When students tell me that they started or strengthened a non-profit venture, started volunteering, or became more engaged in a social movement because of what or how I taught, it feels really good. Then we spoke about making teaching memorable, and this time around we add a key piece to the puzzle of learning in the form of motivation, with the release of Peps new book: Motivated Teaching. There is a place for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in education: both forms can complement one another. I know that I may find the subject fascinating, but I appreciate that some of the pupils I teach may think otherwise. I highly recommend reading the book as it is full of clear strategies for how we can look to develop motivation in our students.

I do genuinely love watching students have their “eureka” moments, and seeing students improve and grow in their quantitative expertise. Integration and identification are also grouped as autonomous extrinsic motivation as the behavior is driven by internal and volitional choice. It’s not only the learning environments and universal provision available within schools that help to inspire intrinsic motivation – parenting, biology, age, gender, wellbeing, and peer relationships can also affect to what extent students feel engaged in their learning. I find it enlightening that the book does not just focus on short term, immediately applicable strategies but also on things we can do to benefit students in the long run, even going so far as to prepare them for regulating self-motivation that can make them better learners for life. One strategy that struck me because of its simplicity but also because of its power in changing the atmosphere in a classroom, is to emphasise and narrate what we want to see rather than what we do not see.Help students understand that the pursuit of excellence does not mean that anything short of perfection is failure; learn to feel good about genuine accomplishment. Give learners the opportunity to select topics, projects and assignments that appeal to their curiosity and need to explore. The mechanics of motivation: this section examines the centrality of attention [I've been writing an appropriately slow series on this: I'll get back to it].

I hope that by sharing my own examples of failure (when appropriate), students appreciate that it happens to all of us and does not stop us from securing future success.

They are not crushed by assessment scores; instead, they turn challenges into experiences, and use them as fuel for continual growth and development. Introjection and external regulation are grouped as controlled extrinsic motivation because people enact these behaviors due to external or internal pressures. This may be particularly effective for students with particular needs, or disaffected learners, whose background, relationships, or previous experience of education has resulted in a lack of faith in the system.