How to Motivate Today's Children to Learn
Motivating children to learn has always been a priority for teachers. However, the modern world brings new challenges that we need to respond to and adapt to quickly. So what is the problem?
Children today live in a digital world and are constantly exposed to a huge amount of information coming from different sources at once. As a result, even an intrinsically motivated child may not reach the expected learning outcomes because they get distracted and cannot focus.
That is why the teacher has to do everything necessary to make motivation “work”, so that the student is really “present” and “engaged” in the learning process. This has become a particular challenge when working online.
Zoltán Dörnyei, a professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Nottingham who studied children’s motivation for many years, concluded that in today’s world motivation is not the end goal. To succeed, the following needs to be in place:
ENGAGEMENT = MOTIVATION + ACTING ON IT. Being motivated and taking action are not the same thing.
So how do you achieve this?
- Learning should be practical, not just theoretical. Children need to see the real benefit and specific situations where they can apply what they are learning. Children will be more motivated if they can relate the material to their real lives. Giving a child a specific real-life problem to solve will make them use all their existing knowledge and life experience. This is the principle behind task-based learning.
- Spark children’s interest. Anything that sparks curiosity, is unusual and breaks the routine has a better chance of engaging children. Interactive resources, real objects, gamification and songs all help children absorb material better and more effectively. If a teacher shows grammar tables in every lesson and then one day tells a story (storytelling) using the target grammar, they have a better chance of getting attention.
- Make them think. Children need to be challenged. If you ask them direct questions, make them question existing ideas, hold discussions and develop their critical thinking, they get extra motivation to discover new things. A good way to get children thinking is to have them ask each other questions.
- Use technology. Technology has become a best friend and helper for today’s generation, so make use of it. Project work, searching for information, strategies for critically analyzing online resources and using AI (artificial intelligence) should all be part of the learning process. You can get feedback quickly and easily with Padlet, Mentimeter or Wooclap; check learned material in a fun way with Quizlet, Kahoot, Quizizz, Nearpod, Blooket and Wordwall; create your own presentations with Canva and Prezi, and videos and animations with Animoto, Powtoon, AutoDraw or Toontastic; and communicate and work outside the classroom with Flipgrid.
- Encourage collaboration. Working with classmates toward specific goals makes children take more personal responsibility. Competition between groups also leads to better work because of the desire to win. The teacher should encourage the group to work like a web, where communication goes not only through the teacher but also beyond their attention (children nominate and ask each other, choose partners themselves, give instructions, correct, help, assign roles in the group and so on).
- Create a safe, open atmosphere with zero tolerance for intolerance. Children should know they are in a safe learning environment where it is OK, and even necessary, to make mistakes and to want to learn, and where nobody will call them names or insult them for it. The lower the level of anxiety, the better the learning results.
- Build belief in persistence and hard work. The outdated view of “talent” and “innate giftedness” makes children give up, excusing themselves by saying they are just not talented enough. Effort pays off, and children should know it. Show the progress they have made: start the term with a portfolio that grows with new knowledge in every lesson (new words, ideas, projects); run self-evaluations at the end of the term; and make achievements visible and tangible (stickers, charts, scales, “conquered peaks”, boards with marks and awards and so on).
- Show enthusiasm, believe in children and praise their efforts. A teacher’s enthusiasm quickly passes to the children. If the teacher is genuinely interested in the subject, the children will be interested too. Children should know that any initiative, idea or suggestion of theirs is valued. The teacher should encourage children’s interest in the learning process itself, not just in the results, because “learning for the sake of learning” has never been effective. Praise effort, not only the results achieved.