Motivating Students to Learn

Author: Arlene Vinion Dubiel

A new semester is starting and I’m thinking about the students in my classes. I teach assessment for preservice teachers and two of my classes have identical content topics. One class is full of undergraduates planning to teach high school math and the other is comprised of adults embarking on second careers as elementary teachers. These two groups often have different motivations for learning about assessment. Likewise, the populations these preservice teachers will eventually teach have different motivations for learning content topics. Identifying our students’ motivation for learning can help us to engage all of our students. 

Goal-orientation and learning

We know too well that if students are not engaged, they will not learn. We work hard in our teaching practice to engage our students but ultimately the decision of learning is on the student. The willingness to engage in learning depends upon the students’ goal-orientation. In Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning, Jan Chappuis and Rick Stiggins describe three goal-orientations: ego-involved, task-completion, and learning. 

Students who have an ego-involved orientation are often our typical ‘good’ students. They please the teacher by doing extra credit work, show up for optional study sessions, and ask for clarification. They like to measure themselves against other students. They like to prove their ability and are rewarded by earning A’s and as long as they earn A’s, they are happy and will work. But if challenged or struggling, these students may become disenchanted with learning because they cannot hide their deficiencies. 

Most of the students in our classes have a task-completion orientation. Their goal is to simply get through the class. Learning takes a back seat to getting the work done and moving on, especially if the course is a requirement or gen ed. These students like the list of requirements and instructions at the beginning of a unit and use it as a checklist to make sure they are making progress.

Students with a learning orientation have the goal of trying to improve. These are the students who ask ‘why do I need to know this?’ Most adult students have a learning orientation. They want to know how this course will help them in the future. They are vested in the material and will do their best but also seek and value feedback to improve. Our hope is that all of our students can adopt a learning orientation as that is where the real learning can occur. 

Towards a learning orientation - grading

When was the last time you examined your grading system? Do your assignments and the points assigned to each encourage students to get the work done or does it encourage students to focus on learning and quality? With remote learning and Covid illnesses last semester, I had a few students get behind in turning in weekly assignments. These assignments encourage learning because I give critical feedback that students can use to improve the quality of major projects. However, the point values for these assignments were so large, that students who got behind were at risk of failing, despite turning in quality projects. With my grading system, I was rewarding the effort of submitting assignments over the quality of major projects. My students who did well were those that adopted a task-completion orientation. 

This semester, I’ve changed my grading system. Now the major projects are worth 90% of the overall grade and are scored for quality. The weekly assignments which are given feedback are worth only 10% of the overall grade with points awarded for submitting. If a student gets behind, they can still do well in the course based upon the quality of their major projects. With this grading system, students are able to adopt a learning orientation - completing the assignments that will best serve their needs, while not being harshly penalized for missing work. It is my hope that this new grading system will work well for myself and for my students.  

Towards a learning orientation - fun and connection

“Ultimately the decision of learning is on the student.”

I am fortunate to teach adults and undergraduates who tend towards a learning orientation because they will soon be teachers themselves. However, they will be teaching students in K-12, who often do not have the metacognition to adopt a learning orientation on their own. Instead, these teachers will need to use various strategies to engage and encourage students to learn. 

For elementary students, ‘fun’ is a great motivator for learning. I studied science because I thought it was fun. I have a child who is learning chemistry because she thinks making slime is fun. Maryam Mirzakhani, winner of the 2014 Fields Medal, enjoyed the mental challenges and the ‘beauty’ of mathematics. If something is perceived as being ‘fun,’ then a person will do it. As a teacher, you can motivate students by sharing your own wonder, fun, and beauty of your chosen field, banking on the infectiousness of excitement. 

While high school students are still into ‘fun,’ they also want to know how content pertains to them and their lives. We know adolescents can be somewhat self-centered. They are trying to figure out their place in the world - no longer a child but not quite an adult either. They often need you to make the connections between the content you are trying to teach them and their lives. For example, what careers use geometry or how is calculus used in real life? Reminding students of how and when course content is used can open the door to encourage students to adopt a learning orientation.

There are many other small ways to engage students to learn like providing unique demonstrations, displaying discrepant events, or framing lessons within a task or problem. While these ‘hooks’ can help for a lesson, ultimately we want students to be engaged in the subject as a whole, for that, we need to consistently find the fun and make connections between learning and our students’ lives.

Students who have a learning orientation will be motivated to learn over those with an ego-involved or task-completion orientation. We can prepare up our courses to allow for a learning orientation by finding the fun in our subject, making connections with students’ lives, and examining our grading practices to ensure students will not default to a task-completion orientation.