“What we know from research is this: there’s neither a causal relationship nor a reciprocal relationship between motivation and learning. It is learning that leads to motivation.”

This is a statement from How Learning Happens, the new book by Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick. They cite studies in motivation and engagement from Garon-Carrier et al, 2016 and McConney et al, 2014 as evidence. 

The idea that learning itself leads to motivation has some big implications for teachers and the wider school community where time (and money) is often spent on trying to motivate pupils in the hope they will do better in their education.

Reflecting on my own 17 years in the classroom, I can think of numerous occasions when I have spent time trying to motivate an underperforming student to work harder in the hope that their performance would improve. I’d give pep talks, use motivational slogans and stirring speeches, all to no effect. 

What if I had spent this time not trying to motivate them but instead trying to give them a taste of success? Would that have had more of an impact?

I can certainly think of occasions when that has happened: pupils who had given up on a difficult piece of work but who sprang back to life when they realised it was within their capability to do it; or pupils who seemed bored with a subject, right up to the point they got a mock exam paper back that showed they had done better than their peers.

Experience certainly seems to suggest that Kirschner and Hendrick are on to something. So, what can we teachers do? How do we create situations in which learning leads to motivation?

1. Avoid overload

We can think of those things that demotivate a pupil and avoid those situations from occurring. This often happens when they feel overwhelmed by what they have been asked to do or when there are too many instructions that seem too complex to follow. The extraneous load is too high and, inevitably, they struggle.

We can avoid this by making sure that tasks are broken up into clear steps with well-worded instructions that are easy to follow. We can make sure they are secure in completing the first step before trying to move them on to the next. 

2. Scaffold to success

One problem with the idea that learning leads to motivation is that if pupils haven’t learned something, they may not be motivated to start. They need an early taste of success.

One strategy I have found useful here is starting a year with a heavily scaffolded piece of work that allows pupils to create something excellent. This gives them the feeling of accomplishment as well as an exemplar piece of work to refer back to if they forget the standard they are aiming for. What makes it even more motivating is that it is an exemplar they have created themselves. 

3. Continue to model

Of course, one well-scaffolded piece of work at the start of a year may not be enough to keep them going through the struggles that follow. We may need to continue to model the standard we are expecting and the steps that they need to take to achieve it.

Doing this live can be especially powerful in terms of motivation as we can clearly narrate these steps as they follow along and realise it is within their reach. 

4. Build on what they know

If “learning leads to motivation”, then we need to be very clear that pupils are using what they already know so that we can take advantage of this motivation.

Pupils may lose motivation when starting a new topic if they feel immediately out of their depth and away from what they know. We can support them here by relating the new topic to their existing schema - their web of knowledge about the subject you are teaching. For example, if I were to start a topic on the way glaciers shape the landscape (including lots of new and demotivating vocabulary like “plucking” and “pyramidal peak”), I might start by relating it to what they have already learned about how rivers create distinctive landscapes. 

As with so much in teaching, motivation is deceptively simple and seems to have become needlessly complicated by forces from outside the classroom.

What “learning leads to motivation” really means is that if we concentrate on teaching pupils really well, they will find it easier to learn and so will be more motivated to continue. No stirring speech or pep talk required. 

Mark Enser is head of geography and research lead at Heathfield Community College in East Sussex. His latest book, Teach Like Nobody’s Watching, is out now. He tweets @EnserMark