Exam halls and classrooms across the nation are currently welcoming nervous young people to sit their Sats, GCSEs and A levels. Many of these pupils are positively fuelled by high motivation, but just as many are not.
The trouble with motivating pupils is that, ultimately, we are not very sure how to best do it. There is plenty of research and advice offering theories about what teachers can consider, but there’s too little evidence about what teachers can actually do that is likely to work best for most pupils.
The most common conception of motivation is represented as a dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
The former means tackling a tricky task - like taking a national exam - for intrinsic benefits, such as self-satisfaction and the sheer enjoyment of the challenge, while the latter means taking on tasks for external rewards, such as teacher praise or financial rewards from parents.
Researchers often depict intrinsic motivation as the good stuff, whereas extrinsic is less positive and to be avoided as much as possible. But, as every teacher knows, this is far too simplistic.
Rewards that promote extrinsic motivation continue to survive and thrive, often because there is no clear alternative. The truth is that many pupils lack deep interest in their learning, and their motivation is routinely dulled by struggling to access the school curriculum. In such cases, external nudges can help.
Instead of eschewing extrinsic motivation as a disappointing last resort, we can use it to foster more intrinsic motivation over time.
For example, nudging weekly rewards around attendance can see pupils engage with more of the curriculum, and so may ultimately foster more experiences of success. This, in turn, builds more enjoyment for tackling tricky tasks, thereby increasing the likelihood of pupils developing intrinsic motivation.
Benefit of goal setting
Rather than focusing on fuzzy theories of motivation, it’s useful to look at more specific actions and pupil behaviours that can be nudged and enhanced. Goal setting can be helpful in this.
The benefit of goal-setting approaches is that they are not just relevant for challenges like exams: they apply to all learning and can offer strategies for success in all walks of life.
One approach to actionable goal setting is to break pupils’ goals into short-, medium- and long-term strategies. Additionally, we can help teachers by narrowing and breaking it down into different goal types.
The five most common goal types are:
Learning goals
These are usually task-related, such as: “Write five detailed examples to support your exam question argument.”
Effort goals
Targets that seek to extend pupil’s efforts, for example: “Spend an additional 20 minutes learning my physics equations.”
Self-regulation goals
Those that focus on managing one’s own emotions and behaviour, such as: “Spend 20 minutes on my reading homework without being distracted by my tech.”
Social goals
Focused on communication with others, getting feedback, and so on, for example: “Get feedback from two peers on my history essay homework.”
Emotion goals
Those that focus on positive attitudes to learning, such as: “Take five deep breaths and try to refocus if I am getting frustrated.”
Teachers can direct goal setting towards building intrinsic motivation. The more explicit we are about making small manageable goals that build towards longer-term achievements, the better pupils will handle significant challenges such as national exams.
Not every approach will work for every pupil, but goal setting can build teacher and pupil confidence so that more pupils are motivated more often - from the classroom to the exam hall and beyond.
Alex Quigley is the national content and engagement manager at the Education Endowment Foundation. He is a former teacher and author of the new book Why Learning Fails (And What To Do About It), published by Routledge
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