What If Your Learner Isn't Unmotivated? What If You Haven't Found Their Motivation Yet?
A teacher once asked a question that many educators may quietly relate to: “How can I help this young learner? He seems uninterested in anything I want to teach him. In fact, it is hard to motivate him with any item. I have tried everything within my power, and it has been frustrating.”
It is easy to understand the frustration. When a learner does not respond to the stickers, toys, sweets, praise, privileges or other rewards we introduce, we may begin to conclude that the child is simply not motivated. But perhaps there is another question worth asking before we arrive at that conclusion: What if the learner is not unmotivated, but we have not yet understood what moves them?
Motivation Is More Than Getting a Reward
For many years, the conversation around motivation has focused heavily on what we can give a learner for doing something. Complete your work and get a sticker. Answer correctly and get a sweet. Finish the task, and you can play. These strategies can sometimes be useful, particularly when we are trying to establish or strengthen a behaviour, but they do not tell us everything about motivation.
Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory gives us another way of looking at this. Their research identifies three basic psychological needs that influence motivation: autonomy, competence and relatedness. In simple terms, learners are more likely to engage when they experience some sense of choice, feel capable of succeeding and feel connected to the people and environment around them (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2020).
So, when a child repeatedly refuses a task, perhaps the question should not only be, “What can I give him?” We might also ask, “Does he feel capable of doing this? Does he have any sense of choice? Does this activity mean anything to him? Does he feel connected to the person asking him to do it?”
Those questions can take us somewhere very different.
Sometimes the Problem Is Not Motivation, but the Task
Imagine being repeatedly asked to do something that you find confusing, difficult or far beyond your current ability. After several unsuccessful attempts, you may eventually stop trying. From the outside, someone might describe you as lazy or unmotivated, but your behaviour may actually be communicating, “I don't think I can do this.”
Research on academic motivation also points to the importance of expectancy and value. Eccles and Wigfield's Expectancy Value Theory suggests that learners' motivation is influenced partly by whether they believe they can succeed and whether they see value in the task. The perceived cost of engaging also matters (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020).
That gives teachers some useful questions to consider:
🔶 Can the learner do this?
🔶 Does the learner understand why it matters?
🔶 What does the learner think will happen if they try?
🔶 What is this task costing the learner in terms of effort, frustration or confidence?
A child who repeatedly experiences failure may not need a bigger reward. They may need a smaller step, more appropriate support and an opportunity to experience success.
And What If the Behaviour Is Telling Us Something?
There is another question I find particularly useful when a learner appears resistant:
“What is happening around the behaviour?”
What happens immediately before the learner refuses the task? What happens after they refuse? Does the demand disappear? Does an adult provide one-to-one attention? Does the learner get access to a preferred activity? Does the situation become less demanding?
These observations can help us understand the function of behaviour rather than simply labelling it.
This does not mean that every refusal has one hidden meaning, or that every behaviour should be interpreted as deliberate communication. It simply means that behaviour occurs within a context, and understanding that context can help us respond more effectively.
Maybe We Need to Stop Asking, “What Will Motivate This Learner?”
Maybe a better question is:
“What conditions will make it easier for this child to engage?”
That shift matters. It moves us from endlessly searching for the perfect reward to thinking about the learner's experience.
🔶 Can we offer a little choice?
🔶 Can we make the task achievable without making it meaningless?
🔶 Can we connect the lesson to something the learner already cares about?
🔶 Can we build a relationship in which the child feels safe enough to attempt something difficult?
🔶 Can we celebrate progress without making every successful attempt dependent on a reward?
🔶 Can we reduce unnecessary frustration and gradually build competence?
The American Psychological Association similarly highlights autonomy-supportive learning environments, opportunities for meaningful choice, competence-building, and supportive relationships as important considerations in student motivation.
The Learner May Be Motivated, Just Not by What We Expected
This is possibly the part I would want every teacher and parent to remember.
A learner who does not respond to our rewards is not automatically a learner who lacks motivation. Maybe:
🔶 The learner wants to feel successful.
🔶 They want some control over what they do.
🔶 They want connection before instruction.
🔶 They are protecting themselves from another experience of failure.
🔶 The task has no meaning for them yet.
🔶 They are motivated by something we have not noticed.
🍀
And sometimes, we may need to stop trying to make the child interested in our way and start paying closer attention to the way they engage.
That does not mean allowing the learner to do whatever they want. It means becoming more thoughtful about how we create the conditions for participation. Sometimes, the goal is not simply to find the right thing to give the child. It might be to help the child discover a reason to participate.
And sometimes, that begins with a very different question:
“What can I understand about this learner before I decide that they are difficult to motivate?”
References
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2020). From expectancy value theory to situated expectancy value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101859
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003 066X.55.1.68
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860
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