WHAT ELSE CAN SCHOOL LEADERS DO?

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Eugene OR

The complex array of problems that contribute to low levels of student motivation makes it impossible to devise a single, programmatic approach that will suddenly turn poorly motivated students into young people hungry for knowledge. Engendering student motivation is an ongoing process that requires creativity and energy. Grossnickle (1989) provides useful charts and inventories for monitoring motivation levels and lists many helpful ideas for promoting positive attitudes about motivation.

Here are a few other steps school leaders can take to improve student motivation at the school level:

* Analyze the ways that motivation operates in your own life and develop a clear way of communicating it to teachers and students.

* Seek ways to demonstrate how motivation plays an important role in noneducational settings, such as in sports and in the workplace.

* Show students that success is important. Recognize the variety of ways that students can succeed. Reward success in all its forms.

* Develop or participate in inservice programs that focus on motivation.

* Involve parents in discussing the issue of motivation and give them guidance in fostering it in their children.

* Demonstrate through your own actions that learning is a lifelong process that can be pleasurable for its own sake.