What the motivation exactly is? How do we have to motivate our students?

Motivation is the key to school achievement. But it is important to know exactly what motivation is.

A lot of people think that one student is very motivated when he/she is smiling and happy in the class.

Motivation is being very happy of course, but it is also being encouraged, involved and interested in the class.

Motivation can come from the students (intrinsic motivation) for example when they do something for their own pleasure. Or it can come from the outside, form teachers, situation, families, tasks, topics… (extrinsic motivation) when they do something for others pleasure, to please their parents or teachers or just to have a reward.

As all of us know, motivation varies depending on the people involved in the activity, the situation and of course depends on the task.

One student can lose the motivation very easily when things don’t go as they expected, as if they make mistakes, they lose the motivation because they don’t want to feel stupid in front of their classmates.

Gifted and talented students can feel bored and demotivated when the concepts are being repeated in class all the time.

As future teachers that we are going to be, we have to cope with all of these things and we can do it following the next steps:

-       - Challenging our students.

-       -  Give clear directions and feedback.

-      -  Relate schoolwork with their interests.

-       - Emphasize their good progress.