Tackle Spring Fever with Brain-Based Motivation
Guest User
Spring has definitely sprung, which means your students are likely experiencing a dose of spring fever! Without a doubt, keeping students motivated as the end of the school year approaches can be challenging. Consider these steps to accelerate student motivation with the brain in mind:
1) Reduce Demotivators
Efforts to motivate seldom work when there are various demotivating factors around. Reflect upon your students’ daily experiences and consider what stressors, distractions or emotions are diverting the brain’s resources from learning. Create systems, teaching habits, and relationships to minimize these demotivators.
2) Accelerate Short Term Motivators
The brain has a few states that instantly boost motivation: curiosity, anticipation, and relevance. When the brain is in one of these states, it releases neurochemicals that activate the motivation and learning systems in the brain (Corbette et al., 2017).
3) Design Long-Term Motivators
Students have different motivators depending on their age. Elementary students may be motivated by autonomy, identity, and power. Middle school students are highly motivated by a sense of belonging, affiliation, and being correct (Burrow et al., 2011). High schoolers are driven by the desire for status, mastery, and purpose (Damon et al. 2003).
Click here to read more about motivation in the brain and ideas to apply to your practice.
McConchie, L. (2022, January 25). Motivating Students with the Brain in Mind. ASCD. Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/motivating-students-with-the-brain-in-mind