Mentor materials
Motivating pupils
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to: Learn that:
- Pupils are motivated by intrinsic factors (related to their identity and values) and extrinsic factors (related to reward)
Learn how to motivate pupils by:
- Providing opportunities for pupils to articulate their long-term goals and helping them to see how these are related to their success in school
- Helping pupils to journey from needing extrinsic motivation to being motivated to work intrinsically.
Activities
Reflecting on learning (10 minutes)
Discuss the lesson observation agreed in the last topic.
- What was successful?
- What could be better?
- What will the ECT do next?
Using rewards to motivate pupils (20 minutes)
Ask the ECT to describe what they have learned from the self-directed study materials about the link between rewards and pupil motivation. If they have not engaged with this yet, read the following definitions and then ask the ECT to give some examples of the types of rewards they use/are used in your school.
Intrinsic motivation: from internal sources, such as the pure enjoyment of task engagement. Extrinsic motivation: from external sources such as receiving financial compensation.
Recap on the learning:
As teachers we need to understand our pupils and find out what motivates them. Rewards offer the potential of either a negative or positive effect in the classroom and we need to consider carefully how we use these.
With rewards, we need to consider what the impact is on behaviour, attendance, effort and attainment.
Together look at the examples of teachers using rewards. For each one, decide:
- What will the impact of these rewards be? Are there any risks here?
- Is this a good use of rewards?
- If yes, then why?
- If no, what could the teacher do instead?
Example 1:
I am so impressed with the following pupils who have shown me that they have learned the times tables they were set. Come up and get your chocolate bar and let’s hear a round of applause. Well done Charlie, Rahim and Lacey. These pupils have put in the effort to learn their times tables, which will help them with the next few lessons in Maths and also their Maths work in the future.
Discussion might include:
- Rewards can be used effectively to encourage a desired behaviour, which might be seen as dull, but mastering the foundational concepts will aid long-term success.<
- Learning the times table will support the pupils with their future work and is a good example of rewarding a long-term goal.
- You would need to make sure that all pupils received the same reward. What impact would this have?
Example 2:
Every time you answer a question, I am going to give you a sweet. Let’s see how many questions you can answer!
Discussion might include:
- This is a bad example of how to use rewards.
- If a teacher gives out a small reward each time their pupils put their hands up to answer a question, they will soon run out of rewards, and pupils will lose interest in them (or worse, see this as an enjoyable game).
- Arguably, using sugar as a regular incentive is not sensible on health grounds!
- Instead, the teacher should offer rewards infrequently and try to make them unexpected. This will help pupils view their work as something to complete for their own benefit rather than for a reward.
Example 3:
I didn’t tell you this before the task, but I actually have the names of three pupils in my envelope here. Now at the start of the lesson I put the names of three secret pupils away and if those pupils have all completed the task to the standard I would expect the whole class will get a prize. I will be checking thoroughly!
Discussion might include:
- This is a good example of a teacher giving a reward in the moment that has novelty.
- Pupils would not be expecting this (as long as it was not being used regularly!)
- It is being given once the task is completed, which would mean pupils were not only completing the task for the reward.
- The whole class will receive a reward if the standards have been met, which means that no pupils will be excluded.
Ask the ECT what they can take from this into their practice.
Developing intrinsic motivation in your pupils (15 minutes)
Pose the question: What approaches do we use in school to support pupils develop their intrinsic motivation?
What do you do in your lessons?
Ideas might include:
- Rewarding and celebrating effort, ‘most improved pupil’ etc.
- Celebrating pupils demonstrating school values
- Giving pupils choices in their learning
- Empowering pupils in their learning
- Celebrating learning
- Guest speakers coming in to talk about motivation, their life etc.
In the classroom:
- Setting challenging but achievable goals
- Helping pupils express these
- Planning lesson content to interest pupils
- Rewarding effort rather than outcome
- Praising pupils
- Showing the value in making errors and mistakes
- Modelling a love of learning.
Use the following follow-up questions as stimulus for the discussion:
- How often do you use extrinsic factors to motivate pupils? Are these in-line with the school ethos?
- How are you challenging pupils and supporting them to think hard?
- How often do you praise the effort pupils have put in rather than the outcome?
Support the ECT to script what they would say and do to support and motivate the pupils in the following scenarios.
Pupil 1 has only achieved 50% in the test, but you know they worked really hard and revised at home.
Things to consider:
- Pupil may need more scaffolding; how can the ECT make it clear they will support them with this?
- How can the ECT acknowledge the effort they have put in?
- How can the ECT make sure this result doesn’t demoralise them?
Pupil 2 has not written anything on the test, but you think it is because they are scared of failing
Things to consider:
- How can the ECT get them to believe in themselves?
- Can the ECT show them that this test is an opportunity to learn?
Example response:
I am really proud of the effort you put into preparing for your test. I know the result doesn’t reflect what you and I both know you can achieve, but you worked hard and you should be proud of yourself. What you can do now is look at the feedback I have given you and put those points into action. I have prepared this reference sheet for you to have a look at as you do that. This is a really good starting point for you to improve on. Do you have any questions you would like to ask? Is there anything I can do to support you further?
The mentor should share examples of when they have seen pupils experiencing similar things, including what they said and did to support and motivate them.
Providing opportunities for pupils to articulate their long-term goals (10 minutes)
Pose the question: What can be gained from pupils knowing and being able to articulate their goals?
Discussion might include:
- Helps pupils take ownership of their own learning
- Helps pupils self-regulate and monitor their own learning
- Helps them become intrinsically motivated
- Learn how to track their own progress
- Helps pupils persevere.
Pose the question: How can you help pupils set learning goals?
Explain that we need to help pupils think about their goals and define them in a way that will make them more likely to be achieved.
Talk through the following stages with the ECT.
- Work backwards from the goal to now, identifying what the key ‘milestones’ will be that pupils will need to accomplish on the way to the goal.
- Work forwards from now to look at the first milestone and identify what things need to be done, and when, to achieve this.
- Make explicit and clear the chain of events that connects the ultimate goal and the success of each of the steps: emphasise that the goal will not be achieved by accident.
In doing this, the ECT might want to:
- Model to pupils how to set a specific long-term goal, by sharing their own
- Demonstrate how goals should be actionable
- Sensitively increase or decrease the challenge and aspiration of pupils’ goals
- Support pupils in setting a timeline and a method of recording progress
- Teach pupils the rationale behind setting their own goals. A goal that they set for themselves can be more empowering than one imposed by somebody else.
Pose the question: How can you build opportunities for pupils to articulate their goals?
Talk the ECT through the following ways they could build in opportunities for pupils to articulate their goals:
- Share the long-term learning objectives of their scheme of work with pupils
- Plan in time for pupils to create learning goals
- Communicate the goals for each lesson so these are tangible to pupils
- Link goals in each lesson to long-term goals, for the class or individual pupils
- Reflect on pupil success in lessons
- Plan in time for pupils to reflect on their progress
- Provide feedback around pupil goals.
The ECT should look at one class and build in an opportunity for pupils to create and articulate their learning goals. They should consider:
- Where do pupils need to be by the end of the week/unit/term?
- Do pupils know this?
- How can they share this information with the pupils?
- How are they going to support pupils to take ownership of this?
- How can they encourage pupils to create learning goals that will drive their progress?
Planning for action
Pose the following questions:
What are two things we can do to ensure rewards have a positive impact?
- Using them infrequently
- Making them unexpected
- Using them to encourage desired behaviour
- Using them for a specific reason.
What are two of the risks we should try to avoid when using rewards?
- Giving them too regularly
- Rewarding pupils for tasks they should enjoy
- Making them expected.
Ask the ECT to consider how they are going to use rewards in their practice.