Essential Motivation in the

Classroom

Essential Motivation in the Classroom is the definitive one-stop guide

for teachers who want to know how to motivate children – and how
children can learn to motivate themselves.
In this rollercoaster guide through the theories of teaching,
learning and thinking, Ian Gilbert highlights the ‘seven keys’ of
motivation, offering a range of strategies, ideas and insights to help
learners become motivated from within.
An entertaining and inspiring read, this book is full of useful,
practical advice, ranging from motivational research from leading
theorists to philosophical gems from Homer Simpson. Teachers in
all sectors of education will find this book indispensable, helping
them to change the culture of their classrooms and improve the
effectiveness of their teaching.

Ian Gilbert is the Managing Director of Independent Thinking, a

company he set up to ‘enrich the lives of young people by changing
the way they think’. He has worked with thousands of young people,
teachers, parents and governors both in the UK and abroad.
Essential Motivation in
the Classroom

Ian Gilbert

London and New York

First published 2002
by RoutledgeFalmer
11 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

© 2002 Ian Gilbert

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-16619-1 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-26078-3 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0-415-26619-X (Print Edition)
Above all else, this book is dedicated to my
family, and especially to my wife, Lesley, who has
been to hell and had the strength to come back
Contents

List of figures viii

Acknowledgements ix
How to read this book x

Introduction 1

1 Motivated for what? 5

2 Go with the flow 35

3 Mission control 84

4 Get real 112

5 Get personal 136

6 Reptiles in the classroom 152

7 Motivation is a four-letter word 164

Bibliography 181
Index 184
Figures

2.1 The ideal learning state 40

2.2 The primacy effect and the recency effect 67
2.3 Work less, learn more 68
4.1 The Reminiscence Effect 117
4.2 Fartek in the classroom 118
4.3 The over-energised classroom 120
4.4 Flatliners! 120
4.5 The Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting 121
Acknowledgements

One of the most inspiring and practical books I have ever read on
teaching is Super Teaching by the American educational pioneer Eric
Jensen. It is from his original premise that there are seven elements
needed for motivation in the classroom that I have chosen my seven
keys as chapter titles, and then greatly expanded upon them.
I would also like to thank a number of people who have been
significant in a number of ways in my own journey. My sincere thanks
to Sue and Paul Chamberlain, Joan Ebsworth, Angela Preston, Andy
Vass, Bill Cusworth, Margaret Abbott, Lis Howarth and her team,
Margaret Holman and the Danger and Excitement Group, Mike
Cousins and the Raising Standards Partnership schools, Frank
Robinson and all those who have had faith from the beginning, and,
now especially, Roy Leighton.
How to read this book

Every idea in this book may turn out to be wrong, but that would
be progress.
Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works

With all that is going on in schools today there is a need for a profound,
academic and theoretical book on motivation in the classroom. This
is not it.
I am not a neuroscientist, a pedagogical theorist or an academic
researcher, although I know some people who are. I do not write this
book from any point of view other than as someone who knows things
that can – and do – make a real and genuine difference in a classroom
full of living, breathing people.
Over the last few years I have soaked up information about learning
like a sponge. This book is me wringing myself out. There are items
of research that I have picked up for which I do not know the source,
I’m afraid. Yet, if I quote it here, I present it in good faith and know
it to be valid because it works in practice. And, anyway, I do not want
to encumber either of us with vast footnotes and appendices. I simply
want you to read this book quickly and easily and enjoy the process.
This work is also relevant for all teachers at any level and so, for
reasons of inclusion, I interchange ‘learner’ with ‘child’ with ‘student’.
I have also peppered the pages of this book with the words of men
and women wiser than I, so feel free to use them for posters,
assemblies, newsletters and thoughts for the week (or thoughts for
the day if you do not feel you can hold a thought that long). Many
 How to read this book xi

use the term ‘man’, ‘men’ or ‘he’ when actually they refer to humans
generally, so please excuse the anachronism. Be aware that I also draw
upon an evolutionist frame of reference rather than a creationist one.
While I want you to walk away from this book and be able to take
ideas straight into the classroom for immediate effect, I have not set
it out as a step-by-step guide. Motivation is more than just a set of
prescriptions; you will also need to reflect deeply on what teaching
and learning is all about. This will be especially true as you consider
the changes needed to take the ‘teaching school’ model and turn it
inside out and upside down to create a ‘learning school’.

‘We know that teaching does not simply produce learning.’

Professor MacBeath, during his time on the government’s Taskforce
for Education, giving an indication why he probably never received
a Christmas card from Chris Woodhead.

Be honest, not everything you teach is learned. We can teach for a

week without anybody learning anything. I want this book to help
you as you make the shift from teaching to learning, with all the
positive effects on motivation – theirs and yours – that such a move
brings. I have met too many teachers now who have said things like,
‘I’ve been teaching for more than thirty years and I’ve never enjoyed
it as much as I do now’, ‘I feel like I’ve been teaching asleep for the
past ten years’ or ‘I’ve never felt as alive in the classroom as I have
over the last few months.’ These are all genuine quotes from real
teachers, the last from a woman who said she had been teaching since
1965.

‘If you’re not learning, I’m just talking.’

Slogan seen on a teeshirt – sometimes it takes an item of
clothing to help us see the truth.

Furthermore, I have seen too many instances of children who re-

find their fire for learning as a result of the changes that the teacher
has made, sometimes without even being aware of it. A teacher
recently told me how he had pointed out to one of his year 11 students
xii How to read this book

how she had got herself back on track again after a poor time the
previous year. When he commented that she had changed she said
abruptly, ‘No, Sir, you’ve changed!’
Too often in the classroom, and within the disciplinary systems in
a school, it is the symptoms that are being treated – the poor behaviour,
the lack of motivation, the disaffection – rather than the causes. Young
people act the way they do for a reason that is in their self-serving
interest. How can we ensure that we are not so busy looking at the acts
that we overlook the reasons? When those children misbehave, why
do they do that? Asking why until you dig deep enough is a powerful
management technique that takes no prisoners. A headteacher once
told me how he used it with his staff: ‘This class isn’t achieving the
results they are capable of, Headteacher!’ – ‘Why are they not achieving
those results, Miss Jones?’ – ‘Because they are too busy messing
around.’ – ‘Why are they messing around?’ – ‘Because they are bored.’
– ‘Why are they bored?’ – ‘Oh, is that the bell …?’.

‘To teach (someone) a lesson: to cause (someone) to suffer

the unpleasant consequences of some behaviour or action.’
Oxford English Dictionary – so it must be true.

Although every teacher needs to have a range of powerful and

effective behaviour management techniques and be backed up by a
school-wide system that lets everybody know where they stand, this
alone is not enough. Addressing the causes of the symptoms can –
and does – prevent many discipline problems arising. Yes, many
factors contribute to the mindsets of children as they walk into school
in the morning. Yet, above all else, it is what you do that will be the
deciding factor in the quality of the learning experience for all of
you. And I do not say that to blame you, or to bash you, but to empower
you. You do have the control and influence necessary to make a
difference. The Elton Report from 1989 concluded that ‘the behaviour
of the teacher is the single most important factor that determines
student behaviour’. And according to accelerated learning pioneer
Dr Georgi Lozanov there is even a name for the ‘sickness caused by
poor teaching methods’ – didactogenic syndrome.
 How to read this book xiii

‘The history of the world shows that methods of political

action that are used by the oppressed are determined by the
oppressor.’
Nelson Mandela on where to start the search for ways to
address motivation and behaviour.

Think in terms of: ‘Can’t Learn; Won’t Learn’. Some can but won’t;
others would if they could but feel they can’t. To address motivation
we need to look at both to ensure the ‘can’ts’ can and the ‘won’ts’
will. This means we cannot separate learning strategies from
motivation to learn and also that we look beyond mere strategies to
the feel for motivation at an attitudinal level. This is the essence of the
‘essential motivation’ in the title. And that means your motivation as well
as theirs; after all, the way that you are in the classroom teaches far
louder than what you say.

No printed word, nor spoken plea

Can teach young minds what they should be
Not all the books on all the shelves
But what the teachers are themselves
Another stanza from the great poet Anon.

Some of the ideas I suggest will not work all of the time, but all of
them will work some of the time. Above all, the book is designed to
give you insights, ideas, support and succour as you do what you
need to do to make the changes in your classroom that will lead to
better motivation and learning and a far more fulfilling experience
for everyone. Read it with a highlighter pen in one hand, a pen in the
other for your own ideas, an open mind and a song in your heart.
(Choose any three from the above.) And then, when you have read
it, go and do something:

If we come here today and there’s no trouble tomorrow then we

haven’t done our jobs.
Gloria Steinham
Introduction

Everything has been said already but as no-one listens one must
always start again.
André Gide

You are a great teacher. You know it. Your colleagues know it, although
of course they do not let on – professional jealousy and all that. Your
line manager knows it. Even the parents know it. Why, then, do your
students not know it? They sit there like puddings, passive and inert,
while you show how great a teacher you are with your pyrotechnic
displays of knowledge and wit. If only they were better motivated,
they would appreciate how good you really are and results would
really start to rocket.
Motivation is one of the most used words in teaching today, usually
in the phrase, ‘How can I motivate these kids?’ It is also a very
misunderstood process. Even that question alone reveals that we are
approaching motivation from the wrong angle. Carrot and stick may
work if you want a classroom full of donkeys, but real motivation
comes from within. Napoleon may have learned that men will die
for ribbons but his successes were short-lived.
One of the Harvard Business Reviews most requested articles is one
first published in 1968 by Professor Frederick Herzberg, entitled ‘One
more time – how do you motivate employees’. Here the professor
talks about KITA – ‘Kick In The Ass’ – motivation. It gets the job
done but does not lead to better motivated employees. He describes
how in the training of his one-year-old Schnauzer puppy, when it
was little, if he kicked it, it would move – ‘push motivation’. After
2 Introduction

obedience training he could offer the dog a biscuit and it would move
– ‘pull motivation’. Yet on neither occasion was it the dog who was
motivated to move. As the professor points out: ‘the dog wants the
biscuit, but it is I who want it to move’. Perhaps a better question for
our staffrooms is: ‘How can I get these kids to motivate themselves?’
In this book I want to offer practising teachers – and let’s face it,
we all need the practice – a range of strategies, ideas and insights to
help them consider what they can do to have better motivated children
in their classrooms.
There are no magic wands and it will take effort. You may even
have to change the way that you do things – as the great actor once
said, ‘Where’s my motivation?’ For example, a professor of education
once described how when he was in teacher training in the 1970s he
used to instruct the student teachers to ‘play to the intellect and then
the emotional brain will follow’. He now knows that to be totally
back to front, that we have to play to the emotional brain, then, and
only then, will we open up the intellectual brain (see Chapter 6 for
more details). And Professor Tim Brighouse describes how he used
to tell teachers that there were three things going on at any given
time in a classroom: ‘children taking new information on board,
children processing the new information, children being entertained,
having fun’. The last one, he now knows, has to be an integral part of
the first two for them to be effective. If such high-profile figures are
prepared to admit to changing their minds, are you? (‘Change your
mind, prove you’ve got one, that’s what I say,’ as Jools Holland once
declared.)
Learning was once described as a four-step process – UI, CI, CC,
UC – as follows:

Step 1 – unconscious incompetence

This is when you don’t know that you don’t know. For example, at
the age of 6 you don’t know that you don’t know how drive a car.

Step 2 – conscious in competence

Now you are sitting in the car for the first time and suddenly realise
how stupid you are as you look at the all the mirrors, dials, levers and
 Introduction 3

pedals (three pedals and only two feet). You are now starting the
learning process and becoming aware of all those skills that you never
knew you did not have. This is where you need the motivation to
kick in. Do you face up to your own stupidity and progress to step 3,
or do you retreat backwards up the dead end of your own ignorance?

Step 3 – conscious competence

As you learn new habits, to begin with you have to think hard about
what you are doing in order to accomplish them. Not yet second
nature, new skills seem hard and part of your brain screams, ‘I’ll never
be able to do this,’ as you get out and slam the door at the traffic
lights, leaving your father in the passenger seat looking apologetically
at the truck driver behind you, who has now missed the green light
for the fourth time.

Step 4 – unconscious competence

‘This is easy!’ New skills no longer need conscious processing and
are as easy to you as tying a shoelace or getting a soufflé to rise, or
even both together with real practice. Have you ever turned up at
school when you meant to go to the supermarket?
The need for motivation is as vital in steps 2 and 3 for you, as a
learning professional, as it is for your students. Do you know how
stupid you are? More importantly, are you prepared to accept it and
do something about it? As teachers, we spend a great deal of time knowing
all the answers. To a certain extent, it is our job. Or at least it used to
be. In many ways the system – notably beyond primary-school age –
called for a collection of professional ‘know-it-alls’, paid to share what
they had picked up at university with the community at large. That
was then.

‘How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth

requires, if we are using our knowledge all the time?’
Thoreau on why, as teachers, we need to be learners too.
Ever heard the joke about the teacher who dreamt he was
giving a lesson and when he woke up he found he was?
4 Introduction

Now we are experiencing the democratisation of knowledge on a

huge scale. My six-year-old daughter has access to all the knowledge
in the world at her fingertips. And it is updated on a daily basis. No
human could compete with that, and nor should we want to.
Microsoft promotional material talks about the teacher of the twenty-
first century being the ‘guide from the side not the sage on the stage’.
There is a tremendously powerful role for educators in the great new
era, not as founts of all knowledge, but as pioneers in the democratisation
of learning. Helping young people want to acquire new knowledge
(the motivation part), helping them know where to find it, how to
know good knowledge from bad, how to know what to do with it
when they find it – this is the stuff of the educator’s role in the twenty-
first century. Are you up for it? Are you motivated to do something
about it? Are you prepared to accept your own ignorance as the starting
point for this journey?
Please approach this book with a demeanour of curious stupidity.
As Lao wrote, ‘To know that you do not know is best. To not know of
knowing is a disease’. Once you become aware of your own stupidity
and (re)start your own personal journey with your own motivational
engines firing you have a chance. We all have. After all, society needs
great educators. Society needs you to be brilliant. The future of the
world is depending on it.
Chapter 1

Motivated for what?

Bad news, I’m afraid. The culmination of six million years’ worth of
neurological evolution is not the GCSE.
The human brain is the product of millions upon millions of
adaptations and changes, which ensures that we are the ones best
able to cope with what life will throw at us. And I am sorry to say that
a key stage 2 SAT or a French vocabulary test is not among the
eventualities that natural selection has prepared us for. Perhaps if the
consequences of not having done your homework had been far more
stringent hundreds of thousands of years ago, this might not be the
case, but it is.
In a fascinating book, modestly entitled How the Mind Works,
Stephen Pinker suggests: ‘Without an understanding of what the brain
was designed to do in the environment in which we evolved the
unnatural activity called education is unlikely to succeed.’
At the end of the day the brain is designed for one thing – survival.
It does all sorts of wonderful things, some of which we can barely
begin to imagine, but the bottom line is that it is there to keep us and
our progeny going. What this means is that each year millions of
young people are tested for their ability to do something unnatural
and biologically inconsequential. And if they fail to measure up, the
implication is that something is wrong with them. As British business
guru and troubleshooter Sir John Harvey Jones notes: ‘We have an
education system that is designed to get 200,000 children a year or so
into university. Everybody who doesn’t make it to university is told
at some point that they have failed.’