Capturing and Directing the Motivation to Learn

As an academic quarter begins, most instructors at Stanford don’t dwell much on the idea of motivating
students. After all, students here are bright and inquisitive, and have excelled in academic pursuits in large part, it seems, because they know how to focus their energies and attend to business. And the start of a new quarter always brings with it a buzz of enthusiasm and adrenaline, in class and out. But as the quarter progresses and courses settle into a comfortable routine, student interest can appear to flag—and it’s at this point that the urge to reenergize students comes to the fore and instructors begin to ask how they can motivate their students to perform better.

Novelty, of course, provides its own power to focus our attention (if only briefly) on appealing long-range
goals and the paths mapped out to reach them. The effort involved in fulfilling intentions, however, once faced on a daily basis, is somewhat less enticing—as anyone who has ever struggled to fit a new exercise program into their daily routine or redouble their efforts to watch calories knows. The idea of “Z,” in James’ comparison, doesn’t hold the same sway as more idealistic and romantic images, of others or of a more perfect self and emotion in sustaining our efforts toward long-range goals, the task of motivating students is far from simple.

As Alfred North Whitehead notes in The Aims of Education, “It is the unfortunate dilemma that initiative and
training are both necessary, and that training is apt to kill initiative.” But what is also clear is that training and
initiative are not necessarily at odds if we can discover teaching strategies that sustain motivation while communicating the necessary fundamental knowledge of a discipline. Whitehead discussed the balance as one
between “the rhythmic claims of freedom and discipline,” or between the need for exploration, creativity,
interest, and joy in learning, with the need to acquire a mastery of technique and definite truths. Though university education focuses principally on mastery of skill and theory, without opportunities to experience some kind of personal control in learning, students’ enthusiasm will often fade. Full article here.