Student Engagement and Motivation

Each student in your class has their own unique set of motivations and interests. Of course, there are commonalities across the individuals to which you can anchor your teaching. Motivation can be categorized as intrinsic, extrinsic or both and intrinsic motivators can be linked to extrinsic ones as well. Intrinsic motivators are factors that encourage engagement from within the student themself. These can include personal interest in a topic, high work ethic, systems of values or even competitiveness. Extrinsic motivators are factors that encourage engagement from other sources such as grades, praise and other systems of reward.

Often, students are motivated when they have autonomy to explore what interests them the most. Offering assessments with open or guided topics can give just enough self-direction to keep most students engaged. Also, you might want to think about giving some choice to the weighting of assignments. This can allow students to take off some pressure if they feel anxious about certain types of assessments, like writing or tests to keep fear and anxiety from eroding their motivation.

Students ultimately hold the responsibility to attend classes, manage their time, and work as much or as little as they choose. It’s important to keep this in mind when thinking about engagement in your courses. Even the best designed teaching experience will still be subject to the individual interests, abilities and circumstances of each student.