What I used to think
In much the same way as I had never really considered how students think, I had not really put much thought into what motivates my students. I had a sense that motivation was both important and desirable, but I had pretty much assumed that students either enjoyed maths or they didn’t. Sure, there were little tricks I could pull to get students through tricky times, but ultimately their views on maths were fixed. Moreover, if asked why that was the case, I would probably have said that it was largely determined – with a few exceptions – by whether or not they were any good at it.
It turns out that it is not quite as simple as that.
Sources of inspiration
My takeaway
Whilst we have seen in Chapter 1 that student engagement is no guarantee of learning – as we cannot be sure exactly what students are engaged in – it seems sensible to assume that intrinsic motivation in mathematics, which can be thought of as wanting to learn for its own sake, is a desirable quality for our students to possess. Indeed, Lepper (1988) explains that when individuals engage in tasks in which they are motivated intrinsically, they tend to exhibit a number of pedagogically desirable behaviours including ‘increased time on task, persistence in the face of failure, more elaborative processing and monitoring of comprehension, selection of more difficult tasks, greater creativity and risk taking, selection of deeper and more efficient performance and learning strategies, and choice of an activity in the absence of an extrinsic reward’.
Sounds great!
So, the natural questions arising from this are: what causes our students to be motivated? And what can we do as teachers to help?
Now, any book that attempts to answer these questions in a single chapter is asking for trouble. There are thousands of books on motivation, spanning the disciplines of psychology, cognitive science, behaviourism, economics and more. However, whilst I can do more than scratch the surface of this issue, it is something that cannot be ignored for two reasons. First, learning and motivation share an important, complex relationship. Second, accusations aimed at the explicit instruction model of maths teaching I will introduce in Chapter 3 and develop throughout this book often revolve around the issue of motivation. Comments such as, ‘sure that method may be effective, but if you bore the kids to tears, what good is it?’, are all too common. Maths is often perceived, by students and parents alike, as a difficult, boring subject, and this can lead to misguided attempts to motivate students that can end up doing more harm than good.
So, before we crack open that can of worms, let us take a brief look at some of the general research findings related to motivation. Just as we found in our models of thinking, there is no universally accepted model of motivation, but there are common themes about what motivates us.
A sense of control
In his book Drive, Pink (2011) suggests a key determinant of motivation is autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives. The desire for control also looms large over the work of Deci et al (2001) in relation to Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET), an interesting subset of their larger Self Determination Theory. According to the theory, external events such as the offering of rewards, the delivery of evaluations, the setting of deadlines, and other motivational inputs affect a person’s intrinsic motivation to the extent that they influence that person’s perception of self-determination. In short, if we feel we are not in control, or someone is trying to control us, we are less likely to be intrinsically motivated.
A belief that the work they are doing has value (intrinsic or extrinsic)
Pink (2011) identifies purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves – as a second key determinant of motivation. Martin (2016) agrees, including how much students believe what they learn at school is useful, relevant, meaningful, and important as a key component of motivation in his Load Reduction Instruction model. Tollefson (2000) discusses the concept of Expectancy × Value Theory, which proposes that the degree to which students will expend effort on a task is a function of: (a) their expectation they will be able to perform the task successfully and by so doing obtain the rewards associated with successful completion of the task; and (b) the value they place on the rewards associated with successful completion of the task. Specifically – and rather mathematically – the model assumes the amount of effort invested is a product of the expectation of success and the value of the reward. Whilst this value can be intrinsic or extrinsic, both Middleton and Spanias (1999) and a report from the American Psychological Association (2015) argue that students tend to enjoy learning and perform better when they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated to achieve. Mastery
Pink’s (2011) third element of motivation is mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters. The report from the American Psychological Association (2015) concurs, explaining that students persist in the face of challenging tasks and process information more deeply when they adopt mastery goals rather than performance goals. For Martin (2016), a ‘mastery orientation’ is a key component of motivation, explaining students’ interest in and focus on learning, developing new skills, improving, understanding, and doing a good job for its own sake and not just for rewards or the marks they will get for their efforts.
A feeling that they are successful, or can be successful
Inherently related to mastery is the feeling of success. Middleton and Spanias (1999) explain that students’ perceptions of success in mathematics are highly influential in forming their motivational attitudes. For Zimmerman (2000), self-efficacy (defined as one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task) is the key to motivation, explaining that self-efficacious students participate more readily, work harder, persist longer, and have fewer adverse emotional reactions when they encounter difficulties than do those who doubt their capabilities. Martin (2016) agrees, identifying students’ belief and confidence in their ability to understand or to do well in schoolwork, to meet challenges they face, and to perform to the best of their ability, as key determinants of motivation.
For the remainder of this chapter we will assess strategies to impact upon student motivation in the light of these areas.
What I do now
Carefully consider what motivates my students, and specifically what actions I can take to influence this. As we shall see, some actions are easier than others, and some may actually do more harm than good.