The employees who arrive at our international school in Italy have much to learn, and their motivation is sky-high. They attend language classes, enthusiastically conference with their mentors, and spend hours roaming through google maps, learning about the various neighborhoods in the city. Both before and after their arrival, our team offers them numerous workshops, and they sign up for every one.
And then, in their second week, they experience the dreaded Safety Training.
This government-mandated Safety Training is infamous. For five hours, new hires click through modules with insights such as, “Make sure that your computer screen is tilted at an angle that is safe for your eyesight” and “Sitting may be detrimental to your health,” followed by a long multiple choice test. Intrinsic motivation fades, leaving them to be tugged along by the extrinsic threat of having to repeat the course, or worse, losing their job.
Anyone who has ever tried to motivate another person knows that motivating others is like tending a garden: you set up all the right conditions in the hopes that intrinsic motivation will flourish, but you cannot make that motivation plant grow. As learning designers, we have the freedom to design our courses in a way that encourages motivation (and preferably the intrinsic kind) to flourish, and much has been written about this.
But how do you tend to this garden when tasked with an impossible situation, or when various conditions are out of your control?
When circumstances are tough and motivation is low, here are five essential questions to ask:
#1 Are the learners on to something?
In the Safety Training, it was easy to empathize with the learners’ lack of motivation. It’s much more difficult when we come up against a serious lack of motivation in response to our own courses. In these cases, it’s tempting to blame the learner. However, we must stop and ask: is this experience worth it for the learner, or is it imposed on them by others who are seeking to control them?
Scholar Helene Ahl, for one, challenges the assumption that motivation is something that exists in the learner and argues that “motivation” is but “a construct of those who see it lacking in others”. While it may not be worth rebelling against the system every time, even just the permission to challenge things can restore a sense of autonomy. Self-Determination Theory argues that autonomy is essential if learners are to “show both their highest quality efforts and their highest well-being”.
#2 Are the learners truly suffering from a lack of motivation?
Sometimes, we assume that learners will dislike a particular learning experience, but why not give them the benefit of the doubt? Perhaps parts of this experience have the potential to be engaging. We must be careful not to subconsciously transmit the message that this learning experience will be unpleasant. In fact, one study found that instructor enthusiasm had a direct effect on learners’ intrinsic motivation. Also, if your learner analysis reveals that people are actually motivated by this topic, then the best thing you can do is nurture the existing motivation, rather than using “tricks” or rewards that will ultimately undermine intrinsic motivation.
#3 What from the research on motivation might apply to this learning experience?
Thankfully, there is a wealth of evidence-based strategies that can be employed to encourage intrinsic motivation. In fact, there are so many that you must be careful not to pile them all on at once! Motivation expert John Keller has done a lot of the work for us, synthesizing motivational theories into his ARCS-V model:
Attention: focus and maintain learner attention. Use a variety of tactics to stimulate a sense of inquiry. People are especially drawn to conflict, mystery, and unresolved problems.
Relevance: support perceived relevance for the learner. How is the instruction consistent with their goals, the way they prefer to learn, and connected to their past experiences?
Confidence: encourage felt confidence. If the objectives are clear, then learners will know when they’ve achieved something. Scaffold experiences so they can feel proud of their success along the way.
Satisfaction: indicate satisfaction potential. Give students opportunities to apply the learning, and make sure they are recognized for it in some way, so they receive clear feedback and evidence of success.
Volition: direct effort and sustain volition throughout the experience. Many factors are involved in determining whether a person will stay engaged and overcome discouragement (see next question).
#4 What might learners be dealing with outside of the learning experience?
Learners, of course, have a life outside of this learning experience. McClusky’s Theory of Margin states that each person carries a “load”, that is, demands such as family commitments and work responsibilities. They also possess “power”, which is defined as the resources they can command in coping with this load. According to McClusky’s theory, If they are to fully invest in learning experiences, then the margin between this load and power must be high. It’s worth asking: what kind of “load” are people involved in your learning experience bearing? How can the learning experience itself be streamlined to widen this margin, and what kind of outside resources might the organization provide?
#5 What do we do when all else fails?
For 8 years, I was tasked with motivating about 80 learners per day, for multiple hours a day, 180 days a year. All of them were forced to take my class. I was - you guessed it! - a high school teacher.
One day, I asked my students the question, “What makes a great teacher?” I was expecting answers along the lines of “someone who is fun” or “has a great sense of humor” or at least “caring and supportive”. Instead, the students began to describe a quality that I hadn’t expected.
It was clarity. Nothing more, nothing less. When teachers were clear, transparent and fair about learning goals and assessments, they felt safe. They knew when learning was happening, and this built up their confidence.
We often expend effort trying to “put a creative spin” on learning experiences to make them more engaging. However, if learners desire clarity above all else, what can you do to clarify the process? If you are tasked with designing a less-than-ideal training assignment, can you still give learners the satisfaction of knowing they are attaining the desired goals?
When it came to the dreaded Safety Training, we didn’t rebel against the system, but we did get everyone together to make the experience more social. We ensured the new hires had no other responsibilities that day and that things like food and drink were taken care of (prosecco may or may not have been involved…). We even created a job aid to make sure that the process and expectations were as clear as possible. Most importantly, we empathized with them and made them see that this government-mandated hazing ritual was, despite all odds, forging a sense of community.
References
Ahl, H. (2006). Motivation in adult education: a problem solver or a euphemism for direction and control? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 25(4), 385-405.
Bierema, L. L., & Merriam, S. B. (2013). Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice. Wiley.
Learning Theories for Educators. (2023). University of Wyoming. http://www.uwyo.edu/aded5050/5050unit11/mcclusky.asp
Patrick, Brian C; Hisley, Jennifer; Kempler, Toni (2000). "What's everybody so excited about?": The effects of teacher enthusiasm on student intrinsic motivation and vitality” The Journal of Experimental Education; Washington. 68 (3), 217-236.
Pink, D. H. (2011). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Penguin Group US.
The MVP Model: Overview and Application. (2017). New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 2017(152). https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20265
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