Motivation report sheet
Who is it for?
All teachers interested in raising the motivation levels of their pupils.
Outline of idea
We asked a small group of students from years 8 and 10 to track their motivation levels during a school day. Through discussion students created a template to monitor their motivation levels throughout the day, whereby 1 was low and 10 was high (download
the motivation report sheet template above). From this we had a discussion about how the levels of motivation changed throughout the day, what were the causes of increased and decreased levels of motivation. Students came up with ideas for other pupils and teachers to enhance levels of motivation.
How it worked out
Key findings are that the following factors influence motivation:
1) Active parts to lessons increase motivation
2) Grouping had an effect on motivation levels as did perceived level of ability, i.e. students’ belief about their own ability in the subject / feeling good about their own achievement
3) Time of day
4) Eating
5) General mood
6) Positive feedback from teachers i.e. praise and support
7) Choice in learning
8) Being able to express themselves
9) Being successful about something early in the day – transfer to a positive frame of mind through the day
The research was shared with the teaching and learning group.
Next steps
Looking forward we discussed the following ideas:
1) Larger group of students to carry out motivation level tracker
2) Looking at setting and how that affects motivation levels
3) Motivation day suggested in Teaching and Learning meeting