Motivation can sometimes be difficult to understand for several reasons: it cannot be measured accurately, it is a personal experience, and it is defined and manifested in various ways. It can be difficult for parents to understand their children’s motivation to study, especially if they are struggling at school. Our instinct tends to associate lack of motivation with laziness, but also to think that if students tried harder, they would do better at school. In reality, lack of motivation is more complicated than that, and is sometimes just an illusion.
There are many theories about motivation that could help us understand it better. Let’s take a quick look at three of them:
1. Self-efficacy theory:
This theory suggests that a person’s level of motivation is based on their own assessment of their abilities or their sense of self-efficacy when faced with given tasks. If a student has little confidence in their ability to complete a school assignment or master a skill taught at school, they will be less willing to make an effort, giving observers the impression that they are unmotivated. When their self-confidence is stronger, students are better able to remain calm and manage anxiety, helping them to persevere during stressful periods at school.
2. Attribution theory:
We generally make attributions in an attempt to explain the reasons for our own actions and behaviours. These are the causes we give for our results. For example, a student might explain failing an exam by pointing to the difficulty of the test, bad luck, or the fact that a particular teacher does not like them. The way we choose to make attributions affects our attitude towards the challenges we face. If a student reacts negatively to academic failure, they will be more likely to react negatively to school in general, and will therefore be less willing to succeed, appearing unmotivated.
3. Theory of achievement goals
This theory asserts that motivation depends on the type of goals students set for themselves. They can set either mastery goals or performance goals. This aspect can have a positive or negative impact on a student’s enthusiasm for school.
- Mastery goals: These types of goals focus on the process rather than the outcome. The main factors affecting a person’s ability to achieve their goals come from self-regulation and self-determination. The process is what matters most. This goal is seen as a learning opportunity and promotes flexibility and adaptation. This type of goal improves motivation because it encourages students to focus on incremental tasks, allowing them to modify their approach to better achieve the goal and boost their confidence by offering multiple small victories along the way. Most importantly, mistakes are seen as positive, allowing students to continually improve.
- Performance goals: These types of goals are based on a more basic approach, focusing on the result rather than the process. The only important factor for the student here is their final grade. The danger of these goals is that struggling students may consider themselves ‘less intelligent’ than their classmates and therefore unable to complete the exercise. They will then be less inclined to try. This often appears as a lack of motivation and can lead these students to avoid any exercise they consider too difficult to complete. In this approach, mistakes are seen as negative, further confirming a child’s inability to succeed at school.
Student motivation is therefore a combination of several internal and external factors, and no single theory can explain it all. It is influenced by how students view and think about school, how they behave, and how they react to their own successes and failures. It can be helpful to talk to our children about what school means to them and how they feel about it:
Do they see and understand the purpose of their academic journey? Do they feel capable of achieving it? Do they feel supported? Do they feel they have the tools and resources they need to succeed? Do they believe that intelligence is fixed or that it is a process of growth?
Answering these questions will help them better map out their learning journey. As they find their way, they will become more committed and determined and, hopefully, feel more motivated to persevere.
