In a recent article I wrote about motivation – or what psychology researchers more accurately call “regulation”.
A useful question to ask students is not “How motivated are you?”. Rather, try “How are you motivated?”
If they’re externally motivated, or introjected, you’ll get lousy results. If they’re identified, you’ll see progress. If they’re integrated or intrinsic, you’ve hit the jackpot.
But how do they know?
First, there’s value in teaching this to them. Give them the language. You can easily check in and they’ll let you know where they are and why.
Here are three examples from my personal life that show how this works.
Swim to the wall
As a teen, my parents arose at 4:30 to take me to swim squad. I didn’t ask for it. In fact, I hated it. But because I was a surfer, they insisted I must be a strong swimmer.
You’ll have noticed flags situated five metres from the wall at any Olympic pool. I had a bad habit of swimming to the flags, standing up, turning around, and diving back into the water to swim in the direction from which I’d just swum. This cut 10 metres off every 100m that I was asked to swim. It gave me a couple of seconds of rest. And it enraged my coach. As I plunged below the water’s surface I would hear him yell from the other end of the pool, “To the wall Justin! All the way to the end of the pool!”
But I didn’t care. I didn’t see any point. I didn’t buy the why. There was no relevance or purpose, in my mind, to justify the extra swimming.
Today, as an adult, I have returned to swimming. And even without a coach to yell at me, I choose to swim all the way to the wall. Every single lap.
Why? Because I ‘identify’ the value in the activity. Swimming is relevant and purposeful. I endorse the concept of completing every lap. My regulation style – that is, my motivation – has qualitatively changed.
Just do the dip
I have a personal trainer. Recently, my PT asked me to do “eccentric dips”. (See video here… but no, it’s not me.) Note. I’m not talking eccentric as in “unconventional or slightly strange”. In exercise terms this means “exercise where the muscle lengthens under tension”. I’m doing a slow drop.
He specifically did NOT want me to push myself back up. Just slowly lower myself.
I felt strong. With his back turned, I did six full dips, lowering myself and then pushing back up. I was so proud of myself I told him what I’d done when he came back to me.
He seemed annoyed, and explained that “Doing that changes what I want from you in this session. It uses your muscles more, exhausts you for some later exercises, and interferes with our longer-term goals.”
Ollie (my PT) then provided some more information about what we were doing and why at which point I apologised. I saw the lesson he was trying to teach me. And I swore I would follow his instructions from now on.
I thought I knew better. Once I understood his programme for me, that changed and I identified the value of listening to the guy I’m paying for advice!
“I don’t like church”
As each of my children reach around 14, they’ll tell me they’re done with church. They’ll complain that “You’re making me go and I don’t want to.”
“That sounds like external regulation”, I’ll explain. “But I’m not making you go. I never have. No bribes or threats. No punishments or rewards. It’s actually up to you.”
“Well, I feel like I should go”, they’ll reply.
“Ahh, so you’re introjected”, is my response. “What have you noticed about people at church who are introjected? Who are there because they feel they should, must, have to, are ‘supposed’ to go? How do they show up? Sing? Listen?”
“They don’t sing. They look miserable. And rather than listen, they’re on their phones”, my children will astutely point out.
“Ok. So I’m not making you go. You’re making yourself go. And you’re also miserable, like the other introjects? Am I right?”
My kids will nod their agreement (and yes, we use those words, ‘extrinsic’, ‘introjected’, and so on in my home.) Then I’ll explain, “I see value in being at church. It’s good for you socially, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. I don’t want you at church unless you’re at least identified in your motivation/regulation. I’ll be in the car in 20 minutes. If you’re identified, I’ll see you there. If you’re not, I guess I won’t.”
And then… they usually get in the car. If not this particular day, the week following. And they’re identified.
The workhorse
Identified motivation/regulation is the workhorse of your students’ motivation experience. If you can get them to identify the value in what you’re teaching, they’ll do the work without you being on their case.
This means they MUST understand the purpose and relevance of the learning. If they don’t see its application and value, they won’t identify with it and they won’t endorse the learning necessary to internalise what you’re teaching them.
Note what you saw in my examples: there is ALWAYS an explanation or rationale explaining why it matters. And that explanation is ACCEPTED and UNDERSTOOD by the person on the receiving end.
If your students are going to regulate well – be motivated in productive ways – they must see the purpose and relevance of your instruction. They must endorse it. Otherwise, they won’t adhere to it. Rather than being COMMITTED, they’ll feel COMPELLED. And we all know that committed learners engage qualitatively differently to compelled learners.
Last week I asked you three questions to help internalise the ideas I’m sharing. This week, I have three more questions to consider:
- Think about a student who is currently doing the bare minimum – or less. Do they actually know why what you’re teaching matters? Not just that it’s “on the exam”, but the real, lived relevance of it? Have you told them?
- Where in your own life are you identified or intrinsically motivated – and where are you still introjected? What does that feel like from the inside, and how does it shape how you show up?
- What would change in your classroom if you started new topics or tasks with a genuine rationale – not a justification, but a real answer to the question your students are already asking: “Why does this matter to me?” What would it look like if you engaged students in developing their own rationale?
Next time, the seven research-backed autonomy supportive instructional behaviours that will transform your classroom.
