Student Motivation To Learn. ERIC Digest, Number 92.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, University of Oregon, 1787 Agate Street, Eugene, OR 97403 (free; $2.50 postage and handling).

N

3

Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.

Educational Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Family Environment; Learning Motivation; Learning Strategies; Self Concept; Self Motivation; Student Motivation; Teacher Student Relationship

A growing body of evidence suggests that when students are intrinsically motivated they tend to employ strategies that demand more effort and that enable them to process information more deeply. Teachers can help motivate students to learn by maintaining a caring, supportive classroom climate. Tasks should be challenging but achievable and defined in terms of specific, short-term goals. School-level policies and practices should stress learning, task mastery, and effort rather than relative performance and competition. To help unmotivated students a process called "attribution retraining" involves modeling, socialization, and practice exercises. Other potentially useful strategies include the following: portray effort as investment rather than risk, portray skill development as incremental and domain-specific, and focus on mastery. (Contains nine references.) (MLF)

1994

ED370200