What causes a lack of motivation?
Lack of motivation in students can be seen throughout schooling from kindergarten to year twelve. It is possible that some point in their schooling has not served them well. They may have been let down or even rejected and this has resulted in their disengagement and lack of motivation. In addition to schooling a lack of motivation in students can arise due to a range of internal, external and environmental influences. These may include any one, or a combination of the following factors;
criticism and/or a lack of encouragement,
lack of self esteem
lack of support
anxiety
too much family or school pressure
unrealistic expectations
peer group pressures
Any one of these causes can trigger a lack of motivation. You may see this develop gradually over time as a student fails to experience any level of success or encouragement. A lack of motivation may also be an instantaneous reaction to a pivotal event which has scared or traumatised them such as being humiliated in front of a class because they didn’t know something or made a mistake. This is when one-on-one tutoring by Central Coast Tutors can step in and assist a student experiencing a lack of motivation to build them back up toward experiencing success.
How to motivate students
There are many strategies a good one-on-one tutor can use to re-ignite motivation in a student who is showing disinterest in their schooling. Often a tutor may use a range of strategies to spark interest in them again. They may need to get to know the student before putting a plan in place. It could be one successful strategy or a combination that hits the mark for a particular student and as all students are different, the combination will differ depending on each student’s individual needs, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
Some successful strategies that have commonly shown success in unmotivated students include;
Positive encouragement
Positive encouragement can take on verbal, visual and tactile forms. Just making eye contact with a withdrawn and unmotivated student can start the process of rebuilding confidence. It's key at this early stage for a tutor to catch out the student and verbally praise even the smallest steps forward, building on this as confidence and motivation grows. Verbal praise is key and supports all other forms of positive encouragement. For younger students a visual tracking chart is useful as students can see their progress easily and aim for growth as they regain their motivation.
Build on strengths - competence
Knowing a child or gleaning as much information from parents, previous tutors, class teachers or even a trusted sports coach can be important in a tutor putting together a set of successful strategies that will help an unmotivated student build back their competence.
This is particularly important for students who have experienced a triggering setback such as significant embarrassment or ridicule by a school teacher. These can be significant and damaging moments in a developing child’s school life. Building competence can take time and using a tutor in an individual setting can be a key strategy to repair damage that has been done in a classroom or school setting. A tutor can link their strategies to something the student loves and already has a level of skill and competence in. This has a much greater chance of making progress and seeing a student’s confidence grow in an area where there may be weakness. An example might be a primary school aged boy who loves football, tailoring activities that gets the boy outside, using a soccer goal and ball to make the session interactive. This will not only make the tutoring fun but help to build competence in the area you are working on, leading to greater motivation.
Allow students to make their own choices
Creating a program where students can make choices is a very successful strategy for regaining motivation for students. When a student makes a choice, they often show greater ownership over the actions that need to follow. With an assignment for example, giving students 2 or 3 options for assignment topic and presentation modes can be highly motivating for students, particularly if it includes a traditional written format, multimedia verbal presentation or a digital format such as power point. If a student gets to choose it gives them autonomy over their actions and makes them feel empowered over what they are doing hence increases motivation.
Connect learning to real life
A lack of motivation can often arise when students don’t see the relevance of what they are being asked to do or learn. If a teacher or tutor spends the time and establishes the relatedness of the topic, it will result in the student feeling the learning is connected to real life. Maths tutoring can be a great example of this. Once students get into high school and start doing trigonometry and other complex mathematical concepts, seeing where they fit into real jobs is useful in retaining student interest and motivation. History is also an area where students can sometimes fail to see the benefit of studying past events. A key to capturing interest and sustaining motivation is when a history tutor relates these historical events to modern events.
Introduce role models
Who do you know in your social circle, or who is in your family that you could connect your child with as a role model. It’s often important to choose someone who has a skill set or hobby that your child is really into, who has been successful in aspects of their life. Creating casual opportunities or even setting up a formal mentoring arrangement with a person like this can help to motivate a child. Sometimes children need to hear the truth from someone other than their parent. An objective person that is not in the immediate family can be a useful tool to help motivate an unmotivated child. After all we are hardwired for connection and relationship and sometimes unmotivated children need connection and finding the right mentor can be the key. When they see a successful adult that they connect with it can help them to Identify the feelings that they might experience when they are successful and creates some self-belief that they can be successful too. Creating this connection between a trusted mentor and an unmotivated student can create motivation as students tend to perform for people they care about. Undoing apathy will not happen overnight though, so it may take time and require frequent small goals and using positive reinforcement to catch the student out when they are succeeding no matter how small the success is.
Using extrinsic motivation
Teachers, parents and one-on-one tutors can employ a range of strategies to help motivate students and these could include;
creating some form of incentive where students earn a ‘work free’ session or other reward that is highly prized
challenge students to beat their own ‘record’ for a certain task. If this is individually set then there is no opportunity of ridicule in a class group setting where different students have their own individual record to beat.
choose a subject or opportunity for a student to be the expert and allow them to teach a skill to a younger student or the rest of the class
making tasks physically active, dynamic and hands on is very motivating as most of what children do at school is sedentary. Mixing it up is key to keeping children interested
You can model effective mistake making by making a mistake on purpose and modelling a light hearted response. Doing this regularly in front of your own children or your class, teaches children how to positively respond when you make a mistake.
Is there something more going on?
It’s always important to be aware that there may be more going on for an unmotivated student or child. It may be necessary to consult your GP to ascertain whether the student or child, who claims to not like school, is actually a cry for help. There could be underlying mental health issues. Our young people are suffering an epidemic of anxiety, and this has grown after the last two years of covid related lockdowns. Children have really suffered and we need to be aware that this might be causing a lack of motivation.
Children who are very bright but have not been identified and tested by parents or school staff may be unmotivated as they are bored and unchallenged at school. This can sometimes be masked by disruptive and poor behaviour. It is not uncommon for gifted children to be misdiagnosed as having ADHD or a range of other causes, when in fact they are just disenfranchised by school due to lack of engagement in appropriate material and delivery for their superior intellect. The confines of the education system can really stifle the learning of some children particularly those who are outside the mainstream. Gifted children can often fall into this group as the common misconception is that gifted children are compliant, studious and excel at school. While some gifted children fall into this category, many do not, as there are a range of gifted domains that children can fit into, each with their own set of features and characteristics. It is important for parents, teachers and tutors to know which gifted domain a given child fits into, in order to tailor appropriate learning activities to help keep them engaged and motivated.
Social isolation or bullying could also be causing lack of motivation in students. It’s always a good idea to contact your child’s class teacher or year adviser to get a progress report and see if any changes in behaviour or social issues are evident at school. This can be telling as some children don’t want to tell their parents what is going on at school for fear of getting in trouble, or that their parent’s intervention may make the situation worse at school. The reality is bullies bully because they get away with it. Getting the various school-based stake holders involved to resolve the situation is paramount as while ever trauma is occurring at school a child will not learn to their capacity. Bringing things into the light is always preferrable to allowing a destructive situation to continue at school or in a child’s social circle. The school counsellor may also be a useful person to connect with in this sort of circumstance. They understand the inner workings of the school setting but are objective in that they do not have face to face teaching duties within a given school. They can help a child to develop and practice strategies that will assist them socially and also work with the bully to reduce the likelihood of repeated behaviours of this sort.
As a parent, teacher or tutor of an unmotivated student, the key is not to give up when trying to manage the situation. Developing a great rapport is the best place to start. Knowing the child, their likes and dislikes, gives you the first insight into them personally and allows a parent, teacher or one-to-one tutor to begin looking at all the available strategies that they could employ to construct a plan to assist the child they are working with. Your first plan may not be fully successful. It’s important to continue working with all the trusted adults in this child’s life as you consider the range of strategies available. This should result in a plan that works for that individual child to help them regain confidence, develop skill and motivation toward success not just at school but in their wider life.