Many posts on student motivation have appeared in this blog over the years.

Antoine Germany, an assistant principal at the school where I teach, Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., gave a brief presentation on the topic with a slightly different “take” on it from what I’ve usually heard.

At my invitation, he converted his thoughts into today’s blog post.

‘The Utility of Learning’

We, as educators, have all had students who don’t regularly demonstrate their potential. Even more challenging are students who demonstrate little to no effort in your classroom.

These are the students who are frequently late, rarely, if ever, are prepared for class, and don’t turn in work regardless of how many attempts you make to get them on track. These students can be challenging to work with and can oftentimes influence other students to begin to show less effort.

Countless books have been written about increasing student motivation. Although these books and the sentiments expressed within are well meaning, they often miss a fundamental understanding of motivation and its relationship to sustained effort, particularly when it comes to students.

Most seminars and books begin with the assumption that students demonstrate little effort because they lack motivation; so, we need to figure out ways to increase student motivation. The logic then dictates that we try to find motivational techniques or other incentives to motivate better academic behavior.

Even though this logic can be true in some instances, it is often not the case when it comes to students in an urban environment. Motivation is a feeling, a desire to do or be something. Effort is the actions taken to realize that motivation. They are not the same. In fact, you can be motivated, even highly motivated, and show little or no effort to realize that motivation.

Many of us have experienced this in our own lives. We are motivated, sometimes highly motivated to lose weight or to eat healthier, yet we don’t show much effort toward that goal. Why? There are a number of factors at play here that can help us understand and support our students.

Many students have never had the experience of their efforts (particularly in school) helping them attain their motivations to be a good student. Imagine trying for a few days or weeks to bring your grades up and you end up failing the class anyway or you don’t do well on the next exam. This lack of concrete success can damper effort but not necessarily their motivation.

There’s another factor at play as well, which is habits. Habits are formed over time, and poor habits have to be formed over time as well. This is often why we don’t stick with diets or exercise regimes. We have to develop new habits to support the motivation that we have.

What does this have to do with our students with poor academic habits? The first is to stop assuming that they don’t care and are unmotivated. The better way to view them is as students who need to develop better academic habits. The same way you learn poor habits is the same way you learn healthier habits. However, healthy academic habits are learned and should be taught.

When working with students who have displayed little effort, you should begin by showing and telling them that what they are doing in class is going to help them. We call this the utility of learning. We as educators can’t assume that students are going to love learning just for its own sake; we have to tell students what they are getting better at and how this learning will help them in the future. Learning objectives displayed in the classroom are not just a perfunctory exercise in compliance, they are an opportunity to sell students on what they are learning and why it’s important.

The other useful strategy to working with challenging students is to give them concrete, incremental goals to achieve during the day. These goals might be as simple as being on time or having their writing utensil. Offering praise and affirmations when these students reach these incremental goals will connect the act with a positive result, which is often missing in students’ minds.

Another idea is to give students a role or responsibility in class. If the teacher or the class is counting on the student to be there to fulfill their responsibility (whether it is to pass out papers or to collect exit slips), they are far more likely to demonstrate effort.

Displaying student work on the walls in the classroom (even if they have done very little) often shows students that the work they complete will be displayed and celebrated. They are far more likely to show effort to have more work shown. It’s not dissimilar to practicing something with far more effort and precision when you know others are going to see the final product.

Giving students concrete feedback is also important. “Good job,” although kind, is generic and doesn’t get to the heart of what we are trying to achieve with students. Praising effort, however, is far more effective. “I like that you read silently for two more minutes today than yesterday. That sticking to it even when your mind starts to wander is the type of mental discipline that’s going to make you a beast in my class.” The second affirmation was specific and focused on sustained effort rather than a generic compliment.

Highlighting students’ progress is also paramount when trying to help them develop better academic habits. Reminding a student of how far they’ve come reminds them that their effort has concrete results. It inspires more effort. It’s just like working out and starting to see better results in your body. It reaffirms the effort put in and causes you to do more of it.

Finally, we should always remember that change takes time. Students are going to improve in fits and starts. They won’t be perfect even with the strategies outlined above. But we can encourage better effort from our students by first ceasing to assume that they are unmotivated, by focusing on sustained effort through taught academic habits, and by giving students the same grace we would want when we are trying to change our own habits.

Thanks to Antoine for contributing his thoughts!

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