
motivation can be increased or decreased by the use of positive consequences and negative
consequences in the classroom (Bloom 2009). When a student receives positive consequences
motivation increases, and when a student receives negative consequences motivation decreases.
While there are many theories out there on student motivation, it is easy to see that they
are very rarely contradictory. The multitude of theories instead points to the fact that
understanding how individuals are motivated is a very complex and multifaceted topic. So, with
the knowledge and research that each theory gives us, how can we use these theories to
complement each other and motivate students in the most effective way? There are many things
that teachers can do to improve student motivation. “Practices that enhance engagement and
motivation include maintaining a learning orientation (Goal theory), fostering competence (Selfefficacy theory), relatedness and autonomy; attending to student interest in and value of learning
goals; (Expectancy-value/Self-determination theory) and promoting effort
(Behavioral/Attribution theory) (Bloom 2009).”
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Achieving a learning orientation in the classroom can be very effective at intrinsically
motivating students. A learning oriented classroom focuses on the value of learning not on the
value of receiving an “A”. There are several things that can be done to build a learning oriented
classroom. Establish learning goals with students and incorporate learning goals that are
important to the students (Bloom 2009). Use a KWL (Know, Want, Learn) chart to establish
goals with students to help engage students in this process. Tie the assignments into the learning
goals, and revisit them after completing various tasks. Hold learning conferences with the
students to review where they’re at in the learning process. By using these strategies teachers can
take the emphasis away from getting a good grade and instead promote an environment where
the learning taking place is the most important aspect.
Fostering student competence can be huge in motivating previously unmotivated
students. One strategy to foster student competence can be to design learning activities that offer
opportunities for success while still challenging students (Bloom 2009). Also providing accurate
and properly worded feedback to students is vital to improving competence (Bloom 2009). This
implies encouraging success and reducing anxiety when giving feedback. Once again, by
providing proper feedback this focuses students on their learning and improvement, not on the
‘grade’ or the performance of their peers.
There may not be a stronger motivating factor for students than when they are interested
in and value the content being taught. Increasing student interest and value can be achieved in a
number of ways. Relating content and activities to students prior interests and to their lives
outside of school can help increase their motivation (Bloom 2009). Showing students the
importance of a certain skill or task in the real world can also improve student motivation
(Bloom 2009). Another way to improve student motivation is by giving students options on
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certain assignments (Bloom 2009). By having options students can select the option that best
interests them, thus increasing their autonomy and motivation to do well on that assignment. This
last strategy to increase student interest is especially important: teachers need to use a variety of
activities (Bloom 2009). When the same thing is done every day in the classroom students
interest levels will drop. Alternatively, if a variety of activities are incorporated into the class and
every day the students come in not knowing what to expect, the interest level of students will be
high (Bloom 2009).
Finally, promoting effort from students is another key piece to increasing student
motivation. When students recognize that their effort level is directly related to achievement their
motivation to try hard may begin to increase (Bloom 2009). Also, when students attribute
success with effort they will be more likely to persist when a task appears to be difficult (Bloom
2009).
One of my biggest fears as a future educator is my ability to manage a classroom of
approximately 25 adolescent students. Through my readings and experiences in my practicum
and in AVID I have been exposed to a wide variety of classroom management strategies. The
best strategy for me to be able to manage a future classroom lies in building great relationships
with my students and tapping into their motivation. I firmly believe that by fostering a classroom
community where students are highly motivated to achieve, the potential anxiety of classroom
management can be severely diminished. While experience will go a long way in figuring out
what works best for me, I am encouraged by the multitude of strategies I now have in my toolbelt to increase my student’s motivation.
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Works Cited
Bloom, L. (2009) Classroom Management: Creating Positive Outcomes for all Students, Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Pearson
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