Myths about Motivation: some research for reflection

 As parents and teachers, we will be doing our best to motivate our students and children so that they can do their best on the end of year exams coming up in a few weeks (Thursday 26th May - Thursday 2nd June). In this article in Education Week, there are some interesting insights on student motivation from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) which were framed as pushback on three myths about motivation that are common in schools:

Myth #1: The best source of student motivation is advice from a teacher 

A teacher’s suggestions may help, but the study found that students will get a bigger motivational boost from giving advice to another student (for example, on improving study habits or temper control). Trying to understand a peer’s difficulties and offering advice is more productive for the helper than getting direct advice from an adult. Interestingly, students don’t predict that helping a classmate will be motivational.

Myth #2: Students setting goals for themselves is the best motivational strategy. 

A meta-analysis of 400 studies reviewed which of these self-motivation strategies worked best for K-12 students:

1.  Engaging in mastery self-talk  (telling themselves they were competent or would perform well on a task)

2.  Enhancing the interest of the task (making it into a game or aligning it with personal interests)

3.  Warning themselves of the external consequences of not succeeding

4.  Controlling their environment  (setting up the work space to reduce interruptions)

5.  Proximal goal-setting ( breaking down one long-term goal into smaller interim goals)

Interestly to me, the study found that goal-setting had no significant benefit for middle- and high-school students, nor did enhancing the interest of the task. What worked? Controlling their environment, mastery self-talk, and warning themselves of the consequences of failure. 

Myth #3: Making a difficult task fun and entertaining will motivate students

The common assumption is that fun tasks (like embedding a maths concept in a fantasy football team) are more motivational than serious tasks (like comparing prices). Not necessarily, says the research, which showed that persistence with a task was more closely associated with whether the modality fit with what the student considered to be the goals of the task. In other words, it depends on whether someone considers the activity fun or important. If it’s considered fun, then adding something enjoyable surrounding the situation can inspire them to redo the activity – but if it’s important, fun actually will undermine it.