Many of us have kids in our care that are lacking motivation in doing various things in their life. Motivation for school can be a tricky thing to figure out depending on the kids you are working with. I liked the “baker’s dozen” that Steven Pfeiffer shares in the following article. It really is a science at times to figure out the right combination for the child to be successfully motivated in school.
How do you assist in motivating the kids with school?
Of course, motivation is very important – really, it is critical for learning to occur. Especially higher-order learning. Motivation is important at all levels of learning and for students at every age and grade. And motivation is equally important for all learners; kids of average ability, students of low ability, and even high ability kids. Having served as director of the pre-collegiate gifted program at Duke University, and more recently as co-director of a summer academy in science, engineering and space technology for Florida’s brightest high school students, I have repeatedly observed first-hand the importance of motivation. And as a professor at a leading university, I have also observed the profound role that motivation plays in the success of graduate students. Even among extraordinarily bright students, we repeatedly see individual differences in students’ levels of drive, enthusiasm, persistence, determination, commitment, and zest. This is, simply put, a fact of life. Kids vary tremendously in their motivation.