Teacher Shares Advice for Helping High School Students Find Motivation

Last Spring, The Guidance Counselor at the High School i’ve Workhed at For More than a Decade Mentioned, Although Teenagers Were Still Help Related to Myrad Mental Health, Their Most Common Struggle Had Coalesced Around Something: Academic Motivation.

Not a teacher and parent, this piqued interest. And althouough i knew i’d late consult Education Researchers and Published Studies on the topic of teen motivation, I did something Else First: I Went Back to My Students and Asked I say it.

What I Learned Can Help Parents and Educators Like with Give Kids the Jumpstart they Need for the New School Year.

I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT’S HOLDING KIDS BACK

I Asked My Junior and Senior Students About Their Motivation Through a survey that they are submitted to me via email. Some of their Responses Were no Surprise. In terms of academics, they Said they were motivated by the potential for Concrete outcomes like gradesOut-Performing Peers, Getting Accept by a College or Employer, Sports Eligibility, and Making Parents Proud.

They lost motivation when those outcomes felt eather intangible – an uninteresting topic or redundant assignment – or impossible to reach, Due to a confusing task or the General overwhelm of their schedules and respectability.

What Did Stand Out to Me, Though, Was How Many Students Described Their Own Hurdles with Accessing Motivation, Both Academic and Otherwise, As “Not Knowing Exactly What to” and Their Own Self-Labeled “Laziness.”

KIDS TODAY DON’T LIKE TAKING ACADEMIC RISKS

I’ve been teaching for twenty years, and along with many of my Colleagues, have seen an increase synce covid in students who are risk-verse and who regularly requests someone “just tell what to do.” As Experts have suggestted, this is liked the Quickness with which we can find the Answers to Almost Everything Online, Our Shrinking Attention Spansas well as the potential High-Stakes of “Getting Things Wrong,” Especilantly As More Peers Outsource Their Work to Artificial Intelligence Like Chatgt. Undoubtedly Having someone – or some chatbot – lay anut an exact outline or plan for accompishing a task is faste and easier.

Teens are Chasing the end Product, not the knowledgge Gained Along the Way

This kind of a+b = c relibility might be motivatting to students in the short term; Howver, It ‘tied to a distinct end product-a grade, a checked-box on a to-do list, the ability to finally scroll tiktok-and not the learning itself. Where this kind of thinking is understandable, its focus on the quickest path to something to mesurable and certtain concertns with the Circumvents the Circumvents the Critical Thinking and Questioning Skills That Development in the midst of struggle, and also Because the world you Young People are growing up ino is increasingly uncetain. In order to thrive in it, they must learn to face what they don’t underestand not with collapse but with Curiosity.

This Connects to that Second Frequent Student Response, Their Perceived Laziness. In my experience, teenagers are not inherently lazy. Do they say the procrastinetinate and lay on the couches all day? Sura. But they’re teens! Both their bodies and brains are on Constant overdrive, and Sometimes crashing out is necessary.

The problem, I think, is we are they become hyper-critical of their need to rest and wen their “lasiness” Becomes part of their identity. This Leads to Lower Self-Concept and-Yes-Lower Motivation. Many students toy with they were less like to Attempt tasks after a parent nagged me or after recording critiques to “Work Harder.”

Finding what — or or who — motivate teens

SO, How to say that of US WHO CARE ABOUT TEENS HELP say to Both Stop Adopting a Lazy Narrative and Being Held Hostage by the Right Answer? How we would be guide say instead to cameop an inquisitive Mindsets that draws say toward new, complicated concepts?

Be i asced my students what motivates I say we can be positive and negative outcomes aren’t enough, a majority said the biggest factor was the firm ENCOURAGING Feedback From Other People. Whether these allies were supperive Peers, Teachers, Coaches, or Parents, What Mattered was the Presence of Someone Who Held High Expectations for say while Also Expressing these standards in a way that that is that it is felt Respectful and grown-oriented. In other words, the process mattered more than the product.

Feeling Connected to Learning, Especially Via People You’re in Community With, Can Increat Motivation To take risk and be intellectually open, so do you’n you’re not naturally interested in the subject or clear about how the information is. For Example, Group Projects in School Get A Bad Rap. But when students are allowed to choose peers who motivate say, Engagement and Learning (and probably some healthy lainghter) Follow.

The Good News is that we can help our teens learn how to feel stuck and More inspiredBoth in School and in Life. If we stop offering say the Quick Answer or the Easy Out, and Instead Communicate Through Our Words and Actions that Grappling with Uncetainy is Part of How We Grow, Spreads they’ll they Own Capabilities less and insted motivated to ask the kinds. Help I say flourish. Will it work, with your struggling teen who won’t get off the couch? Let me speak to your uncetainty with some firm but encouraaging Advice: It’ Worth a try.