Motivation researchers explain that motivation is a function of the student's needs for control, competence, and belonging. Thus, in designing and delivering their classroom instruction, teachers must consider the student's need in these areas. The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide a list of motivation strategies for teachers working with secondary students that help address the issues of control, competence, and belonging.  This list was compiled from several resources (e.g., Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2000) and includes an array of strategies, ranging from those that would be considered external approaches to those that would be considered internal approaches.

Motivational Strategies
1. Provide Students with Choices. Providing students with choices helps them to feel they have control of their learning, takes advantage of their interests, and helps meet their need for competence. While some aspects of school are nonnegotiable, such as the number of credits required to graduate, whenever possible, it is advisable to have students participate in class decisions, such as class rules, class procedures, the material to work on, how to complete a task, whether to work alone or in groups, etc. 
 
2. Help Students Feel Connected. While the need to feel connected can be addressed through advisory programs, cooperative learning, and peer mentoring and counseling, there are numerous other things teachers can do to create a warm and nurturing environment. A few minor changes in student/teacher interactions can have a profound effect on how a student will feel about a class and perform. Suggestions for helping students feel connected range from greeting students at the door addressing them by their first name; to using active listening techniques with students so they know you are listening; to making eye contact with students or giving them a thumbs up or OK sign during group or individual work as you monitor their progress; to using students' names, interests, and experiences in lessons. 

3. Teach Inductively. Sometimes when teachers present conclusions first and then provide examples, students are robbed what has been referred to as the joy of discovery. Instead, begin with examples, stories, evidence, or illustrations. Then ask students to try to make sense of the information they are given, drawing conclusions about the material. This helps keep the students' attention and increases motivation. 

4. Explain the Rationale. Secondary students are more motivated to learn when they know why or how an activity is important to their school performance or current and future goals and interests. For example, the skills to be learned are needed to get a job, or to perform a job, or to live on ones own.

5. Help Students to Expect Success. Many students experiencing academic difficulty expect to fail and believe that when they are successful it is because of luck or fate.  When students do not expect to be successful, they often become bored and unmotivated to do schoolwork and feel unconnected to school. To help students develop an expectation that they be successful teachers should (a) provide instruction that is at an appropriate instructional match, (b) communicate high expectations through words and actions, (c)  teach students to monitor and evaluate their own performance, and (d) help students to see that increasing their effort typically results in increased success.

6. Teach Learning Strategies. While there are numerous benefits of  learning strategy instruction, one of the major advantages relates to increased student motivation. In fact, many learning strategies address the issue of motivation directly in the beginning phases on instruction by providing a rationale for the use of the strategy and obtaining a commitment from the student to learn the strategy. 

7. Teach Students to Set Goals. Numerous research studies have shown that when students set goals, either independently or in cooperation with the teacher, motivation and performance increase. Thus, specifically teaching students goal setting behaviors and allowing them to set academic and social goals can have a positive influence on motivation. Goal setting behaviors to teach include: (a) assessing strengths and needs; (b) selecting clear, specific goals that are achievable; (c) identifying activities or steps needed to achieve goals; (d) monitoring goal attainment.
 
8. Use Management Techniques. A variety of management techniques can be used to increase student motivation. Such techniques include positive reinforcement, token economies, and self-management. 

9. Other Motivation Strategies. There are numerous other strategies that teachers can use to motivate students. A sample of the strategies include being enthusiastic, planning for active student involvement, using a variety of instructional procedures, using interesting and relevant materials, ensuring that tasks are meaningful, soliciting student feedback on how the class is going, providing students with feedback as soon as possible, and allocating occasionally class time to student-selected content.

Resources

Mastropieri, M., & Scruggs, T. (2000). The inclusive classroom: Strategies for effective instruction. Columbus, OH Merrill.

Mercer, C.D., & Mercer, A.R. (1998). Teaching students with learning problems(5th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.

Olson, J., & Platt, J.M. (2000). Teaching children and adolescents with disabilities (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.

Platt, J.M., & Olson, J. (1997). Teaching adolescents with mild disabilities. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.