Children are hardwired to be self-directed learners. This is why young children can master skills without being explicitly taught. So, why is it so hard to get some students to do anything in school? The answer may surprise you.
"Student motivation is very complex but tends to come down to three specific areas; emotional, behavioral and cognitive," (Fredricks, 2004). A teacher (side note here: "teacher" can mean anyone... parent, sibling, neighbor, mentor, friend etc.) must seek to engage in each of the three areas that drive motivation if they are to leave the lesson feeling like their students have gotten the most out of the lesson. Some areas of motivation are easier to touch upon than others. Conversely, some students may be more receptive to your efforts than others. Some children are just harder to reach than others and vice versa.
Motivating students is something that teachers all over are trying to do every day. From intense lesson planning, engaging lessons and hitting upon topics of interest the quest to motivate is a huge part of the profession of teaching. As a tutor it can be even more difficult to motivate students - especially those who are coming to a session by the request of a parent or teacher.
How to Motivate Students: Emotional Connections
Jamie was a 13 year old boy with Autism who was attending Confidence Academy for additional work completion and organizational goals. Jamie had a fantastic relationship with his resource room teacher at school and never seemed to have an issue at school yet despite all the communication in the world between school and home Jamie's mom just couldn't get him to organize and complete school work at home. She decided to look into homework completion tutoring. It was more important to her that her son's work be completed and handed in than the issue of him not wanting to do it for her.
Jamie's favorite subjects to talk about were trains, NASCAR and 9/11. He also liked any team with the word Boston in the title. After countless conversations with him about these topics mom and dad had begun to disengage with Jamie and this translated to Jamie as lack of interest in the things he cared about. It was no wonder after 13 years of talking about the same things over and over that Jamie's parents would develop a coping mechanism for hearing the same facts again and again, but this was not helping Jamie's work completion and homework goals.
Mom and dad had to reconnect with Jamie on the things he valued as most important. As an outsider who had yet to learn all of the stats of the 2011 racing season drivers (and so much more NASCAR knowledge) Jamie found connecting with me intriguing. I made it a point to look up at least one fact in order to try and stump him and each session he looked forward to teaching me all the things I did not know about NASCAR. I also coached mom to do the same with Jamie. Over time and a whole lot of patience mom was able to rekindle her connection with her son despite her disinterest in the topics he wanted to talk about.
Now, NASCAR had absolutely nothing to do with the work that Jamie came to Confidence Academy to do. That wasn't the point. The two (or was it three) sessions we spent getting to know each other through NASCAR was well worth the time when just 10 sessions in to tutoring Jamie and his mom began reconnecting and Jamie began completing his homework before tutoring even started. His grades went up and he felt more successful at home and school.
Jamie needed that emotional connection to help motivate him to do good work. Building and maintaining personal relationships as students interests change (or not, in this case) is an integral part of motivating students to work.
In Part 2 of this series on motivating students with special needs we will talk about connecting with students on a behavioral level conducive to increasing motivation.
By: Andrea Logan, MS Ed
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