Articles

You’re teaching a class and notice a student with their head on the desk. You’re leading a team and have an employee who keeps missing deadlines. You’re raising a family and have a child who melts down over homework. In many cases, we tend to read these issues as a motivation problem. So we reach…

A young man, Rana*, approached me after I’d been speaking with his year group about Respectful Relationships at a High School in Perth. “I’m really struggling to fit in. Being at school is hard when you’re not really in a group. What can I do?” Just behind Rana stood three of his peers. The middle…

This term’s newsletters have followed a clear them: classroom learning motivation and regulation are superior when students feel autonomy-support in the learning environment. Today, two lists that show in the most practical way what supportive and controlling behaviours look like. Here are ten controlling behaviours, outlined in a 2006 paper by Johnmarshall Reeve and Hyungshim…

In a 2021 research paper, two academic researchers conducted a meta-analysis of over 50 high-quality research studies that investigated what autonomy-supportive instruction looked like in classrooms around the world. They found that “the skillful enactment of seven autonomy-satisfying instructional behaviors serve[d] two purposes.” It helped to support intrinsic motivation and support internalisation of content. From…

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…

It’s well accepted that there are two kinds of motivation. Some students are extrinsically motivated. They’ll move if you offer a big enough bribe or threat. Carrots and sticks. Punishments and rewards. Other students are intrinsically motivated. They don’t need your input to go after something. It’s inside them. They’re keen. Focused. Driven. Drawn to…