Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement MOOC

MODULE 1 READING 1: WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

by Beth Sheppard

Motivation = desire, willingness, and enthusiasm that energizes goal-directed behavior

Engagement = the amount attention, optimism, and passion that students show in the classroom

Look at the above definitions of motivation and engagement. We define motivation as desire,
willingness, and enthusiasm that energizes goal-directed behavior. We can think of motivation like a
motor, a source of power that gives us energy to do whatever we choose to do. What does it look like
when students are motivated to learn? It looks like engagement! Students who have their motivation-
motors switched on and turned towards learning will pay attention, work hard, and believe that can
succeed. And how wonderful that is for their teacher! On the other hand, unmotivated students may
seem passive and unengaged. Their motor for learning is switched off, so they don’t have any energy to
invest in the learning process. They may well be motivated for something else (such as pleasing their
friends by making them laugh), but it is very difficult to engage them in lessons. Unfortunately, this
challenging situation is familiar to many teachers.
In the second page of your reading, we are going to discuss factors
that can help increase student motivation and engagement, but
first let’s talk in a little more detail about different kinds of
motivation and how they can arise. Many researchers define two
main categories of motivation, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic
motivation. Extrinsic motivation to learn comes from outside of the
learner. The motivating factor is some kind of reward or
punishment. For example, if students participate in an activity to
win a prize, or if they are willing to study because they want a good
grade or fear a bad grade, they are extrinsically motivated. Students
who study English because they would like to get an international
job in the future are also extrinsically motivated. On the other hand,
intrinsic motivation to learn comes from within the learner, from
"Untitled" by Himanshu Dewangan is
the joy of learning. There is no need for any reward besides the licensed under the Unsplash license
learning itself.

© 2023 by University of Oregon. FSME MOOC Module 1 Reading 1 for the Online Professional
English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the
U.S. government and administered by FHI 360. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
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Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Language teachers are frequently told that they need to foster
intrinsic motivation in students, because it is more effective
and more durable than extrinsic motivation. The second part is
true! If students are participating only to win an immediate
prize or avoid an immediate punishment, they will gradually get
used to the prizes or punishments, and care less about them
"A Good Book" by Alex Blăjan is
over time. The positive and negative consequences will need to licensed under the Unsplash liscence.
get bigger and bigger in order to keep working as external
motivators. Rewards and punishments can also give students a
message that the work is not intrinsically interesting (Williams
& Burden, 1997).
However, it is not always realistic to expect that every EFL
student will intrinsically love learning English. It can be helpful
to realize that there are different levels of extrinsic
motivation. For example, if students are externally motivated
by a long-term goal that is personally meaningful to them (such
as a job they hope to have someday), this kind of external
motivation can be much more helpful than short-term rewards "A Good Book" by Alex Blăjan is licensed under
and punishments. Teachers can help extrinsically motivated the Unsplash liscence.
students (those who don’t love language learning for its own
sake) to see reasons for learning that matter in their own lives.
This will help students take responsibility for their own
learning, even if their motivation is not intrinsic. In addition,
when extrinsic motivation leads to classroom engagement,
sometimes this can begin a positive cycle that develops intrinsic
motivation. Both kinds of motivation have value in the
classroom.

References
(This content is copyrighted, and cannot be adapted in any way, or distributed after the end of this course. It is not
Public Domain or Creative Commons-licensed, and therefore not for public use.)
• Williams, M. & Burden, L. R. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructive approach.
Cambridge University Press

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Read this text and take notes as needed. We will check your understanding of the information presented
here in the Module 1 Quiz.

MODULE 1 READING 2:
WHAT FACTORS SUPPORT MOTIVATION?
By Beth Sheppard
A class full of intrinsically motivated students would be wonderful to teach. They would want to learn,
be willing to study hard, and participate enthusiastically in classroom activities. Let's explore some
factors that can help make this kind of situation more likely. Psychologists tell us that all people have
basic needs to feel competent, autonomous, and related (Ryan & Deci, 2000). These feelings are the
basis of intrinsic motivation, so we will discuss them one by one in the following sections.

Competence
Students will be more motivated to learn when they feel competent – when they believe
that they can succeed. We can support students’ feelings of competence in many ways,
including:
• We can design activities at the right level of difficulty, and when a task is difficult, we can
provide support to help students succeed.
• We can prepare students for activities by activating their prior knowledge and being sure to pre-
teach needed words or structures.
• We can give clear instructions and standards from the beginning of each activity, so that
students know how to succeed.
• We can help students to learn through discovery, rather than simply telling them what they
need to know.
• We can help students to believe in themselves through encouraging words and actions.
• We can give precise and specific feedback and praise, so learners know their strengths.
• We can teach students not to fear making mistakes, but to see mistakes as a positive step
towards learning. This is related to building a growth mindset (Dweck, 2008) in our students.
• We can teach students how to assess and monitor their own learning through reflection.

Autonomy
Students will be more motivated to learn when they feel autonomous – when they
believe that they can make their own choices. We can support students’ feelings of
autonomy in many ways, including:
• We can help students define and communicate their own personal language-learning objectives,
and show how assignments and activities connect to those objectives.
• We can give students rationales for unappealing tasks, explaining how they will help them reach
their learning goals (or at least help them pass the test!).
• We can give students more choices in classroom activities and tasks, for example selecting one
of two texts to read, or choosing between listening and reading, or even voting on which of two
activities the class will do first today.

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 • We can make assignments relevant by connecting them to topics we know that students like or
are interested in, such as their hobbies or idols.
• We can connect language learning to any goals students might have related to the target
language country or culture.
• We can empower students to access additional learning resources of their choice.

Relatedness
Students will be more motivated to learn when they feel related – when they believe
that they matter in their community. We can support students’ feelings of
relatedness in many ways, including:
• We can build a strong rapport with students by connecting honestly and being trustworthy.
• We can encourage a classroom culture of kindness, appreciation, cooperation, enthusiasm, & humor.
• We can explicitly recognize the essential contributions of each student to the classroom community.
• We can incorporate group work in which students collaborate to meet goals, and teach students
to collaborate effectively.
• We can be sure to include a great deal of classroom interaction in our lesson planning.
• We can foster a connection to the target culture.

Highly motivated students will spontaneously seek the information

and skills they want to learn. They will engage in classroom
activities and contribute their thoughts and ideas. Motivation helps
students learn better and retain more of what they learn. At the
same time, motivation is a quality that can change over time and
it can be different from situation to situation. An unmotivated
student can always become slightly more motivated, and a usually
motivated student may have a day when they don’t care as much.
Broadly speaking, we can help our students become more
motivated by supporting their self-confidence, making lessons
relevant to them, and creating a positive and caring classroom
community.

References
(This content is copyrighted, and cannot be adapted in any way, or distributed after the end of this course. It is not
Public Domain or Creative Commons-licensed, and therefore not for public use.)
• Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: the new psychology of success. Random House.
• Ryan, R. & Deci, E. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social
development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1).

Image Credits
“Competence Icon” by the University of Oregon is an adaptation of “Arm Exercise Fist royalty-free vector graphic” by OpenClipart-Vectors,
licensed under the Pixabay license. This adaptation is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the University of Oregon.
“Autonomy Icon” by the University of Oregon is an adaptation of “Feel Free Silhouette Joy royalty-free vector graphic” by Mohammad Hassan,
licensed under the Pixabay license. This adaptation is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the University of Oregon.
"Relatedness Icon” by the University of Oregon is an adaptation of “Frame Heart Children royalty-free vector graphic” by GDJ, licensed under
the Pixabay license. This adaptation is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the University of Oregon.

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VIDEO 1: KEY CONCEPTS IN MOTIVATION AND ENGAGEMENT
Watch the video on Canvas and take some notes. Or read the script and look at the slides below.

Module 1 Video Script and slides

In your required reading, you learned about three basic human needs which we are all motivated to
meet: the need to feel competent, autonomous, and related. When we think about teaching, we can
think about how to make learning fit into these needs, and also about how to avoid making our class
conflict with these needs, for example by shaming students or making them feel bad about themselves
(which would conflict with their need to feel competent) or by trying to control students completely,
squashing their individuality (which would conflict with their need to feel autonomous), or by causing
any competition or bad feelings between the students (which would conflict with their need to feel related).

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You also learned that motivation can be seen on a scale that includes both extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation. Both types of motivation are valuable, and students can move between them. They may
have different kinds of motivation at different moments. The key is to help students recognize and take
responsibility for their own learning, moving away from the need for the teacher to give immediate
rewards or punishments. The more students can reward themselves, the more their extrinsic motivation
will become internal. That means their motivation doesn’t depend on the teacher. Whether it’s extrinsic
or intrinsic, it’s theirs.

Another approach that can be useful for motivating learners is to promote a growth mindset. According
to the psychologist Carol Dweck, a fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence is static whereas a growth
mindset says intelligence can be developed. In a fixed mindset, the goal is to look smart, so students
tend to avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless and ignore feedback, which they perceive
as criticism. On the other hand, students who are led to adopt a growth mindset tend to embrace
challenges and mistakes, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery and welcome
feedback as an opportunity to learn.

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Teachers can encourage a growth mindset by modeling these ways of thinking, and adopting classroom
practices such as praising effort as much as results, and welcoming mistakes, and encouraging students
to take risks, try new things, and never give up.

John Keller proposed a model for promoting and sustaining motivation in the classroom. It’s called the
ARCS model. ARCS stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. You can probably see
how these four ideas fit nicely with the three human motivations that we already talked about.
In the ARCS model, Keller suggests that we should capture students’ attention with an element of
surprise or humor, and keep their attention by posing questions that make them curious, keeping
activities varied. We should make learning relevant to students by explaining the purpose of activities,
connecting new knowledge to what students already know, making links to the students’ own goals and
interests, and by giving choices. We should build students’ confidence by making sure instructions and
expectations are clear, helping students see their progress, and giving students some control over their
learning. And finally, we should help students feel proud and satisfied when they apply what they have
learned or teach someone else.

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ARCS is an easy acronym to remember. Attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction. Do you think this
acronym will be helpful to you in your classroom? Can you think of new ways to capture and keep your
students’ attention, and make learning relevant to them? Can you build up their confidence, and help
them feel satisfied with their learning experiences? I hope that you can!

MODULE 1 QUIZ

Purpose
This quiz will help you review the vocabulary and main ideas from the Module 1 reading and video. Feel
free to refer to your notes when you are working on the quiz.

Assignment
Take the quiz as many times as necessary to pass with at least 7 out of 10 (70%) of the answers correct.
You must take this quiz on Canvas.

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OPTIONAL MODULE 1 DISCUSSION
This discussion is not required, but we encourage you to read these
questions and think about them, even if you don't post your answers.
If you do post your answers, be sure to also read and reply to some
answers from your course colleagues.
The purpose of these optional discussions is to help you make
connections between your life experiences and the ideas in your
course readings and videos. The more you can connect your new
learning with your existing ideas, the more likely it is that you will
remember and apply what you have learned.
Discussion Questions
You can feel free to answer one or several of the following questions.
You don't have to answer all of them!
You can also share other thoughts you had in response to the
"Untitled" by Windows is licensed
assigned reading and video. Please don't post off topic in this under the Unsplash license
discussion: your posts should be closely connected to the topic of the
week.
If possible, also reply to several of your course colleagues in this discussion.

1. As a student of English, were/are you more extrinsically motivated or more intrinsically motivated?
In what ways?
2. Do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? Was this different at other times in your life?
What factors have influenced changes in your mindset towards learning? What are some ways that
you have tried to promote a growth mindset in your students?
3. In your experience, what other classroom factors can affect students' motivation and engagement,
besides those we've discussed so far? And what factors outside of the classroom affect students'
motivation and engagement for language learning? Is there anything we can do about these outside
factors?

Remember, this task is OPTIONAL. It doesn't count towards your final grade in the MOOC. It's an extra
opportunity to express your thoughts about the topic of the week and learn from interaction with your
course colleagues and facilitators. If you choose to participate, you can assess your own participation
using the checklist below:

Discussion Self-Assessment Checklist

□ I answered one or more of the discussion questions on this page, or shared my response to the
readings and video in this module. I did not post off topic.
□ My answers were based on my own thoughts and ideas and written in my own words.
□ I read the answers of several course colleagues, and replied to at least one of them.

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MODULE 1 REFLECTION ACTIVITY
The purpose of this task is to reflect on your experiences
as a language learner and on your current teaching
practices. The questions should guide you to think about
which teaching practices you already use and which
practices you have not yet developed. When
implemented consistently and effectively, the teaching
practices in this inventory can support increased student
motivation and engagement.

What to do
1. Complete the worksheet found below (pages 14-16).
It’s called Fostering Student Motivation: Reflection
Worksheet (2015) by American English: Teacher's "Person holding a red pen" by Lilartsy is
Corner. licensed under the Unsplash license

2. After you complete the inventory, look over your

answers and use them to reflect on your teaching,
identifying your teaching strengths and areas for
improvement. We suggest writing your reflections in
your course notebook.
3. Finally, complete this assignment by answering the
questions. You must answer the questions on
Canvas.

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OPTIONAL ACTIVITY SHARING AND PORTFOLIO
INFORMATION
During this MOOC course, you have the option to create an Activities Portfolio.
In education, a portfolio is systematic collection of student work, which can be used as a form of
assessment. In our course, the Activities Portfolio will be a curated list of activities and ideas that you
can apply to help foster student motivation and engagement in your teaching context.

"Happy Children Education" by Akshayapatra is licensed under the Pixabay License.

How will you Complete it?

During Modules 2, 3, 4, and 5, you and your course colleagues can share classroom activities and ideas
related to our weekly theme. In a discussion forum, you will explain how to do the activities or how to
apply the ideas in the classroom. Then you will read the ideas of other participants and copy your
favorites to a portfolio. Your favorites will be the activities and ideas most applicable to your teaching
context, or those which you think will work particularly well.
We are providing a template for your Activities Portfolio, below. You don't have to use the template.
You can also copy your ideas to any document where it will be convenient to save these new ideas and
find them again later.

"Lecture" by Felixioncool is licensed under the Pixabay license.

There is nothing to do for your portfolio this week. We will begin in Module 2.

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OPTIONAL FSME ACTIVITIES PORTFOLIO TEMPLATE
Each week, collect classroom activities and/or other ideas that you can use to foster motivation and
engagement in your teaching context. You may copy/paste from activities shared by your course
colleagues. Be sure to include all the essential information you will need when you want to apply the idea
in your teaching. Remember to include a link or citation regarding where you got the original idea.

Your name:
Your teaching context:

Module 2 Activities

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3:

Activity 4:

Activity 5:

Additional Activities (Optional):

Module 3 Activities

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3:

Activity 4:

Activity 5:

Additional Activities (Optional):

Module 4 Activities

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3:

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Activity 4:

Activity 5:

Additional Activities (Optional):

Module 5 Activities

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3:

Activity 4:

Activity 5:

Additional Activities (Optional):

Additional notes

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MODULE 1 CHECK
Key Points
At the end of each module, we will review some of the key lessons from the
week. Here are our main ideas from Module 1.
• Teachers can't make students more motivated or engaged. But
teachers can strive to remove barriers to motivation and
engagement, to pave the way for students to develop their own
motivation and engagement.
• Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are both valuable for learning.
There are many different levels of extrinsic motivation - we want
to encourage motivation that doesn't depend on immediate
rewards and punishments.
• Factors that support motivation include basic needs such as
competence, autonomy, and relatedness, a growth mindset,
and attention/relevance/confidence/satisfaction (ARCS).
"Untitled" by LinkedIn is licensed
• Ongoing motivation and a growth mindset are also important under the Unsplash license.
for teachers. We can always improve our practice by gathering
new ideas, trying out those that seem like a good fit, and then
adjusting as needed.

Module Check
Please answer one question to verify that you have completed all activities in Module 1. You must
choose "yes" in order to move on in the course. If your answer is not "yes," please complete your work
and then return to this module check. This will count as 1 point toward your grade. You must complete
this check on Canvas.

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