The younger students are, the more motivated they seem

Only eight out of the 25 students in Lizel Bettencourt's first period biology class at Orosi High School have a passing grade. After finding out that students in other difficult classes have similar passing rates, she sits down with her class to discuss the matter.

"Why aren't any of you turning in your homework?" she asks in a friendly and patient voice. Some of her students say they had forgotten. Others say they had plans with friends or had other commitments the previous evening.

"But you didn't really forget," chides Bettencourt, a member of the Cutler-Orosi Unified Teachers Association (COUTA). "Doesn't it worry you to see your grade going down? Doesn't it make you feel bad? You can't graduate without passing this class. You might have to take it all over again. So why don't you do what you are supposed to do?"

She then reminds students that she's available for after-school tutoring on a daily basis if students feel they need extra help. So far, she says, no one has taken advantage of the opportunity. "If you know you might fail, why not come for tutoring?" Most of the students shrug. One raises his hand and says, "I'd rather go home after school."

Trying another tack, she asks how many of the mostly Hispanic teens have worked in the fields harvesting crops. Many hands go up.

She asks them how many of them want to work in the fields after graduation. No hands go up. "When you graduate, you want to do something you enjoy and you don't want to work as hard as your parents do," she says. "You can get a good job by going to college. And even if you don't go to college, and you have a job like being a cashier, you will need math and other skills."

The apathy is frustrating for Bettencourt, a caring and energetic teacher. Part of the problem, she thinks, is that her students may be beneficiaries of social promotion in earlier grades. Since the district no longer allows it, she hopes the next generation will fare better.

"Many of my students don't care and have no regret or remorse about not doing the work," she says. "Even so, I constantly tell them college is a long-term goal and every day could bring them a step closer to achieving that goal. Every time they do their homework or come to class ready to learn, they come a step closer to achieving their dreams. We discuss how important it is to work hard now, so they won't have to work as hard as their parents do."

Numerous studies conclude that it is considerably easier to motivate younger students than older ones - and that student engagement in school drops as students get older. "Infants and young children appear to be propelled by curiosity, driven by an intense need to explore, interact and make sense of their environment," observes researcher James Raffini. "Rarely does one hear parents complain that their preschooler is unmotivated.

"Unfortunately, as children grow, their passion for learning frequently seems to shrink. Learning often becomes associated with drudgery instead of delight". Many students are physically present in the classroom but largely mentally absent; they fail to invest themselves fully in the experience of learning."

The home environment can have a great deal to do with attitudes toward learning. When parents convey their feeling that learning is worthwhile, their children have more of a tendency to hold that belief themselves. For tips on how parents can help children learn, visit CTA's website [www.cta.org], click on  Family Involvement Tips.

Past success or failure can also influence the level of motivation. Studies show that young children have high expectations for success even when they have experienced repeated failure. Older students say failure feels even worse if they have put forth effort, so why try?

Peer pressure also plays a role, according to a 1994 study by MacIver and Reuman. "As students grow older, their motivation to engage in learning may be influenced by their social group just as much as, if not more than, it is by teachers, parents and older adults. While peer influences can be either positive or negative, it is not uncommon for older students to discourage one another from actively participating in school."

"The older they get, the more you see the stigma of being smart," says Debbie Petinak, a second-grade teacher at Cutler Elementary School. "It's not considered 'cool' to be smart and interested in school."

She is trying to reverse that mindset while students are young. "At this age, they soak up everything like sponges, and I want them to continue to do that," says Petinak. "I talk to them all the time about the importance of an education. And I follow them when they leave here. When they graduate from eighth grade or high school I send them graduation cards and let them know how proud I am of them.

"I never want my students to lose their motivation and enthusiasm for learning."

Internal rewards pay off

Getting students to want to do well in school is one of the toughest challenges teachers face. While any motivation is better than none, studies show that students who are motivated by internal rewards - curiosity, interest, enjoyment - do better in school.

A report published by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, "Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework," [www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/index.html] observes: "Students who are motivated to complete a task only to avoid consequences or to earn a certain grade rarely exert more than the minimum effort necessary to meet their goal. And, when students are focused on comparing themselves with their classmates, rather than on mastering skills at their own rate, they are more easily discouraged and their intrinsic motivation to learn may actually decrease."

Students who are motivated from within:

• Earn higher grades and test scores;
• Are better adjusted to school;
• Employ strategies that demand more effort and enable them to process information more deeply;
• Are more confident about their ability to learn new material;
• Are more likely to engage in tasks that are more challenging;
• Are more likely to persist with and complete assigned tasks;
• Retain information and concepts longer and are less likely to need remediation;
• Are more likely to be lifelong learners.