{"id":494,"date":"2020-07-22T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/?page_id=494"},"modified":"2024-03-14T21:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:12:32","slug":"strategies-for-increasing-academic-motivation-and-engagement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/?page_id=494","title":{"rendered":"Strategies for Increasing Academic Motivation and Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-info\">You may have a client that demonstrates low motivation to engage in academic activities. This is likely because many aspects of school (i.e., reading, writing, math) may be quite challenging for them. <br><br>As such, your client\u00a0may benefit from an extrinsic reward system in order to complete academic tasks. To be effective, rewards need to be powerful, frequent and varied.<br><br>Examples include awarding points for completed work, token economies or mystery motivators. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.txbehaviorsupport.org\/Assets\/free-or-inexpensive-rewards-for-students-and-staff.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Check out<\/a> this list of free or inexpensive reinforcement ideas for children:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-a69d8e6a2a3564144d4e6f9a23e3aba1\" style=\"color:#147bb6\"><strong>Strategies for Increasing Academic Motivation <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some additional strategies for increasing academic motivation and engagement include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Increase praise, approval and appreciation of your client&#8217;s good behaviour and work performance. Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful methods to change behaviour. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make sure you notice even the little things (e.g., completing sub-tasks of larger tasks) to gain confidence and help your client feel good about themselves.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is important to help your client develop \u201cgame plans\u201d when approaching difficult non-preferred activities.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They should rely heavily on to-do lists and written schedules in order to break down activities. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Along with lists, it will be helpful to provide your client with specific timeframes for completion of each step. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If your client misses a step, a written list or schedule is an easy reminder that can prevent arguments.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Embedding high-interest topics into tasks and using materials that are interesting to your client may also help increase engagement in more difficult academic tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Improve accuracy and positively influence your client&#8217;s confidence when completing homework and worksheets by intermixing &#8216;<em>easy<\/em>&#8216; problems among the &#8216;<em>challenging<\/em>&#8216; problems. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Research shows that students are more motivated to complete difficult tasks when they contain some very easy problems interspersed among the more challenging items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Encourage your client&#8217;s parents &nbsp;to help their child develop a self-awareness of his strengths and challenges, and develop strategies when faced with setbacks.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;Help your client identify and celebrate his successes, big and small, by creating an accomplishment box: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/celebrating-successes\/download-your-childs-accomplishment-box-starter-kit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/celebrating-successes\/download-your-childs-accomplishment-box-starter-kit<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A \u201c<em>strengths chain<\/em>\u201d is another hands-on activity than can also help your client identify some of his strengths (Understood.org):&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/building-on-strengths\/download-hands-on-activity-to-identify-your-childs-strengths\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/building-on-strengths\/download-hands-on-activity-to-identify-your-childs-strengths<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Self-awareness worksheets (Understood.org): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/self-awareness\/download-self-awareness-worksheet-for-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/self-awareness\/download-self-awareness-worksheet-for-kids<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cGrowth mindset\u201d worksheets (Understood.org) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/building-on-strengths\/download-growth-mindset-activities-for-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.understood.org\/en\/friends-feelings\/empowering-your-child\/building-on-strengths\/download-growth-mindset-activities-for-kids<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-96899a3dcb20a770c99bbca69cf5deb7\" style=\"color:#de7021\"><strong>Handouts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For more information and targeted interventions on academic motivation, see these handouts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/files\/2020\/09\/Student-Engagement-and-Motivation-at-Home-Handout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Student Engagement and Motivation at Home Handout<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/files\/2020\/09\/Student-Engagement-and-Motivation-at-School-Handout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Student Engagement and Motivation at School Handout<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/files\/2020\/09\/School-Refusal-Handout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">School Refusal Handout<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nYou may have a client that demonstrates low motivation to engage in academic activities. This is likely because many aspects&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/?page_id=494\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Strategies for Increasing Academic Motivation and Engagement&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":8966,"featured_media":0,"parent":560,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-494","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8966"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3213,"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494\/revisions\/3213"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/resourcelibrary.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}