What Motivation Is and Why It Matters

A school does not run on its policies and procedures alone. It runs on the daily motivation of its teachers, support staff, and students. A motivated teacher transforms her classroom; an unmotivated one drains it. Understanding what motivation is, why people are motivated, and how to influence motivation is one of the most useful skills a school head can develop.

The working definition

The handout gives a working definition:

It is what makes us do what we do. The drives within a person that account for the degree, direction, and persistence of the effort spent at work. Internal and external factors that stimulate people to take action for achieving a goal.

Three parts:

1. Drives within the person. Motivation has an internal source.
2. External factors. It also has external sources.
3. Three dimensions: degree, direction, persistence. Not just whether someone works, but how hard, on what, and for how long.

A teacher can be motivated to work hard (degree), on the wrong things (direction), for a short time (persistence). All three matter for the school. A teacher motivated on the right work, hard enough, and for long enough, produces great teaching.

Why people work

The handout names the common reasons.

Money is perhaps at the top of your list. However, there could be other reasons, e.g. to satisfy ambition, to feel important, have a sense of identity/achievement. Most people work to satisfy wants and needs.

Money matters. Few teachers in Pakistan can ignore pay. But money is rarely the only reason, and often not the strongest reason once basic needs are met. The other factors named, ambition, importance, identity, and achievement, drive much of the behaviour the school depends on.

A school head who thinks her staff is motivated only by pay misses the bigger picture. The staff member who stays late to mark papers carefully, who volunteers for the science fair, who mentors junior teachers without being asked, is not doing it for the money.

Why motivation matters in a school

The handout names the consequences of low motivation.

Workers who are not well motivated tend to have high rates of absenteeism, arrive late, produce poor quality output, be careless, losses, accidents, damages, be slow to react.

And the consequences of high motivation.

Workers who are motivated tend to be more committed, take responsibility, be loyal, reducing worker turnover cost, be enthusiastic and offer ideas, arrive early and take few days off, well-motivated workers assist in achieving objectives.

The contrast is sharp. The same staff member, motivated or not, produces very different work. A school with mostly motivated staff is a different place from a school with mostly unmotivated staff, even with the same formal structures.

Three specific effects in a school

1. Teaching quality. Motivated teachers prepare better, engage students more, and reflect on their own practice. Unmotivated teachers do the minimum.
2. Student engagement. Children pick up on their teachers’ motivation. A motivated teacher’s class is more engaged.
3. School culture. Motivated staff lift the staffroom; unmotivated staff drag it down. The culture is the cumulative effect.

A school head who invests in motivation invests in everything. A school head who ignores motivation has to use heavier control to compensate, and the cost is high.

The internal and external sources

Two related distinctions matter.

Internal motivation (intrinsic)

The teacher does the work because she finds it meaningful in itself. Teaching is rewarding because she enjoys helping children learn. The work itself is the reward.

External motivation (extrinsic)

The teacher does the work because of an external reward or to avoid an external punishment. Pay, promotion, recognition, the threat of dismissal.

Both kinds of motivation are real. Both have their place. But the research is clear that intrinsic motivation produces better, more sustainable work than extrinsic.

A teacher who teaches because she loves teaching keeps going through difficult years. A teacher who teaches for the pay does the minimum to keep the pay. The first kind is what a school wants to develop and protect.

What a school head can do

Three things a school head should do about motivation.

1. Understand what motivates her staff. Different staff members are motivated by different things. Knowing each one’s drivers helps the school head respond accurately.
2. Build a motivating environment. The physical and social environment of the school shapes motivation. A respectful, well-resourced, supportive environment lifts motivation; a cynical, under-resourced, hostile one suppresses it.
3. Recognise that motivation is dynamic. A motivated teacher this year may not be next year if conditions change. A demotivated teacher can become motivated with the right intervention. Motivation is not fixed.

Flashcard

What is motivation, and what are its three dimensions?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Motivation is what makes us do what we do; the internal and external factors that drive behaviour.

Three dimensions:

1. Degree. How hard the person works.
2. Direction. What the person works on.
3. Persistence. How long the person sustains the effort.

A school needs all three from its staff. A teacher who works hard on the wrong things, or hard on the right things but only briefly, is partially motivated. The school needs degree, direction, and persistence aligned.

Two sources of motivation: intrinsic (the work itself is rewarding) and extrinsic (rewards or punishments from outside). Intrinsic produces better, more sustainable work and is what schools should invest in developing.