A Motivational Climate.......Part II

To continue on the thread about setting a motivational climate from the start I thought I would concentrate on our second important factor which is Challenge.

At the start of any year it is important that the young people in your classes know they are going to be challenged over the next year. Educational research from Prof. John Hattie on what influences student learning includes challenge as one of the 3 most important influences.

Prof Philip Adey, 2008, states "what the research shows consistently is that if you face children with intellectual challenges and then help them talk through the problems towards a solution, then you almost literally stretch their minds" 

If we tie this into what we know about motivation then an increase in cleverness will kick start their internal drive and get them seeking to know more. As educators we can not therefore starve our young people of opportunities to be challenged. 

There are many ideas out there about how to create challenge within your teaching and I would encourage you to find which ones work best in your setting. For now though, we wanted to put something a little different forward to fit into our focus on the start of the year.

The issuing of Target Grades - Include Solutions has written before about how target grades could possibly constrict a young persons internal drive and restrict their intrinsic motivation and to be rid of them would create an interesting study. However, in most schools this is not going to be possible, not yet anyway, unless you are a headteacher reading this, so we have looked into making this more fluid for our young people. Instead of just giving the target grade to them which has probably been given to you by a data manager ask for the Chance Table from which it has been generated and use that to allow the young person, through a 1:1 discussion, to be part of choosing their target for that Year. If you look at these for a given student, it will show you their percentage chance of getting each grade compared to similar students from similar backgrounds, KS2 results, Gender etc. Traditionally what schools do is take the one with the largest percentage and make that their target grade. So if under the B Grade column lies a percentage of 38% and that is the highest, then that will be their target. However, under the A and A* Grades may be percentages of 25% and 15% respectively. This tells us that 40% of students actually go on to achieve greater then a B. Should we not be allowing our students to be aspirational and at the very least believe that anything is possible.

This of course is supported by further research studies which have found that with time, and a lot of it a person can master almost any task and that includes subjects taught at our schools. Encourage this, find examples of success and share them with your young people as this will help with their belief.

It is this conversation which will help set the early climate, all you need to do is make sure you maintain it from one lesson to the next through your teaching.

A Motivational Climate.....

Motivation flourishes when the climate of the classroom is right and it is the teacher who controls the settings. Getting it right can take time and a lot of thought but by taking a few important steps can begin to offer an environment which allows students to grow. Over the next week we will be sharing with you some ideas which you can use as the new term begins

The first is the Ice Breaker which is a tactic aimed at getting to know your classes and to allow them to get to know just a little bit about you. It works in the very same way that any ice breaker works, in that they share something with you about them and you do the same back. However the success of this comes from what you get them to share with you and vice versa.

I use the homework of the first lesson to set them the task of preparing something which shows me who they are. It is vital that you get them to search their abilities/interests/ambitions as this can then be used throughout the year in your general conversations with them. You are much more likely to be able to challenge and push them if you know who they are. The information they share with you is priceless and must be treated sensitively but used in the correct way it can help set a positive tone from the beginning.


If you are going to get your students to open up, you have to be prepared to do the same and this is where what you share with them comes into play. For this to have any lasting impact you should consider the following:

• It shows you in a different light
• Has a element of challenge
• Something exciting
• Interesting to them

One teacher I know uses the video of her sky diving to break the ice, another shows clips from their past musical career. I have lined up for this September a video of me crossing a wire bridge 200m off the ground with an expression which clearly shows my anxiety. 

We like this strategy as it begins to tap into the greater reasons for learning which we feel should be part of the everyday learning conversations which take place in schools. It is also a very light hearted way to start the year and helps to get relationships growing within your classroom. It is very different to the no smiles approach we are told at University and with some classes it may not be appropriate, but I am sure there is a place and a class where you can try it out.