motivation for an assignment

Center for Teaching

Motivating students.

Introduction

• Expectancy – Value – Cost Model

ARCS Model of Instructional Design

Self-determination theory, additional strategies for motivating students.

Fostering student motivation is a difficult but necessary aspect of teaching that instructors must consider. Many may have led classes where students are engaged, motivated, and excited to learn, but have also led classes where students are distracted, disinterested, and reluctant to engage—and, probably, have led classes that are a mix. What factors influence students’ motivation? How can instructors promote students’ engagement and motivation to learn? While there are nuances that change from student to student, there are also models of motivation that serve as tools for thinking through and enhancing motivation in our classrooms. This guide will look at three frameworks: the expectancy-value-cost model of motivation, the ARCS model of instructional design, and self-determination theory. These three models highlight some of the major factors that influence student motivation, often drawing from and demonstrating overlap among their frameworks. The aim of this guide is to explore some of the literature on motivation and offer practical solutions for understanding and enhancing student motivation.

Expectancy – Value – Cost Model

The purpose of the original expectancy-value model was to predict students’ achievement behaviors within an educational context. The model has since been refined to include cost as one of the three major factors that influence student motivation. Below is a description of the three factors, according to the model, that influence motivation.

• Expectancy refers to a student’s expectation that they can actually succeed in the assigned task. It energizes students because they feel empowered to meet the learning objectives of the course.
• Value involves a student’s ability to perceive the importance of engaging in a particular task. This gives meaning to the assignment or activity because students are clear on why the task or behavior is valuable.
• Cost points to the barriers that impede a student’s ability to be successful on an assignment, activity and/or the course at large. Therefore, students might have success expectancies and perceive high task value, however, they might also be aware of obstacles to their engagement or a potential negative affect resulting in performance of the task, which could decrease their motivation.

Three important questions to consider from the student perspective:

1. Expectancy – Can I do the task?

2. Value – Do I want to do the task?

• Intrinsic or interest value : the inherent enjoyment that an individual experiences from engaging in the task for its own sake.

• Utility value : the usefulness of the task in helping achieve other short term or long-term goals.

• Attainment value : the task affirms a valued aspect of an individual’s identity and meets a need that is important to the individual.

3. Cost – Am I free of barriers that prevent me from investing my time, energy, and resources into the activity?

It’s important to note that expectancy, value and cost are not shaped only when a student enters your classroom. These have been shaped over time by both individual and contextual factors. Each of your students comes in with an initial response, however there are strategies for encouraging student success, clarifying subject meaning and finding ways to mitigate costs that will increase your students’ motivation. Everyone may not end up at the same level of motivation, but if you can increase each student’s motivation, it will help the overall atmosphere and productivity of the course that you are teaching.

Strategies to Enhance Expectancy, Value, and Cost

Hulleman et. al (2016) summarize research-based sources that positively impact students’ expectancy beliefs, perceptions of task value, and perceptions of cost, which might point to useful strategies that instructors can employ.

Research-based sources of expectancy-related beliefs

Research-based sources of value, research-based sources of cost.

• Barron K. E., & Hulleman, C. S. (2015). Expectancy-value-cost model of motivation. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8 , 503-509.
• Hulleman, C. S., Barron, K. E., Kosovich, J. J., & Lazowski, R. A. (2016). Student motivation: Current theories, constructs, and interventions within an expectancy-value framework. In A. A. Lipnevich et al. (Eds.), Psychosocial Skills and School Systems in the 21st Century . Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

The ARCS model of instructional design was created to improve the motivational appeal of instructional materials. The ARCS model is grounded in an expectancy-value framework, which assumes that people are motivated to engage in an activity if it’s perceived to be linked to the satisfaction of personal needs and if there is a positive expectancy for success. The purpose of this model was to fill a gap in the motivation literature by providing a model that could more clearly allow instructors to identify strategies to help improve motivation levels within their students.

ARCS is an acronym that stands for four factors, according to the model, that influence student motivation: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.

• Attention refers to getting and sustaining student attention and directing attention to the appropriate stimuli.
• Relevance involves making instruction applicable to present and future career opportunities, showing that learning in it of itself is enjoyable, and/or focusing on process over product by satisfying students’ psychological needs (e.g., need for achievement, need for affiliation).
• Confidence includes helping students believe that some level of success is possible if effort is exerted.
• Satisfaction is attained by helping students feel good about their accomplishments and allowing them to exert some degree of control over the learning experience.

To use the ARCS instructional design model, these steps can be followed:

• Classify the problem
• Analyze audience motivation
• Prepare motivational objectives (i.e., identify which factor in the ARCS model to target based on the defined problem and audience analysis).
• Generate potential motivational strategies for each objective
• Select strategies that a) don’t take up too much instructional time; b) don’t detract from instructional objectives; c) fall within time and money constraints; d) are acceptable to the audience; and e) are compatible with the instructor’s personal style, preferences, and mode of instruction.
• Prepare motivational elements
• Integrate materials with instruction
• Conduct a developmental try-out
• Assess motivational outcomes

Strategies to Enhance Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction

Keller (1987) provides several suggestions for how instructors can positively impact students’ attention, perceived relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.

Attention Strategies

Incongruity, Conflict

• Introduce a fact that seems to contradict the learner’s past experience.
• Present an example that does not seem to exemplify a given concept.
• Introduce two equally plausible facts or principles, only one of which can be true.
• Play devil’s advocate.

Concreteness

• Show visual representations of any important object or set of ideas or relationships.
• Give examples of every instructionally important concept or principle.
• Use content-related anecdotes, case studies, biographies, etc.

Variability

• In stand up delivery, vary the tone of your voice, and use body movement, pauses, and props.
• Vary the format of instruction (information presentation, practice, testing, etc.) according to the attention span of the audience.
• Vary the medium of instruction (platform delivery, film, video, print, etc.).
• Break up print materials by use of white space, visuals, tables, different typefaces, etc.
• Change the style of presentation (humorous-serious, fast-slow, loud-soft, active-passive, etc.).
• Shift between student-instructor interaction and student-student interaction.
• Where appropriate, use plays on words during redundant information presentation.
• Use humorous introductions.
• Use humorous analogies to explain and summarize.
• Use creativity techniques to have learners create unusual analogies and associations to the content.
• Build in problem solving activities at regular interval.
• Give learners the opportunity to select topics, projects and assignments that appeal to their curiosity and need to explore.

Participation

• Use games, role plays, or simulations that require learner participation.

Relevance Strategies

• State explicitly how the instruction builds on the learner’s existing skills.
• Use analogies familiar to the learner from past experience.
• Find out what the learners’ interests are and relate them to the instruction.

Present Worth

• State explicitly the present intrinsic value of learning the content, as distinct from its value as a link to future goals.

Future Usefulness

• State explicitly how the instruction relates to future activities of the learner.
• Ask learners to relate the instruction to their own future goals (future wheel).

Need Matching

• To enhance achievement striving behavior, provide opportunities to achieve standards of excellence under conditions of moderate risk.
• To make instruction responsive to the power motive, provide opportunities for responsibility, authority, and interpersonal influence.
• To satisfy the need for affiliation, establish trust and provide opportunities for no-risk, cooperative interaction.
• Bring in alumni of the course as enthusiastic guest lecturers.
• In a self-paced course, use those who finish first as deputy tutors.
• Model enthusiasm for the subject taught.
• Provide meaningful alternative methods for accomplishing a goal.
• Provide personal choices for organizing one’s work.

Confidence Strategies

Learning Requirements

• Incorporate clearly stated, appealing learning goals into instructional materials.
• Provide self-evaluation tools which are based on clearly stated goals.
• Explain the criteria for evaluation of performance.
• Organize materials on an increasing level of difficulty; that is, structure the learning material to provide a “conquerable” challenge.

Expectations

• Include statements about the likelihood of success with given amounts of effort and ability.
• Teach students how to develop a plan of work that will result in goal accomplishment.
• Help students set realistic goals.

Attributions

• Attribute student success to effort rather than luck or ease of task when appropriate (i.e., when you know it’s true!).
• Encourage student efforts to verbalize appropriate attributions for both successes and failures.

Self-Confidence

• Allow students opportunity to become increasingly independent in learning and practicing a skill.
• Have students learn new skills under low risk conditions, but practice performance of well-learned tasks under realistic conditions.
• 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.

Satisfaction Strategies

Natural Consequences

• Allow a student to use a newly acquired skill in a realistic setting as soon as possible.
• Verbally reinforce a student’s intrinsic pride in accomplishing a difficult task.
• Allow a student who masters a task to help others who have not yet done so.

Unexpected Rewards

• Reward intrinsically interesting task performance with unexpected, non-contingent rewards.
• Reward boring tasks with extrinsic, anticipated rewards.

Positive Outcomes

• Give verbal praise for successful progress or accomplishment.
• Give personal attention to students.
• Provide informative, helpful feedback when it is immediately useful.
• Provide motivating feedback (praise) immediately following task performance.

Negative Influences

• Avoid the use of threats as a means of obtaining task performance.
• Avoid surveillance (as opposed to positive attention).
• Avoid external performance evaluations whenever it is possible to help the student evaluate his or her own work.
• Provide frequent reinforcements when a student is learning a new task.
• Provide intermittent reinforcement as a student becomes more competent at a task.
• Vary the schedule of reinforcements in terms of both interval and quantity.

Source: Keller, J. M. (1987). Development and use of the ARCS model of instructional design. Journal of Instructional Development, 10 , 2-10.

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro-theory of human motivation, emotion, and development that is concerned with the social conditions that facilitate or hinder human flourishing. While applicable to many domains, the theory has been commonly used to understand what moves students to act and persist in educational settings. SDT focuses on the factors that influence intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which primarily involves the satisfaction of basic psychological needs.

Basic Psychological Needs

SDT posits that human motivation is guided by the need to fulfill basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

• Autonomy refers to having a choice in one’s own individual behaviors and feeling that those behaviors stem from individual volition rather than from external pressure or control. In educational contexts, students feel autonomous when they are given options, within a structure, about how to perform or present their work.
• Competence refers to perceiving one’s own behaviors or actions as effective and efficient. Students feel competent when they are able to track their progress in developing skills or an understanding of course material. This is often fostered when students receive clear feedback regarding their progression in the class.
• Relatedness refers to feeling a sense of belonging, closeness, and support from others. In educational settings, relatedness is fostered when students feel connected, both intellectually and emotionally, to their peers and instructors in the class. This can often be accomplished through interactions that allow members of the class to get to know each other on a deeper, more personal level.

Continuum of Self-Determination

SDT also posits that motivation exists on a continuum. When an environment provides enough support for the satisfaction of the psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, an individual may experience self-determined forms of motivation: intrinsic motivation, integration, and identification. Self-determined motivation occurs when there is an internal perceived locus of causality (i.e., internal factors are the main driving force for the behavior). Integration and identification are also grouped as autonomous extrinsic motivation as the behavior is driven by internal and volitional choice.

Intrinsic motivation , which is the most self-determined type of motivation, occurs when individuals naturally and spontaneously perform behaviors as a result of genuine interest and enjoyment.

Integrated regulation is when individuals identify the importance of a behavior, integrate this behavior into their self-concept, and pursue activities that align with this self-concept.

Identified regulation is where people identify and recognize the value of a behavior, which then drives their action.

When an environment does not provide enough support for the satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, an individual may experience non-self-determined forms of motivation: introjection and external regulation. Introjection and external regulation are grouped as controlled extrinsic motivation because people enact these behaviors due to external or internal pressures.

Introjected regulation occurs when individuals are controlled by internalized consequences administered by the individual themselves, such as pride, shame, or guilt.

External regulation is when people’s behaviors are controlled exclusively by external factors, such as rewards or punishments.

Finally, at the bottom of the continuum is amotivation, which is lowest form of motivation.

Amotivation exists when there is a complete lack of intention to behave and there is no sense of achievement or purpose when the behavior is performed.

Below is a figure depicting the continuum of self-determination taken from Lonsdale, Hodge, and Rose (2009).

Although having intrinsically motivated students would be the ultimate goal, it may not be a practical one within educational settings. That’s because there are several tasks that are required of students to meet particular learning objectives that may not be inherently interesting or enjoyable. Instead, instructors can employ various strategies to satisfy students’ basic psychological needs, which should move their level of motivation along the continuum, and hopefully lead to more self-determined forms of motivation, thus yielding the greatest rewards in terms of student academic outcomes.

Below are suggestions for how instructors can positively impact students’ perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Strategies to Enhance Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness

Autonomy strategies.

• Have students choose paper topics
• Have students choose the medium with which they will present their work
• Co-create rubrics with students (e.g., participation rubrics, assignment rubrics)
• Have students choose the topics you will cover in a particular unit
• Drop the lowest assessment or two (e.g., quizzes, exams, homework)
• Have students identify preferred assignment deadlines
• Gather mid-semester feedback and make changes based on student suggestions
• Provide meaningful rationales for learning activities
• Acknowledge students’ feelings about the learning process or learning activities throughout the course

Competence Strategies

• Set high but achievable learning objectives
• Communicate to students that you believe they can meet your high expectations
• Communicate clear expectations for each assignment (e.g., use rubrics)
• Include multiple low-stakes assessments
• Give students practice with feedback before assessments
• Provide lots of early feedback to students
• Have students provide peer feedback
• Scaffold assignments
• Praise student effort and hard work
• Provide a safe environment for students to fail and then learn from their mistakes

Relatedness Strategies

• Share personal anecdotes
• Get to know students via small talk before/after class and during breaks
• Require students to come to office hours (individually or in small groups)
• Have students complete a survey where they share information about themselves
• Use students’ names (perhaps with the help of name tents)
• Have students incorporate personal interests into their assignments
• Share a meal with students or bring food to class
• Incorporate group activities during class, and allow students to work with a variety of peers
• Arrange formal study groups
• Convey warmth, caring, and respect to students
• Lonsdale, C., Hodge, K., & Rose, E. (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self-determination perspective. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27, 785-795.
• Niemiec, C. P., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 133-144.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . New York: Guilford.

Below are some additional research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

• Become a role model for student interest . Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm. As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.
• Get to know your students.  You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students’ concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students’ learning and a faith in their abilities.
• Use examples freely.  Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.
• Teach by discovery. Students find it satisfying to reason through a problem and discover the underlying principle on their own.
• Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.
• Set realistic performance goals  and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.
• Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading.  Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.
• Be free with praise and constructive in criticism.  Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students’ work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.
• Give students as much control over their own education as possible.  Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.
• Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• DeLong, M., & Winter, D. (2002).  Learning to teach and teaching to learn mathematics: Resources for professional development . Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America.
• Nilson, L. (2016). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors  (4 th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

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Global Cognition

7 ways to improve your motivation to study (backed by science).

by Winston Sieck updated September 18, 2021

Just about everyone who has ever been in school knows what it feels like to sit in front of the computer, staring at a blank screen. Hoping their term paper would write itself.

Or tried reading a textbook only to find that they have read the same paragraph ten times and still don’t know what they read.

Or decided they would rather clean the clutter out from under their bed than study in the first place.

Bottom line, studying can be kind of a drag. When you have a hundred other things you would rather do and an overwhelming amount of work to do, it is hard to get started and even harder to finish.

Fortunately, there are some simple, scientifically proven ways you can find your motivation and keep it.

What is Motivation to Study?

Motivation comes from a Latin word that literally means “to move.” But what causes someone to be motivated to study has been a hot topic in the world of science.

Researchers believe that your motivation to study can either come from inside you or outside of you. You can be motivated by an internal drive to learn as much possible. Or, you might be motivated to study by an external reward like a good grade, or a great job, or someone promising you a car.

Recently, researchers have discovered that your motivation to study is rooted in lots of factors, many of which we have control over. Rory Lazowski of James Madison University and Chris Hulleman of the University of Virginia analyzed more than 70 studies into what motivates students in schools. They published their paper , “Motivation Interventions in Education: A Meta-Analytic Review, in the journal Review of Educational Research .

Lazowski and Hulleman found that a number of ways to improve motivation consistently yield positive results. Here, I describe seven of the techniques that you can most readily use on your own to power through your own study barriers, and move your learning forward.

1. Set Clear Goals

You may think to yourself, “My goal is to graduate and get a good job and be rich.” While that’s a fine ambition, by itself it probably won’t help you in school day-to-day.

In order to improve your motivation to study, your goals have to be a little closer to home. In fact, setting clear academic goals has been scientifically linked to higher grade point averages than students who set vague goals, like, “I’ll just do the best I can.”

Set a goal to earn an “A” on a particular test in a particular subject. Or, decide to learn everything you can about a concept because it will help you in the real world. Set a deadline for homework that will force you to finish a task before it is due so you can review it before handing it in. Whatever the goal is, be sure it is specific, relevant, and timely.

2. Don’t Just Shoot For Performance, Go For Mastery

There is nothing more frustrating than studying hard for a test only to get a grade that is less than what you were expecting. At that point, lots of students throw their hands in the air and say, “If this is what happens when I study, why study?”

Resist that urge.

The grades you receive on a test are examples of performance goals. If you set a goal to get an “A”, and stop there, you may only study the things that you think will be on the test, but not necessarily the things that will give you mastery of the concept.

Students who consistently strive for mastery , really learning what they are studying, almost always see their grades improve as a result.

Mastery goals also help with your motivation to study. If you want to learn everything there is to know, you are less likely to put off starting that process.

3. Take Responsibility for Your Learning

It’s tempting to blame your grades on other people. The teacher doesn’t like you. They never taught what you were tested on. Your homework assignment doesn’t apply. When you blame others for your performance, you are more likely to do poorly on tests, assignments and projects.

Taking responsibility for your own learning can make a world of difference when it comes to getting yourself motivated to study. Recognizing that you are in charge of what you learn can help you start studying, but it can also keep you going when other distractions threaten to take your attention away.

Next time you are tempted to stop in the middle of an assignment and do something else, pause. Take a breath. Then, say out loud, “No one is going to learn this for me.” You might be surprised at how hearing those words affect your focus.

4. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Some people still believe that you’re either born smart (or not). And there’s not much you can do about it. However, research has shown that successful people tend to believe that intelligence is something you build up over your life. These folks have a growth mindset.

When your intelligence is challenged by hard assignments or difficult concepts, people with a growth mindset tend to think, “I don’t know this yet, but if I work hard, I will learn it.”

Researchers found that believing your brain can get stronger when you tackle hard things not only improves your mastery of what you are learning, it also improves your grades and increases your motivation to study.

The next time you are faced by a blank screen or hard textbook chapter remember, “I don’t know this yet, but if I work hard, I will learn it.”

5. Find the Relevance

If you ever want to annoy your math teacher, tell them algebra has no relevance in the real world. Alternatively, try to figure out how what you are studying relates to your life. Studies have shown that high school students who were asked to write down how their subject matter related to their everyday life saw a significant jump in their GPA.

Before you start studying, try jotting down a few ways this information will come in handy in the future. Making this connection will help you see value in what you are doing and get you started on an assignment or topic.

Sometimes, the connection between what you are learning and how it applies to your life is not easy to see. Try searching the web for applications of your topic to help you see the real-life relevance of what you are learning.

6. Imagine Your Future Self

Imagine what your life will be like in 10 years. Are you successful? Do you have a great career that you love? Are you living in the best city in the world?

Now, imagine how you are going to get there.

Some people automatically connect the school work they are doing now with getting into a good college or training program that will lead to their desired future. Other students have difficulty making that connection.

Having the ability to imagine your future self is a skill that has been shown to improve motivation to study. It has also been linked to higher grades, lower cases of truancy and fewer discipline problems in school.

Next time you are faced with a particularly daunting assignment, close your eyes and picture what you want your life to be like. Then, recognize that in order to have the life you want, you have to do the assignment in front of you.

7. Reaffirm Your Personal Values

What do you value most? What are the two or three most important qualities you can possibly develop? Do you strive to be honest in everything you do? Do you value kindness? Is success the most important value in your life?

Taking a few minutes now and again to reaffirm your values by writing in a journal or meditating about them can help you focus your efforts in other areas of your life.

If you value family over everything, your ability to take care of your family will motivate you to study and do well in school. If you value honesty, you will never feel inclined to cheat on a test, but will work hard to study.

Ultimately, finding the motivation to study is less about going on a treasure hunt and more about changing the way you think about learning. Even implementing a few of these seven tips can help you stay focused and keep going.

Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures

Lazowski, R. A., & Hulleman, C. S. (2016). Motivation interventions in education: A meta-analytic review. Review of Educational research , 86(2), 602-640. DOI: 10.3102/0034654315617832

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About Winston Sieck

Dr. Winston Sieck is a cognitive psychologist working to advance the development of thinking skills. He is founder and president of Global Cognition, and director of Thinker Academy .

Reader Interactions

October 2, 2018 at 4:59 pm

Thanks for sharing this post. I plan to share it with my students this week. We’re implementing some growth mindset and mindfulness practices this year. This will be a good reinforcement of some of those ideas and will provide some new insight as well. I think it will be well-received. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how open they’ve been to these ideas so far. Thanks again.

October 2, 2018 at 5:24 pm

That’s great, Tony. Excellent to hear the success you’re having with these ideas in your class. Thanks for stopping by..

October 25, 2021 at 12:51 pm

Thanks for posting this . I felt it after reading it and I think that if I prepare it today tomarow will be good . From this I’ll stay motivated .

October 2, 2018 at 6:54 pm

Thank greatly for this post. I’m studying at college at 45yrs ,sometimes want to give up studying but you came along with this great post. Great assurance and encouragement for young and old students alike.

Will have to share with my students as well,

kind regards,

clotilda Claudia Harry Solomon islands.

October 2, 2018 at 7:14 pm

Yep, we all need a little motivation boost at any age. Way to keep learning, Clotilda.

November 16, 2018 at 12:08 am

Thanks for providing a resource for our children to grow in knowledge. Seems that no matter what the age, we all struggle with these issues.

November 17, 2018 at 4:39 pm

No doubt, Michael! Managing motivation is a life-long skill we can teach our kids. Good to see you here – thanks for stopping by..

October 6, 2020 at 4:23 am

Thank you so much for motivating, the point you are mentioned such as set goal and go for mastery, be responsibility for learning, etc. all these points are really very helpful and they are very useful for study thank you so much for sharing

February 3, 2021 at 5:18 am

Thank you! Without following all of these steps, it’s hard to have any significant academic success, I think. It helps me not to lose motivation with step-by-step planning: I divide the global goal into several small short-term goals and achieving even minimal results makes me happy and motivates me to try harder. Of course, there are also bad periods, when I feel exhausted and overwhelmed. But a little rest allows me to get back on track.

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8 Ways To Stay Motivated To Complete Assignments

When you enter college, you get blasted with many responsibilities. Some are new to you, while others are not. The new things can take you a lot of time to learn. One new thing you have to learn and master is assignment writing . Yes, assignments are a big part of college life.

If you haven’t started college yet, you may be thinking that we’re exaggerating things. But, that’s not the case. Learning how to write assignments in college is crucial. Students who don’t learn it take expert help from websites like Grow With Grades (GWG), which isn’t bad, in our opinion.

Taking help occasionally isn’t bad. What’s bad is when you don’t learn how to write assignments throughout your time spent at college. We're writing this blog to stop you from dealing with this problem. This blog will tell you 8 ways to stay motivated to complete assignments.

Let’s start. 

Put An End To Procrastination

The first thing you want to take care of while writing assignments is to end procrastination. It is the number one enemy of a good and productive life. We know you love to sleep whenever you get time. But taking multiple naps throughout the day isn’t a good thing.

Procrastination can also look like using your smartphone, even after knowing that you have assignments to complete. Whatever is causing you to procrastinate, you need to find a solution ASAP.

The thing with procrastination is that it can stop you from completing the simplest of tasks. Consider you get 10 days for completing assignments . You can still not do it if you have a habit of procrastinating. You may not realize it now, but it is a big problem that will stop you from succeeding in life.  

Put Distractions Aside

Often some things lead you to procrastinate. And the most common is a smartphone. Parents reading this blog will agree that smartphones are indeed why they argue with their children. Children these days use smartphones for hours on end because they can do everything using them. From taking notes in class to setting reminders for assignment submission, there is no end to what can be done using smartphones.

When children have access to smartphones from a young age, they’re very likely to develop a habit. And developing a habit of using smartphones is never good because it can stop you from focusing on what’s important and start indulging in timepass activities.

So, from now on, when you’re about to start assignment writing , make sure to keep your smartphone away from you, preferably in the other room. Initially, you may want to use your smartphone every few minutes. But once you develop a habit, not using it will become a habit for you.

Do Extensive Research

You can’t straight away decide to write assignments when the professor asks you to. When you do it, assignment writing becomes boring, which is why you can’t stay motivated. There’s a very simple way you can counter this problem.

The way is by doing extensive research. When you research, you learn many things, and the task does not stay boring at all. Moreover, research is crucial for any assignment because you can’t complete it if you don’t research.

Make sure to search for information from multiple resources. When you do it, you identify any wrong information you might include if you don’t check multiple resources. We recommend you check research papers because they have the most credible information.

Create An Outline

You feel bored and lack motivation when you don’t begin the work. Often starting something is the hardest thing. You’ll realize it when you have to write assignments. Starting them is like a challenge, but you realize writing the other parts becomes fairly easy when you start writing.    

So, what you can do is create an outline for the assignment. Outline means to create the introduction and different headings. When you do it, you put an end to boredom and have a rough idea about what you’ll write. And when you have done some work, you stay motivated to complete the rest.

Reward Yourself

Writing assignments continuously can be tiring. We assure you that no one (even the best writers) can do it.

So, what’s the solution when you’re tight on deadlines?

A very good solution is to start rewarding yourself. The reward can be anything from tasty food to watching funny videos. There is no limitation to what a reward can look like. Whatever makes you appreciate your efforts can be a reward.

You might have seen many people these days intentionally make their lives harder. They do it in the name of evolving through challenges. While it is true that a person grows when they go through challenges, it isn’t a good practice to create them forcefully. We all have to realize how crucial it is to appreciate ourselves.

And occasionally eating your favourite food won’t make you fat. So, stop thinking about it and reward yourself often.    

Take A Walk

The breaks you take when writing assignments aren’t a waste of time. They are meant to refresh your mind and body, which are essential if you want to keep your productivity high. You can either sit idle or take a walk.

Taking a walk is a pretty good habit , as it can refresh your mind. When you walk in nature, your eyes, mind and entire body feels refreshed. If you’re looking to lose fat, walking is a good choice. You don’t necessarily have to run or go to a gym to get in good shape. Brisk walking can burn a lot of calories, and it is the perfect choice for people with busy schedules.

Ask Your Friends What You Don’t Understand

It is common for students in college not to know everything about all the subjects. It could be because they are interested in a specific subject or just don’t have enough time to become good at everything. When this happens, students can ask their friends to teach them what they don’t know.

We feel asking your college friends about topics you don’t understand is a very good thing. You can’t always approach your professor and ask them about your doubts. Well, you can, but most students are not comfortable doing it. If you are or want to learn how to be your professor’s favourite student, we recommend you read this blog .

Anyways, when you take help from your friends, you don’t have to speak in a formal tone, as you would with your professors. Another benefit is that your relation with your friends will strengthen. You never know which friends can become your best friends, and you may end up staying in touch with them for many years.  

Know The Negative Consequences

For some students, positive things don’t work. They have to think about the negative consequences to get motivation. In college, it means they have to think that they can fail if they don’t complete and submit their assignments on time.

Many people crumble under pressure, but some love working under it. Many athletes deal with pressure when the race is about to start. But whenever any news reporter asks them how they’re feeling, they always reply that they’re excited. That’s because the same part of your brain works when you’re under pressure and excited.

So, if thinking about negative consequences motivates you to take action and complete assignments, resort to it.

Staying motivated while writing assignments is difficult because there are some challenges that one is presented with. If you also lose motivation easily while doing assignments, you need to read this blog. That’s because, in this blog, we covered 8 ways to stay motivated to complete assignments. After reading this blog, we hope that you won’t have trouble finding motivation.

If you liked reading it, share it with your college friends.

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All About Motivation

• Posted September 21, 2018
• By Usable Knowledge

When you allow autonomy and require responsibility, you encourage motivation and self-guided learning in your students — and you fuel academic achievement and a sense of excitement. Here, we explore these and other insights into student motivation  from researchers and experts in the field of education.

Ask a Researcher , a project from Digital Promise and the Harvard Graduate School of Education , offers evidence-based guidance on classroom dilemmas. We pair questions from educators across the country with answers from researchers and experts. Are you in need of insight for your own teaching challenge? You can submit your question here .

Does offering students a choice in assignments lead to greater engagement?

Decades of psychological research concludes that providing students with choices leads to increased in autonomy and, in turn, motivation and learning. Students, like adults, tend to be more motivated to complete a task — and perform better on it — when they choose to engage in the task themselves, rather than having the task chosen for them.

But when it comes to giving choices — just like ice cream and movie sequels — more is not always better. Faced with too many choices, students can become overwhelmed, and they instead prioritize ending the choice-making process, rather than making the choice they really think is best. Research suggests three to five options may produce the most satisfaction and motivation.

Read more from Carly Robinson , a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on Digital Promise.

How do we allow for inquiry while still ensuring learning (the proficiency of standards)?

Inquiry and learning are not meant to be mutually exclusive, but rather complementary parts of any teaching and learning experience. Inquiry is a vehicle for understanding. And understanding, different from the accumulation of knowledge, entails being flexible with what one knows. It is this flexibility that, we hope, will support young people in exhibiting the proficiency of standards that are required of them in many school settings, while also giving them the opportunity to further flex their understanding in new and exciting ways. Allowing students autonomy — the ability to choose how to express their knowledge to their teacher — is an essential gateway to engagement; when students feel empowered, they become more excited to learn.

Read  more from Edward Clapp,   a principal investigator at Project Zero ,  on Digital Promise.

What are the most effective practices for facilitating diverse youth leadership in schools?

Most young people are inherently driven to create positive change and to be leaders. Unfortunately, we don’t always make it easy for young people to see their inherent motivation as something useful for, or related to, school. How can we foster young people’s natural capacities to be leaders, in ways that are equitable and collectively beneficial?

When designed correctly and allowed to work on substantive issues, student government can be an authentic leadership body. If this group is designed in ways that fully represents the demographics of the school and the interests of students, then it can play a fundamental role in shaping the school’s values and structures. A representative group of students could also collect data from their peers about what they want, and then share these data with adults. This process would allow students to think about their needs and desires, and how these connect to the heart of the school’s pedagogy. For all young people, but particularly for young people who have been oppressed in society, getting the tools and opportunities to create change can start to help undo the trauma of feeling powerless.

Read more from Gretchen Brion-Meisels , an expert in adolescent development and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on Digital Promise.  

Do digital learning materials improve student achievement or motivation?

I can think of two main ways that technology can effectively increase engagement with the kind of tasks traditionally found on worksheets: giving feedback and tracking student performance. You want computers to offer feedback that reinforces the work that led to a correct response, or feedback that helps guide the learner to pathways to correct answers. Feedback for correct answers, from the teacher or the computer, should highlight the steps that led to success. Feedback for incorrect answers should promote reflection on the error.

Digital technology can use past performance and the performance of similar students to dynamically determine what item, tasks, or bit of instruction should come next. The focus on learning can be reinforced by a focus on growth, and digital systems can display that growth graphically and immediately. That kind of progress feedback can be very motivating. We all like to see ourselves getting better.

Read more from David Dockterman , a researcher and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on Digital Promise.

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How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It

• Ayelet Fishbach

Motivating yourself is one of the main things that sets high achievers apart, and it’s hard. How do you keep pushing onward when your heart isn’t in it? In her research, Fishbach has identified some simple tactics: Set goals that are intrinsically rewarding, and make them very specific. If a task isn’t satisfying, focus on aspects of it that are or combine it with pleasant activities. Reward yourself in the right way for getting things done. To avoid slumps, break objectives into subgoals; look at how much you’ve accomplished until you’re halfway there; and then count down what you have left to do. And use social influence: Let high performers inspire you, boost your get-up-and-go by giving advice, and keep the people you want to succeed for front of mind.

Four strategies for motivating yourself.

Motivating yourself is hard. In fact, I often compare it to one of the exploits of the fictional German hero Baron Munchausen: Trying to sustain your drive through a task, a project, or even a career can sometimes feel like pulling yourself out of a swamp by your own hair. We seem to have a natural aversion to persistent effort that no amount of caffeine or inspirational posters can fix.

• AF Ayelet Fishbach is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

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Tips for Staying Motivated Ahead of College

Learn about yourself and your options., 1. prioritize assignments.

The key to success in school is staying focused on your coursework. Make a list to get an overall picture of your workload before you start to tackle any of it. Then, make a plan.

It's best to prioritize your more challenging and time-consuming assignments. Although it’s tempting to work on the simplest tasks first, you'll be able to manage your schedule better if you start with the ones that take more time and effort to accomplish.

To determine what your priorities are, rank your assignments in order of importance. Then, rearrange your time and devote more energy toward those assignments that have the greatest impact on your overall coursework and your grades. For more involved projects, you'll need to plot out work time over several weeks.

For example, even though all homework assignments are important, studying for a midterm exam takes priority over writing a paragraph for English class. As you complete each task, think of it as another step on your way to success in college.

However, don't let a task fall through the cracks just because it seems "less important." Remember that all assignments must be completed regardless of the impact on your grades.

By tackling your more difficult and time-consuming studies first, you’ll find yourself feeling more motivated to complete the easier assignments that lie ahead. Think of it as descending from the peak of a mountain rather than struggling to scale one.

2. Set Attainable Goals in Smaller Chunks

If you're having trouble writing a 25-page paper for class because it seems like such a big task, stop focusing on that final page count. Break the paper down into its subsections, and focus on each one individually.

It’s much easier to stay motivated and stop procrastinating by setting goals in smaller, more attainable chunks. It’s also a lot easier on your mental health.

3. Create New Challenges

Changing your approach can help you stay interested in what you’re doing. Some high school assignments tend to feel formulaic after a while, and you may end up feeling like you’re just going through the motions. This can cause you to feel demotivated and drained. Change things up to challenge yourself.

For example, if last semester you wrote a narrative piece in your creative writing class, maybe try writing a poem this time. If you wrote a book report on a biography last time around, try picking another subject you haven’t tackled, such as history.

If your eyes are hurting from staring at your math textbook all night, go online and try to find videos from lively instructors who take another approach to solving math problems.

4. Find a Social Support Network

You are surrounded by people who want to see you succeed, so don’t be afraid to ask for help! Mentors can be teachers, family friends, or even your school counselors. They are there to help you reach your goals and can help you create a study plan that works for you.

Try reaching out to your friends and peers in school as well, and see if you can all bring together a focused study group. Sometimes, it can even be healthy to vent your frustrations to others as a way of clearing your head.

5. Acknowledge Your Accomplishments

Praising yourself for the things you’ve accomplished is a great way to spark motivation. Give yourself a quick reward when you complete an assignment or task. Perhaps you can turn your phone off and only turn it back on once you’ve completed your work. Or reward yourself by taking a walk or getting a snack—whatever works for you. Then move on to the next project.

How can I make studying fun?

There are many ways to make studying fun. For one, you can reward yourself every time you attain a study goal. Did you memorize all of your biology notecards? Time for a slice of pizza. Did you finally hammer down that complicated math equation? Call your friend to talk about it and celebrate.

Probably the most fun way to study is by forming a study group with your friends and classmates. You can bounce ideas off each other and help each other better understand concepts. But be warned: This can be a double-edged sword. If your group doesn’t create a focused and concrete plan for the study session beforehand, you may end up procrastinating more than studying.

How can I stay motivated to complete homework?

Break down your study goals into smaller, more attainable chunks. Instead of panicking over the final page count for a long essay, take on each subtopic in the essay individually, and overcome them one by one.

Another way to stay motivated to complete your homework is to tie a carrot to the end of the stick, so to speak. For example, you can tell yourself, “Once I finish this assignment, and only when I’ve finished this assignment, I can hang out with my friends or play video games.”

Of course, you can also motivate yourself to complete your homework by thinking about how your accomplishment will positively benefit your future. You can think along the lines of, “If I stop procrastinating on this homework assignment and finish it now, I’ll get a better grade in class. If I get a better grade in class, my overall GPA will be higher, and I will look better on my college applications!”

Why do students lose interest in high school?

Students tend to lose interest and motivation in high school for many reasons, including feeling that they're not in a supportive environment, feeling that they’re just going through the motions, or simply feeling burnt out from everything they're doing in their busy lives.

The best way to combat all these negative emotions is to re-spark your love of learning and your motivation to do well. Refer to our five tips for staying motivated in high school when you need help fighting back against discouraging feelings.

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Motivation and Engagement in Student Assignments

When students have the opportunity to attend classes that are engaging, creative, and relatable to their lives, they are more likely to succeed academically. Unfortunately, several new analyses have found that far too many students experience classroom assignments that fail to prepare them for life beyond school.

In a new report , we examined two powerful levers for engaging learners — choice and relevancy — and explored how educators can use these levers to increase student motivation and engagement.

Download the Full Report

“Classroom assignments — the daily tasks we ask our students to do — are a powerful lens for viewing teaching and learning. They reflect how students experience a curriculum and reveal a teacher’s expectations of what students can achieve.”

— Tanji Reed Marshall, Ph.D., senior associate of P-12 practice

Under our current college- and career-ready standards, students are expected to collaborate and demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, all of which require they be actively engaged in their learning. Our findings show that less than 3 percent of middle school math assignments and less than 15 percent of middle school literacy assignments allowed for student choice and relevancy.

In “ Motivation and Engagement in Student Assignments: The Role of Choice and Relevancy ,” we explore how educators can bring choice and relevancy into their daily assignments. The authors explain how choice can and should be provided in terms of content, product, and process.

Teachers bring relevancy to assignments when they:

• Teach rigorous content using themes across disciplines, cultures, and generations; consider essential questions; and explore universal understandings
• Use real-world materials and events to explore salient topics
• Connect with the values, interests, and goals of their students

“In order to increase student motivation and engagement, students should be given meaningful choices in their learning, and tasks should be relevant, using real-world experiences and examples. As they work to motivate and engage students, educators should be cautious about using gimmicks or artificial techniques with unproven results. Rather, they should focus on connecting with students, bridging their known worlds with new concepts and ideas.”

—Joan Dabrowski, Ed.D , assistant superintendent for teaching and learning in the Wellesley Public Schools

There is clearly work to do if we are committed to the idea that student motivation and engagement are important and will lead to improved academic achievement. This begins, first and foremost, with knowing and valuing students.

How to Motivate Students: 12 Classroom Tips & Examples

Inspire. Instill drive. Incite excitement. Stimulate curiosity.

These are all common goals for many educators. However, what can you do if your students lack motivation? How do you light that fire and keep it from burning out?

This article will explain and provide examples of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the classroom. Further, we will provide actionable methods to use right now in your classroom to motivate the difficult to motivate. Let’s get started!

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your students create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

The science of motivation explained, how to motivate students in the classroom, 9 ways teachers can motivate students, encouraging students to ask questions: 3 tips, motivating students in online classes, helpful resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Goal-directed activities are started and sustained by motivation. “Motivational processes are personal/internal influences that lead to outcomes such as choice, effort, persistence, achievement, and environmental regulation” (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is internal to a person.

For example, you may be motivated to achieve satisfactory grades in a foreign language course because you genuinely want to become fluent in the language. Students like this are motivated by their interest, enjoyment, or satisfaction from learning the material.

Not surprisingly, intrinsic motivation is congruous with higher performance and predicts student performance and higher achievement (Ryan & Deci, 2020).

Extrinsic motivation is derived from a more external source and involves a contingent reward (Benabou & Tirole, 2003).

For example, a student may be motivated to achieve satisfactory grades in a foreign language course because they receive a tangible reward or compliments for good grades. Their motivation is fueled by earning external rewards or avoiding punishments. Rewards may even include approval from others, such as parents or teachers.

Self-determination theory addresses the why of behavior and asserts that there are various motivation types that lie on a continuum, including external motivation, internal motivation, and amotivation (Sheehan et al., 2018).

• Relatedness

Student autonomy is the ownership they take of their learning or initiative.

Generate students’ autonomy by involving them in decision-making. Try blended learning, which combines whole class lessons with independent learning. Teach accountability by holding students accountable and modeling and thinking aloud your own accountability.

In addressing competence, students must feel that they can succeed and grow. Assisting students in developing their self-esteem is critical. Help students see their strengths and refer to their strengths often. Promote a kid’s growth mindset .

Relatedness refers to the students’ sense of belonging and connection. Build this by establishing relationships. Facilitate peer connections by using team-building exercises and encouraging collaborative learning. Develop your own relationship with each student. Explore student interests to develop common ground.

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Motivating students while teaching a subject and providing classroom management is definitely a juggling act. Try introducing a few of the suggestions below and see what happens.

Relationships

First and foremost, it is critical to develop relationships with your students. When students begin formal schooling, they need to develop quality relationships, as interpersonal relationships in the school setting influence children’s development and positively impact student outcomes, which includes their motivation to learn, behavior, and cognitive skills (McFarland et al., 2016).

Try administering interest inventories at the beginning of the school year. Make a point to get to know each student and demonstrate your interest by asking them about their weekend, sports game, or other activities they may participate in.

Physical learning environment

Modify the physical learning environment. Who says students need to sit in single-file rows all facing the front of the room or even as desks for that matter?

Flexible seating is something you may want to try. Students who are comfortable in a learning space are better engaged, which leads to more meaningful, impactful learning experiences (Cole et al., 2021). You may try to implement pillows, couches, stools, rocking chairs, rolling chairs, bouncing chairs, or even no chairs at all.

Include parents

Involve parents and solicit their aid to help encourage students. Parents are a key factor in students’ motivation (Tóth-Király et al., 2022).

It is important to develop your relationship with these crucial allies. Try making positive phone calls home prior to the negative phone calls to help build an effective relationship. Involve parents by sending home a weekly newsletter or by inviting them into your classroom for special events. Inform them that you are a team and have the same goals for their child.

The relevance of the material is critical for instilling motivation. Demonstrating why the material is useful or tying the material directly to students’ lives is necessary for obtaining student interest.

It would come as no surprise that if a foreign language learner is not using relevant material, it will take longer for that student to acquire the language and achieve their goals (Shatz, 2014). If students do not understand the importance or real-world application for what they are learning, they may not be motivated to learn.

Student-centered learning

Student-centered learning approaches have been proven to be more effective than teacher-centered teaching approaches (Peled et al., 2022).

A student-centered approach engages students in the learning process, whereas a teacher-centered approach involves the teacher delivering the majority of the information. This type of teaching requires students to construct meaning from new information and prior experience.

Give students autonomy and ownership of what they learn. Try enlisting students as the directors of their own learning and assign project-based learning activities.

Find additional ways to integrate technology. Talk less and encourage the students to talk more. Involving students in decision-making and providing them opportunities to lead are conducive to a student-centered learning environment.

Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning is definitely a strategy to implement in the classroom. There are both cognitive and motivational benefits to collaborative learning (Järvelä et al., 2010), and social learning theory is a critical lens with which to examine motivation in the classroom.

You may try assigning group or partner work where students work together on a common task. This is also known as cooperative learning. You may want to offer opportunities for both partner and small group work. Allowing students to choose their partners or groups and assigning partners or groups should also be considered.

Alternative answering

Have you ever had a difficult time getting students to answer your questions? Who says students need to answer verbally? Try using alternative answering methods, such as individual whiteboards, personal response systems such as “clickers,” or student response games such as Kahoot!

Quizlet is also an effective method for obtaining students’ answers (Setiawan & Wiedarti, 2020). Using these tools allows every student to participate, even the timid students, and allows the teacher to perform a class-wide formative assessment on all students.

New teaching methods

Vary your teaching methods. If you have become bored with the lessons you are delivering, it’s likely that students have also become bored.

Try new teaching activities, such as inviting a guest speaker to your classroom or by implementing debates and role-play into your lessons. Teacher and student enjoyment in the classroom are positively linked, and teachers’ displayed enthusiasm affects teacher and student enjoyment (Frenzel et al., 2009).

Perhaps check out our article on teacher burnout to reignite your spark in the classroom. If you are not enjoying yourself, your students aren’t likely to either.

Aside from encouraging students to answer teacher questions, prompting students to ask their own questions can also be a challenge.

When students ask questions, they demonstrate they are thinking about their learning and are engaged. Further, they are actively filling the gaps in their knowledge. Doğan and Yücel-Toy (2020, p. 2237) posit:

“The process of asking questions helps students understand the new topic, realize others’ ideas, evaluate their own progress, monitor learning processes, and increase their motivation and interest on the topic by arousing curiosity.”

Student-created questions are critical to an effective learning environment. Below are a few tips to help motivate students to ask questions.

Instill confidence and a safe environment

Students need to feel safe in their classrooms. A teacher can foster this environment by setting clear expectations of respect between students. Involve students in creating a classroom contract or norms.

Refer to your classroom’s posted contract or norms periodically to review student expectations. Address any deviation from these agreements and praise students often. Acknowledge all students’ responses, no matter how wild or off-topic they may be.

Graphic organizers

Provide students with graphic organizers such as a KWL chart. The KWL chart helps students organize what they already Know , what they Want to learn, and what they Learned .

Tools such as these will allow students to process their thinking and grant them time to generate constructive questions. Referring to this chart will allow more timid students to share their questions.

Although intrinsic motivation is preferred (Ryan & Deci, 2020), incentives should also be used when appropriate. Token systems, where students can exchange points for items, are an effective method for improving learning and positively affecting student behavior (Homer et al., 2018).

Tangible and intangible incentives may be used to motivate students if they have not developed intrinsic motivation. Intangible items may include lunch with the teacher, a coupon to only complete half of an assignment, or a show-and-tell session. Of course, a good old-fashioned treasure box may help as well.

If students are unwilling to ask questions in front of the class, try implementing a large poster paper where students are encouraged to use sticky notes to write down their questions. Teachers may refer to the questions and answer them at a separate time. This practice is called a “parking lot.” Also, consider allowing students to share questions in small groups or with partners.

Student motivation: how to motivate students to learn

Just as in the face-to-face setting, relationships are crucial for online student motivation as well. Build relationships by getting to know your students’ interests. Determining student interests will also be key in the virtual environment.

Try incorporating a show-and-tell opportunity where students can display and talk about objects from around their home that are important to them. Peer-to-peer relationships should also be encouraged, and accomplishing this feat in an online class can be difficult. Here is a resource you can use to help plan team-building activities to bring your students together.

Game-based response systems such as Kahoot! may increase motivation. These tools use gamification to encourage motivation and engagement.

Incentives may also be used in the computer-based setting. Many schools have opted to use Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Rewards . This curriculum nurtures a positive school culture and aims to improve student behavior. Points are earned by students meeting expectations and can be exchanged for items in an online store.

To further develop strong relationships with students and parents, remark on the relevancy of the materials and instill a student-centered learning approach that addresses autonomy. You may also wish to include alternative means of answering questions, vary your teaching methods, and implement collaborative learning.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

We have many useful articles and worksheets you can use with your students. To get an excellent start on the foundations of motivation, we recommend our article What Is Motivation? A Psychologist Explains .

If you’re curious about intrinsic motivation, you may be interested in What Is Intrinsic Motivation? 10 Examples and Factors Explained . And if you wish to learn more about extrinsic motivation, What Is Extrinsic Motivation? 9 Everyday Examples and Activities may be of interest to you.

Perhaps using kids’ reward coupons such as these may help increase motivation. Teachers could modify the coupons to fit their classroom or share these exact coupons with parents at parent–teacher conferences to reinforce children’s efforts at school .

For some students, coloring is an enjoyable and creative outlet. Try using a coloring sheet such as this Decorating Cookies worksheet for when students complete their work or as a reward for good behavior.

These 17 Motivation and Goal Achievement Exercises were designed for professionals to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques. You can consider these exercises to better understand your own motivation or tweak some activities for younger learners.

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”

C. S. Lewis

While we know how challenging it is to motivate students while teaching our specific subjects and attending to classroom management, we also understand the importance of motivation.

You will have some students enter your classroom with unequivocally developed intrinsic motivation, and you will have students enter your classroom with absolutely no motivation.

Teachers have to be able to teach everyone who walks into their classroom and incite motivation in those who have no motivation at all. Motivating the difficult to motivate is challenging; however, it can be done.

As Plutarch asserted, it is better to think of education as “a fire to be kindled” as opposed to “a vessel to be filled.” In addressing the needs of students with little to no motivation, it will take more time, patience, and understanding; however, implementing a few of these strategies will put you on the fast track to lighting that fire.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

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• Setiawan, M. R., & Wiedarti, P. (2020). The effectiveness of Quizlet application towards students’ motivation in learning vocabulary. Studies in English Language and Education , 7 (1), 83–95.
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Intrinsic Motivation: How Internal Rewards Drive Behavior

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Illustration by Joshua Seong. © Verywell, 2018.

How Intrinsic Motivation Works

• Extrinsic Reinforcement
• Importance in Daily Life
• Influential Factors
• Potential Pitfalls

Intrinsic motivation is defined as the motivation to engage in a behavior because of the inherent satisfaction of the activity rather than the desire for a reward or specific outcome. According to "Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior With Concept Maps," intrinsic motivation occurs when we act without any obvious external rewards: "We simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potentials."

The three main elements of intrinsic motivation are autonomy, purpose, and mastery. People are intrinsically motivated when they can act independently, feel that their efforts matter, and gain satisfaction from becoming more skilled.

Intrinsic motivation can be contrasted with extrinsic motivation , which involves engaging in a behavior to earn external rewards or avoid punishment .

Is It Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation?

What are examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Consider for a moment your motivation for reading this article. If you are reading it because you have an interest in psychology and simply want to know more about the topic of motivation, then you are acting based upon intrinsic motivation.

If you are reading this article because you have to learn the information for a class and want to avoid getting a bad grade, then you are acting based on extrinsic motivation .

When was the last time you did something simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself? There are a number of activities that fall into this category. For instance, you may plant a garden, paint a picture, play a game, write a story, take a walk, or read a book. These may or may not produce something or provide a prize. Instead, we do them because we like to. They make us happy.

When you pursue an activity for the pure enjoyment of it, you are doing so because you are intrinsically motivated. Your motivations for engaging in the behavior arise entirely from within rather than out of a desire to gain some type of external reward, such as prizes, money, or acclaim.

Of course, that isn't to say that intrinsically motivated behaviors do not come with their own rewards. These rewards involve creating positive emotions within the individual.

Activities can generate such feelings when they give you a sense of meaning, like participating in volunteer or church events. They may also give you a sense of progress when you see that your work is accomplishing something positive, or competence when you learn something new or become more skilled at a task.

Impact of Extrinsic Reinforcement

Researchers have discovered that offering external rewards or reinforcements for an already internally rewarding activity can actually make the activity less intrinsically rewarding. This phenomenon is known as the overjustification effect .

"A person's intrinsic enjoyment of an activity provides sufficient justification for their behavior," explains author Richard A. Griggs in his book "Psychology: A Concise Introduction."

"With the addition of extrinsic reinforcement, " Griggs writes, "the person may perceive the task as overjustified and then attempt to understand their true motivation (extrinsic versus intrinsic) for engaging in the activity."

People tend to be more creative when they are intrinsically motivated.

In work settings, for instance, productivity can be increased by using extrinsic rewards such as a bonus. However, the actual quality of the work performed is influenced by intrinsic factors. If you are doing something that you find rewarding, interesting, and challenging, you are more likely to come up with novel ideas and creative solutions.

Intrinsic Motivation in Your Life

Intrinsic motivation can drive behavior in all aspects of life, particularly in education, sports, careers, and personal pursuits.

In Education

Intrinsic motivation is an important topic in education. Teachers and instructional designers strive to develop learning environments that are intrinsically rewarding. Unfortunately, many traditional paradigms suggest that most students find learning boring, so they must be extrinsically goaded into educational activities.

In a book chapter called "Making Learning Fun: A Taxonomy of Intrinsic Motivations for Learning," authors Thomas Malone and Mark Leeper suggest that this does not need to be the case. They identify several different ways to create learning environments that are intrinsically rewarding.

An activity is intrinsically motivating if "people engage in it for its own sake, rather than in order to receive some external reward or avoid some external punishment." The words fun, interesting, captivating, enjoyable, and intrinsically motivating are used interchangeably to describe such activities.

In Personal Pursuits

Examples of intrinsic motivation in daily life abound. If you participate in a sport because you enjoy it rather than to win awards or competitions, you're responding to intrinsic motivation.

Another example: You try to do your best at work because your tasks and mission provide fulfillment and satisfaction, regardless of extrinsic factors such as pay and benefits.

Perhaps you maintain a beautiful garden because you enjoy planting it and watching it grow, not because the neighbors would complain if your yard were messy. Or, maybe you dress stylishly as a way to express yourself and your interest in fashion, rather than to garner attention. Whenever you do something "just for you," you're responding to intrinsic motivation.

Factors That Influence Intrinsic Motivation

Malone and Leeper identify these factors as increasing intrinsic motivation:

• Challenge : People are more motivated when they pursue goals with personal meaning and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain. These goals may also relate to their self-esteem when performance feedback is available.
• Control : People want control over themselves and their environments and want to determine what they pursue.
• Cooperation and competition : Intrinsic motivation can be increased in situations where people gain satisfaction from helping others. It also applies to cases where they can compare their performance favorably to that of others.
• Curiosity : Internal motivation is increased when something in the physical environment grabs the individual's attention (sensory curiosity). It also occurs when something about the activity stimulates the person to want to learn more (cognitive curiosity).
• Recognition : People enjoy having their accomplishments recognized by others, which can increase internal motivation.

Potential Pitfalls Affecting Intrinsic Motivation

Experts have noted that offering unnecessary rewards can have unexpected costs. While we like to think that offering a reward will improve a person's motivation , interest, and performance, this isn't always the case.

When children are rewarded for playing with toys that they already enjoy playing with, their enjoyment of those toys, and their motivation to continue playing with them, actually decreases.

It is important to note, however, that a number of factors can influence whether intrinsic motivation is increased or decreased by external rewards. Salience or the significance of the event itself often plays a critical role.

An athlete competing in a sporting event might view the winner's prize as confirmation of competence and exceptionalism. On the other hand, some athletes might view the same prize as a sort of bribe or coercion.

The way in which the individual views the importance of different characteristics of the event impacts whether the reward will affect their intrinsic motivation for participating in that activity.

In your own life, there are probably many things you do which are prompted by intrinsic motivation. These are important elements for a well-balanced life. If we spend all of our time working to make money, we may miss out on the simple pleasures of life. Realizing your own intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and balancing them can be quite rewarding.

Coon D, Mitterer JO. Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior With Concept Maps . Wadsworth.

Pink DH.  Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us . Reprint, paperback ed. Riverhead Books; 2012.

Levy A, DeLeon IG, Martinez CK, et al. A quantitative review of overjustification effects in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.   J Appl Behav Anal . 2017;50(2):206–221. doi:10.1002/jaba.359

Griggs RA. Psychology: A Concise Introduction. 3rd ed . Worth Publishers.

Malone TW, Lepper MR. Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning . In: Snow RE, Farr MJ, ed. Aptitude, Learning, and Instruction: Iii. Conative and Affective Process Analysis . Erlbaum.

Boedecker J, Lampe T, Riedmiller M. Modeling effects of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on the competition between striatal learning systems .  Front Psychol . 2013;4:739. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00739

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Resources: Course Assignments

Assignment: Motivation and Emotion

Theories of emotion.

STEP 1 : Using a stimulus of your choosing (not one found in your text) demonstrate the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer, and cognitive-mediational theories of emotion. Describe each in just a few sentences.

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• Theories of Emotion Assignment. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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6.9: Assignment- Motivation in the Workplace

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In a meeting with members of Informational Systems operations area, you ask middle managers about the recent sub-par performance in the department and their thoughts about the reasons behind it. They state that their performance goals are set too high, with the vast majority of their employees missing their individual targets across the board.

In your education and training to be an organizational behavior consultant, you studied various needs-based motivational theories:

• Maslow’s hierarchy and the five categories of basic human needs
• The ERG theory which compressed Maslow’ five categories to three;
• The Two-Factor theory, which describes factors that either motivate people or make them dissatisfied
• The Acquired-Needs model, which describes stable and dominant characteristics in human beings that drive behavior

Which of the motivational theory/theories do you think is best for describing human behavior in the workplace? Based on that, how would you construct a work environment using reward strategies, work-life balance considerations, and other approaches outlined in the module?

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Contributors and attributions.

• Assignment: Motivation in the Workplace. Authored by : Robert Danielson. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

The Effect of Mindset Interventions on Stress and Academic Motivation in College Students

• Open access
• Published: 10 April 2024

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• Heidi H. Meyer 1 &
• Lauren A. Stutts   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5014-1907 1  

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Stress levels are high among college students in the United States. Growth mindset and stress-is-enhancing mindset interventions offer ways to reduce stress, but minimal research has examined them. This study’s aim was to examine the effect of mindset interventions on mindsets, stress, academic motivation, and responses to hypothetical academic scenarios. Participants included 210 college students who were randomized to one of four groups: growth mindset (intelligence is malleable), stress mindset (stress is beneficial), synergistic (intelligence is malleable, and stress is beneficial), or control (brain functions). The growth mindset and the synergistic mindset group increased in growth mindset, and the growth mindset group had higher growth mindset than the stress mindset and control group post-intervention. The stress mindset and the synergistic group increased in stress-is-enhancing mindset, and both groups had higher stress-is-enhancing mindsets than the growth mindset and control group post-intervention. All groups decreased in stress and increased in academic motivation. The synergistic group was the only group to improve on all the main outcomes, and students in this group were less likely to want to withdraw from a course in both negative hypothetical academic scenarios (if they failed an assignment or were faced with a professor with a fixed mindset). Our findings suggest that students would benefit from increased access to mindset interventions.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

The American College Health Association ( 2022 ) reported that approximately 50% of college students in the United States (U.S.) reported experiencing a moderate level of stress, and approximately 30% of students reported experiencing a high level of stress. Stress has been found to be strongly associated with psychological disorders (e.g., depression) and suicidality in college students (Liu et al., 2019 ). Therefore, it is critical to examine what factors are related to stress and how stress can be reduced.

One key factor that influences stress and resilience is one’s mindset (Yeager & Dweck, 2012 ). Mindsets are defined as one’s implicit theories about the flexibility of characteristics such as intelligence. There are two main types of mindsets regarding intelligence: growth and fixed (Dweck & Leggett, 1988 ). A growth mindset believes intelligence can be improved through effort, while a fixed mindset believes that intelligence is set and cannot change despite someone’s effort. Individuals are theorized to be on a continuum between these two mindsets. A meta-analysis found that growth mindsets are negatively correlated with psychological distress and positively correlated with active coping (Burnette et al., 2020 ). This association may be because a growth mindset buffers against maladaptive cognitions that can lead to maladaptive coping and/or adverse psychological outcomes.

A growth mindset is a skill that can be learned through interventions. For example, Smith and Capuzzi ( 2019 ) examined the effect of a single-session growth mindset intervention on anxiety and grades for U.S. college students in a statistics class (Smith & Capuzzi, 2019 ). They randomly assigned students to either a growth mindset intervention (e.g., a 75-minute interactive class session with exercises) or a control group (no intervention). They measured the students’ mindset and anxiety level at baseline and six months after completing the intervention. They found that students in the intervention group had an increased growth mindset, whereas mindset did not change in the control group. While they did not find significant changes in anxiety in either group, they found that a higher growth mindset was associated with lower anxiety and a higher course grade. Another study found that a single-session growth mindset intervention reduced depressive symptoms in U.S. adolescent girls four months after the intervention (Heaman et al., 2023 ).

Furthermore, a growth mindset is related to positive educational outcomes. A meta-analysis across 10 studies concluded that teaching students about a growth mindset increases their motivation and achievement (Sarrasin et al., 2018 ). For example, one study randomized adolescents in the U.S. to a growth mindset group (8-session intervention with information about the brain and growth mindset) or a control group (8-session intervention with information about the brain) (Blackwell et al., 2007 ). Students in the growth mindset group had significantly more positive change in classroom motivation three weeks after the intervention than the control group.

While a growth mindset is associated with lower stress (Burnette et al., 2020 ), two mindsets directly related to stress have been studied as well: stress-is-enhancing and stress-is-debilitating (Crum et al., 2013 ). A stress-is-enhancing mindset views stress as beneficial, whereas a stress-is-debilitating mindset views stress as harmful (Crum et al., 2013 ). Similar to growth and fixed mindsets, individuals are thought to be on a continuum between these two mindsets. Keech et al. ( 2018 ) found that having a stress-is-enhancing mindset was negatively correlated with perceived stress and was positively correlated with proactive behavior. Another study found that a stress-is-enhancing mindset served as a moderator between perceived stress and depressive symptoms in U.S. college students (Huebschmann & Sheets, 2020 ). The stress mindset is theorized to be beneficial in part because it changes how one psychologically experiences stress and how one behaviorally copes with stress (Crum et al., 2013 ).

Similar to a growth mindset, a stress-is-enhancing mindset can be developed through interventions. For example, one study with Australian university students found significant benefits of a stress mindset intervention (Keech et al., 2021 ). Students were randomized to one of two groups: an intervention group who watched videos about the consequences and benefits of stress and completed mental imagery tasks applying the benefits of stress in their own lives (one session of an unspecified length of time), or a control group who completed a mental imagery task unrelated to reframing stress. Two weeks after the intervention, the intervention group increased in stress-is-enhancing mindset from pre- to post-intervention and had a higher stress-is-enhancing mindset than the control group. In participants with high perceived stress, those in the intervention group also had lower distress and more proactive behavior than the control group. Another study using college students in the U.K. found that short videos about the stress-is-enhancing mindset was effective in increasing the stress-is-enhancing mindset immediately after the intervention (Williams & Ginty, 2023 ). However, no previous studies to our knowledge have examined the effect of a stress-is-enhancing intervention on academic motivation.

Yeager et al. ( 2022 ) proposed a mindset that combines the growth mindset and stress-is-enhancing mindset, which they called a synergistic mindset. They created a single-session 30-minute online module that contained information and exercises related to improving both mindsets. In a sample of U.S. college students, they found that this synergistic mindset intervention was more effective than a growth mindset intervention alone, a stress-is-enhancing mindset intervention alone, or a control intervention (learned about brain functions) in reducing cardiovascular reactivity when experiencing a social stressor shortly after the intervention (Yeager et al., 2022 ). In another sample of college students who received the intervention, they found that students made less negative stress appraisals about a quiz one to three days after the intervention and three weeks afterward (Yeager et al., 2022 ).

Having single-session interventions can be valuable as they are time- and cost-effective, but it’s important that they have lasting effects. A meta-analysis on single-session interventions on psychiatric problems in adolescents found that the interventions had the highest effect size for lasting effects on anxiety, which is similar to the present study’s focus on stress in young adults (Schleider & Weisz, 2017 ). Another study specifically examined the longitudinal effects of a single-session synergistic mindset intervention (Hecht et al., 2023 ). At the beginning of the semester, U.S. college students were randomly assigned to receive a 30-minute synergistic mindset or a control intervention (lesson about the brain). Subsequently, half of the students in each group received four 5-minute supportive messages related to the synergistic mindset whereas the other half received 5-minute neutral messages about assessing their learning progress periodically over the remainder of the semester (15-week semester). They found that the synergistic mindset intervention was effective in reducing fixed mindset beliefs and increasing stress-is-enhancing beliefs immediately after the intervention and at 3-weeks post-intervention similar to previous findings (Yeager et al., 2022 ); however, they found that receiving brief continued supportive messages made the initial intervention’s effects stronger over time (Hecht et al., 2023 ). Overall, single-session interventions are promising low-cost, accessible options that need further exploration.

Present Study

The present study is novel in two main ways. First, we examined the impact of mindset interventions on academic motivation and on responses to hypothetical academic scenarios to examine how mindsets could affect one’s potential behaviors, which has not been explored previously to our knowledge. Second, we assessed the efficacy of a shorter and simpler intervention (5 to 10 min) than was used previously (Yeager et al., 2022 ), which could make the intervention even more accessible for students.

Our main study aim was to assess the effect of mindset interventions on growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, stress, and academic motivation. We randomly assigned participants to one of four groups: growth mindset, stress mindset, synergistic mindset, or control. Participants’ growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, stress, and academic motivation were measured before and after the intervention. We hypothesized that the synergistic group would have increased growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, and academic motivation, and decreased stress from pre- to post-intervention. We also predicted that the synergistic group would have lower stress and higher academic motivation post-intervention compared to the other groups. In contrast, we predicted that the control group would have lower growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, and academic motivation and higher stress compared to the other groups post-intervention. Our second aim was to assess the effect of mindset interventions on responses to hypothetical academic scenarios to examine how mindsets could affect one’s potential behaviors. We did not create hypotheses for the second aim as it was exploratory.

Participants

Any currently enrolled students at a southeastern college who were at least 18 years of age were eligible to participate in the study. According to a G*power analysis using an effect size f 2 of 0.25, a power level of 0.80, and a significance value of 0.05, 136 participants were required for the main analysis (2 × 4 mixed ANOVA) to have sufficient statistical power (Faul et al., 2009 ). Although 272 participants began the survey and provided consent, we removed data from 62 participants because they stopped the study before finishing the pre-post measures ( n  = 58), or they did not follow the instructions in their written responses ( n  = 4). The majority of individuals who stopped early quit on the first survey ( n  = 26) or during the intervention ( n  = 21). There was not a clear trend that one intervention resulted in more drop-out than others ( n  = 4 growth mindset; n  = 4 synergistic; n  = 6 stress-is-enhancing mindset; n  = 7 control group. Our final sample contained 210 participants, which was sufficient for our analyses.

We received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the college and collected data in January 2023 online. Participants were recruited through a campus-wide email. After indicating consent, participants completed a baseline stress scale. Next, they completed measures of growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, state stress, and academic motivation. Subsequently, they were randomly assigned to one of four groups: growth mindset, stress mindset, synergistic mindset, or control. All groups completed three activities designed to shift their mindset to the group they were assigned. After completing the activities, participants completed the same assessments of growth mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, state stress, and academic motivation. Subsequently, participants responded to behavioral questions about hypothetical academic scenarios. Finally, participants completed demographic information. The study took approximately 17 min, and each participant was compensated with a $10 Amazon gift card.

Group Interventions

Our interventions were modeled after Yeager et al. ( 2022 ) but were adapted to be shorter and simpler. Each group first read research on their assigned mindset. The growth mindset group read about the malleability of the brain. The stress mindset group read about the adaptive purposes of stress. The synergistic mindset group read about both of those topics, and the control group read about the functional areas of the brain. Each group then read practical strategies about how to implement the mindsets in their life. Next, participants read an example story about how a student applied the assigned mindset to an academic challenge. Finally, participants were asked to write a short paragraph about how they planned to use a similar mindset and strategies on a future academic setback/challenge. They were prompted to write at least 500 characters (100 words). Each group’s procedure is detailed in the Supplemental Materials.

Baseline Stress

Baseline stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale, which asked participants questions to rate their stress levels over the past month (Cohen et al., 1983 ). Participants rated 10 items (e.g., “In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?”) on a scale from 0 ( never ) to 4 ( very often ). After reverse scoring the necessary items, a total score was calculated. The possible total score ranged from 0 to 40, with higher scores representing more stress. Cronbach’s α was 0.86.

Pre-Post Measures

Growth mindset.

The Growth Mindset Scale assessed whether participants believe they can learn and improve (Dweck et al., 1995 ). Participants indicated their agreement with three items (e.g., “You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really change it”) on a Likert scale from 1 ( strongly agree ) to 6 ( strongly disagree ). Items were reverse-scored and averaged; higher scores indicated a higher growth mindset. Cronbach’s α was 0.88 for pre- and post-intervention.

Stress Mindset

The Stress Mindset Measure assessed whether participants view stress as enhancing or debilitating (Crum et al., 2013 ). Participants indicated their agreement to eight items (e.g., “Experiencing stress facilitates my learning and growth”) on a Likert scale from 0 ( strongly disagree ) to 4 ( strongly agree ). Scores were averaged, and higher scores indicated a higher stress-is-enhancing mindset. Cronbach’s α was 0.83 for pre-intervention and 0.88 for post-intervention.

State Stress

State stress was measured through a visual analog scale where participants indicated how much they felt stress currently from 0 ( not at all ) to 100 ( extremely ).

Academic Motivation

Academic motivation was measured through a visual analog scale where participants indicated how motivated they felt to complete their coursework currently from 0 ( not at all ) to 100 ( extremely ).

Academic Scenarios

Participants read and responded to three hypothetical academic scenarios. The first scenario involved failing an assignment: “Imagine you fail the first assignment of the semester after completing the work and trying your best.” The second scenario included a professor’s fixed mindset response: “Imagine that you talk to the professor about your failed assignment. Your professor tries to make you feel better by telling you that this subject is hard and isn’t for everyone.” The third scenario demonstrated a professor’s growth mindset response: “Imagine that you talk to the professor about your failed assignment. Your professor tries to make you feel better by telling you that they will help you, and they believe in your ability to improve.” In each scenario, participants were asked to rate how much they would want to withdraw from the course if they could on a visual analogue scale from 0 ( not at all ) to 100 ( extremely ).

Demographic Questions

Participants reported their age, gender, race, ethnicity, and class year.

Manipulation Check

We examined all the written responses to the interventions to make sure they followed instructions of their group assignment. We removed four individuals for not following those instructions.

Statistical Analyses

SPSS version 28 was used for all analyses. Descriptive statistics and reliability analyses were calculated for all main variables. Chi-squared analyses were conducted to assess if there were differences in demographic variables among the four groups. A one-way (group) ANOVA was conducted for baseline stress to determine any baseline differences among the four groups. For aim 1, we conducted 2 (time) x 4 (group) mixed ANOVAs on growth-mindset, stress-is-enhancing mindset, stress, and academic motivation. For aim 2, we conducted one-way between-subjects (4 groups) ANOVAs on desire to withdraw from a course based on three hypothetical scenarios. Post-hoc tests using Bonferroni were conducted to determine where the significant differences occurred.

Descriptive Statistics of Participants

Descriptive statistics including gender, race, ethnicity, class year, and age for participants are displayed in Table  1 . Most participants were White, non-Hispanic/Latinx women. The mean age of participants was 20 years old and ranged from 18 to 22. There were no significant differences by demographic variables among the four groups (Table  1 ).

There was a significant interaction between time and group for growth mindset, F (3, 206) = 10.65, p  < .001, η p 2  = 0.13 (Fig.  1 ). Growth mindset significantly increased from pre-intervention ( M  = 4.21, SD  = 1.05) to post-intervention ( M  = 4.67, SD  = 1.06) in the synergistic group, p  < .001. Additionally, growth mindset significantly increased from pre-intervention ( M  = 4.14, SD  = 1.05) to post-intervention ( M  = 4.78, SD  = 1.07) in the growth mindset group, p  < .001. At post-intervention, the growth mindset group ( M  = 4.78, SD  = 1.07) had significantly higher growth mindset than the control group ( M  = 4.18, SD  = 1.06), p  = .028, and the stress mindset group ( M  = 4.22, SD  = 1.06), p  = .048.

Growth Mindset by Group and Time. Note. Vertical axis was abridged for clarity. The bracket indicates there is a significant difference between the growth mindset group and the stress mindset and control group. Error bars represent standard error. * p  < .05

Stress-is-Enhancing Mindset

There was a significant interaction between time and group for stress-is-enhancing mindset, F (3, 206) = 17.74, p  < .001, η p 2  = 0.21 (Fig.  2 ). Stress-is-enhancing mindset significantly increased from pre-intervention ( M  = 1.76, SD  = 0.67) to post-intervention ( M  = 2.18, SD  = 0.66) in the synergistic group, p  < .001. Additionally, stress-is-enhancing mindset significantly increased from pre-intervention ( M  = 1.72, SD  = 0.65) to post-intervention ( M  = 2.25, SD  = 0.63) in the stress mindset group, p  < .001. At post-intervention, the synergistic group ( M  = 2.18, SD  = 0.69) had significantly higher stress-is-enhancing mindset than the control group ( M  = 1.82, SD  = 0.69), p  = .048, and the growth mindset group ( M  = 1.73, SD  = 0.69), p  = .005. Also at post-intervention, the stress mindset group ( M  = 2.25, SD  = 0.69) had significantly higher stress-is-enhancing mindset than the control group ( M  = 1.82, SD  = 0.69), p  = .011, and the growth mindset group ( M  = 1.73, SD  = 0.69), p  < .001.

Stress Mindset by Group and Time. Note. Vertical axis was abridged for clarity. The bracket indicates there is a significant difference between both the synergistic and stress mindset group and the growth mindset and control group. Error bars represent standard error. * p  < .01

There was a significant main effect by time, F (1, 206) = 21.80, p  < .001, η p 2  = 0.10, such that stress decreased across all groups from pre-exposure ( M  = 46.41, SD  = 23.59) to post-exposure ( M  = 41.76, SD  = 25.04), p  < .001 (Fig.  3 ). However, there was not a significant main effect by group, F (3, 206) = 0.37, p  = .77, η p 2  = 0.005, or a significant interaction by time and group, F (3, 206) = 1.42, p  = .24, η p 2  = 0.02.

Stress by Group and Time. Note. Vertical axis was abridged for clarity. Error bars represent standard error. * p  < .01

There was a significant main effect by time, F (1, 206) = 13.74, p  < .001, η p 2  = 0.063, such that academic motivation increased across all groups from pre-exposure ( M  = 51.74, SD  = 25.94) to post-exposure ( M  = 55.19, SD  = 25.98) (Fig.  4 ). However, there was not a significant main effect by group, F (3, 206) = 0.31, p  = .82, η p 2  = 0.004, or a significant interaction by time and group, F (3, 206) = 0.05, p  = .99, η p 2  = 0.001.

Academic Motivation by Group and Time. Note. Vertical axis was abridged for clarity. Error bars represent standard error. * p  < .01

There was a significant main effect for group about wanting to withdraw from a course if they could when they failed the first assignment after trying their best, F (3, 206) = 5.99, p  < .001, η p 2  = 0.08. The synergistic group ( M  = 40.54, SD  = 33.60) had a significantly lower likelihood of wanting to withdraw from the course compared to the control group ( M  = 67.15, SD  = 33.59), p  < .001. In addition, the stress mindset group ( M  = 46.22, SD  = 33.64) had a significantly lower likelihood of wanting to withdraw from the course compared to the control group ( M  = 67.15, SD  = 33.59), p  = .01.

There was also a significant main effect for group about wanting to withdraw when participants were faced with a professor with a fixed mindset, F (3, 206) = 2.88, p  = .037, η p 2  = 0.04. Participants in the synergistic group ( M  = 51.37, SD  = 35.52) were significantly less likely to want to withdraw from the course than those in the control group ( M  = 71.48, SD  = 35.57), p  = .03. When a professor had a growth mindset, participants did not differ significantly in their likelihood to want to withdraw from the course based on their mindset group, F (3, 206) = 1.08, p  = .36, η p 2  = 0.02.

This study’s main aim was to examine the effect of mindset interventions on mindsets, state stress, and academic motivation. Our hypotheses were partially supported. Each mindset intervention improved mindsets as intended. In addition, state stress decreased, and academic motivation increased from pre- to post-intervention in the mindset groups as predicted, but we did not predict that state stress would decrease and academic motivation would increase in the control group as well. In addition, we did not find that the synergistic group had better outcomes compared to the other three groups for stress and academic motivation. The study’s second aim was to examine the effect of the mindset interventions on hypothetical academic scenarios. We found that students in the synergistic group were the only students who were less likely to want to withdraw from a course in both negative hypothetical academic scenarios (if they failed an assignment or were faced with a professor with a fixed mindset), suggesting the benefits of the synergistic mindset.

Our results showed that the growth mindset intervention (in both the growth mindset group and synergistic group) was successful in increasing a growth mindset. This finding aligns with previous research (Smith & Capuzzi, 2019 ). However, our study also found that the growth mindset intervention reduced stress, whereas Smith and Capuzzi ( 2019 ) did not find a change in anxiety, though they found a negative relationship between growth mindset and anxiety. Perhaps the difference in the construct of anxiety versus stress and the different measures used in those studies played a role in those varying results. However, our study’s intervention was notably shorter (5 to 10 min) than Smith and Capuzzi’s ( 2019 ) 75-minute intervention, which suggests that a growth mindset can be induced more efficiently. Moreover, we found that the growth mindset intervention increased academic motivation, which parallels previous research (Blackwell et al., 2007 ; Sarrasin et al., 2018 ). That said, it is important to note that while participants in the growth mindset group had significantly higher growth mindset than the control group, there were not differences between the groups for stress and academic motivation, indicating a lack of treatment effect for those variables. That lack of difference may be because those variables were more distal outcomes. A meta-analysis found that the largest effects for growth mindset interventions are on more proximal outcomes such as mindset than more distal outcomes such as psychological health (Burnette et al., 2023 ).

Similarly, we found that the stress mindset intervention (in both the stress mindset group and synergistic group) was successful in increasing a stress-is-enhancing mindset. This finding is in concert with previous research (Keech et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, we found that stress decreased in those groups, whereas Keech et al. ( 2021 ) only found decreased stress in participants who had overall higher stress than the other participants. Our sample had high averages of baseline stress across all groups, which may be why we found an overall difference for everyone. We also found that the stress mindset intervention increased academic motivation, which has not been studied previously to our knowledge. Perhaps rethinking academic stress reminded students of the benefits of learning rather than viewing it as threatening, which may have led to an increased desire to complete academic work. However, similar to growth mindset, we only found differences between the stress mindset group and the control group for the proximal outcome of stress-is-enhancing mindset, which indicates there was not a treatment effect for stress and academic motivation.

The control group did not change in growth mindset or stress-is-enhancing mindset over time, which aligns with expectations. Surprisingly, though, the control group had decreased stress and increased academic motivation after learning about the brain, despite us using a similar control group design as Yeager et al. ( 2022 ). It is possible that learning about the function of different brain parts and writing about them led to increased feelings of appreciation of one’s brain. Completing this activity also served as a break from their academic work, which may also have led to students feeling less stressed and more energized for their work.

While the synergistic group was the only group to have improvements in all four outcomes, the synergistic group did not show significantly better results in stress reduction and academic motivation than the other groups. Therefore, it appears that learning about both mindsets does not necessarily have additive effects as they potentially affect stress and academic motivation in a similar way. However, the mechanisms of how those mindsets are related to different outcomes needs to be explored further.

For our second aim, we found that the interventions affected projected behavioral responses to hypothetical academic scenarios. The synergistic and stress mindset groups were significantly less likely to want to withdraw from a course compared to the control group when faced with failing the first assignment in a course after trying their best. Perhaps they were applying what they learned and practiced in the intervention to view the failure as a challenge rather than a stressor.

In addition, participants in the synergistic group were less likely to want to withdraw from a course compared to the control group when faced with a professor who expressed a fixed mindset. This finding is in line with previous research that shows that a professor’s mindset can affect students’ course engagement and dropout intentions (Muenks et al., 2020 ). The synergistic group may have applied both ideas from the growth mindset and stress mindset intervention; they may have trusted their own mindset rather than the professor’s mindset and reframed the situation as a challenge rather than a stressor. These behavioral responses suggest that the synergistic group may confer benefits above and beyond the single mindset groups.

Our sample had multiple limitations regarding participants. For example, the sample was mostly white, educated women, which limits the generalizability of our findings. The demographics of this study’s sample also could have influenced the familiarity of participants with the concepts taught. For example, the concept of a growth mindset is now commonly taught in many college courses, especially psychology courses. Therefore, participants may have already been aware of some of the research about mindsets.

Furthermore, the intervention was limited in several ways. We do not know if participants read and absorbed each piece of information. In addition, twenty-one participants quit the study during the intervention, which could indicate that they were not interested in it or engaged with it. There was not a clear difference in drop-out across intervention groups, so it’s possible it was due to all of them requiring writing. However, further research is needed to determine why some individuals would choose not to continue this type of intervention. A few individuals also had negative responses to the stress mindset intervention as they thought that it was invalidating to the negative impact of stressors. Yeager et al. ( 2022 ) highlighted that mindset interventions are not meant for reappraising traumatic stressors; therefore, it’s possible that the individuals who had a negative response may have had those types of experiences and felt invalidated. In turn, feeling emotionally invalidated has been found to predict negative affect and stress (Schreiber & Veilleux, 2022 ; Zielinski et al., 2023 ). Recent research has discovered that applying a meta-cognitive approach that highlights both the stress-is-enhancing mindset and addresses how to handle society’s messaging around the negative aspects of stress was more effective than a stress-is-enhancing mindset intervention alone (Crum et al., 2023 ). Future research should continue to explore how these interventions can balance providing the benefit of mindset change while not invalidating an individual’s stress.

Moreover, there were limitations to our measures and the timing of them. State stress and academic motivation were single item sliders, which did not allow us to assess reliability. We also administered the intervention at the beginning of the semester, which could have influenced engagement and perceived relevance of the information. Furthermore, since we only assessed participants at one time point, we do not know how long the effects of the short intervention lasted. While single-session mindset interventions have been shown to have long-term effects (e.g., Heaman et al., 2023 ; Hecht et al., 2023 ; Smith & Capuzzi, 2019 ), it is possible that this shorter intervention will not have sustained effects over time. Including brief “booster” sessions after the intervention similar to Hecht et al. ( 2023 ) would potentially be valuable and should be examined in future research.

The main implication of our study is that brief mindset interventions can be effective in shifting student mindsets. Our results also showed that the synergistic mindset intervention provided the most benefits to students; it was the only group that improved on all the main outcomes, and students in this group were less likely to want to withdraw from a course in both negative hypothetical academic scenarios (if they failed an assignment or were faced with a professor with a fixed mindset). This type of brief (5–10 min) mindset intervention could be easily applied online by students or led by teachers in the classroom. Future research should further examine the mechanisms by which these mindsets are effective on various outcomes. In addition, research should examine the longitudinal effects of brief interventions and if students apply them behaviorally. It also would be valuable for studies to examine how individuals’ characteristics (e.g., age, gender) influence the effectiveness of mindset interventions. Overall, continuing this research can have benefits on reducing stress and improving educational outcomes in young adults.

Data Availability

Data can be made available upon request.

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Heidi Meyer and Lauren Stutts designed the study aims and procedures, obtained IRB approval, conducted literature searches, provided summaries of previous research studies, collected the data, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. All authors have contributed to and approve the final manuscript.

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Theories of Emotion

STEP 1 : Using a stimulus of your choosing (not one found in your text) demonstrate the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer, and cognitive-mediational theories of emotion. Describe each in just a few sentences.

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Assignment: motivation and emotion.

STEP 1: Using a stimulus of your choosing (not one found in your text) demonstrate the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer, and cognitive-mediational theories of emotion. Describe each in just a few sentences.

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