Theories for Effective Motivation
Student motivation is important in the classroom but before we start to examine theories and principles that help engage and motivate students, I’d like to start by thinking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Our students with exceptionalities cannot always speak for themselves, and so we must be even more cognizant of their very basic (physiological, safety, belonging, self-esteem) needs before we can move on to teaching (Slavin, 2020). We know we need to do that, but what does that look like in a classroom? To promote and care for your student’s physiological needs build into your routine a snack time (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack), have a quiet space available or an area where a student can have a sensory break, this might include noise-canceling headphones (especially when we are in a classroom with a student who likes quiet and another student who might communicate needs at a loud volume). Routines are so incredibly important to students with exceptionalities; it allows them to know what is going to happen next, and this makes the classroom safe. Set your routines and stick to them, obviously with fire drills we cannot always be in perfect routine, but we can have a plan in place for those events. We should already have a safe space, a cozy cube, or an area for students to take sensory breaks because it’s a safety need but also a physiological need. I don’t know about you but I want to belong in a space, our students want to belong to but they may not be able to communicate that to you well; we as teachers should have an inclusive classroom, celebrating the little victories and remember that behavior is a form of communication. Finally, we want to build up our students by supporting them in their interests and building their confidence while we explore their strengths.
Motivation and engagement are going to be low if students have low self-esteem, anxiety in a school setting, and/or they have developed learned helplessness (the last one being very common because the students are not always given enough time to respond to a prompt and things get done for them because its faster/easier and we just need to... (get out the door, start the next lesson, move on).
Shifting our focus from innate deficits into their potential for autonomy and growth is where we will see our students begin to transform.
I feel like certain theories apply better to our students with exceptionalities better than others this includes:
Self Determination theory brings intrinsic motivation as we provide more autonomy giving choices to students who may otherwise feel more controlled by the adults in their lives (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Autonomy is giving them choice or control which leads to them feeling capable of work and they can connect with students and their teachers. When a student is given a voice and control over their work it can boost engagement and this can be something as small as “it’s time for centers, do you want to go to the sensory table, the art table, or to the (play) kitchen first,’ the routine will have them spending time at each center but they can choose which one is first, another student may pick the next activity and that pattern rotates each day.
Growth Mindset (Dweck) believing our students can develop abilities with effort and that the ability to learn is not a fixed trait (Cloke, 2025). I know a teacher who has a poster in her classroom that says, “Presume Competency” and that is what we should always be doing. Our students with exceptionalities may learn at different rates, but we cannot decide for them that they can’t learn. We cannot say they are “bad at” something, rather we need to be looking at how to find strategies that work for the student.
Bandura’s Self-Efficacy is a student’s own belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations (Slavin, 2020) and this one, though I’ve written it last is still highly important we want to build students who are persistent who will try and fail and try again. This is also something we may need to build up in our students, depending on how they have been learning previously they might already be in a state of learned helplessness and we will need to build up their self-efficacy through smaller activities that build up the student. In a preschool or kindergarten class this could be, especially with students working on large and fine motor skills, putting up their backpack and being able to take their coat off and on. It is so tempting to “help” and do it for them but giving students time and prompts/directions we can slowly build up the skill until they are able to do it on their own.
Resources:
Cloke, H. (2025, March 12). Dweck’s Mindset Theory: How to Develop a Growth Mindset. Growth Engineering. https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/growth-mindset/
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation from a self-determination Theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and Future Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860
Slavin, R. E. (2020). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (13th ed.). Pearson.
