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Motivating and empowering students
Some students arrive at school with energy. They want to learn. They try. Others arrive tired, distracted, or with no interest at all. They sit in the same classroom but are in a different world.
For students living in challenging circumstances — with poverty, family pressures, long journeys to school, or difficult home lives — staying motivated is hard. Some have been told all their lives that they are not clever. Some have failed every test for years. Some can see no future where this lesson matters.
When a student gives up, we sometimes call them lazy. Or naughty. Or not interested. But more often, what we are seeing is something deeper: learned helplessness. The belief that nothing they do will make a difference.
The good news: motivation is not fixed. Small things in your classroom — what you notice, what you praise, how you measure progress, what you say — can rebuild a student’s belief in themselves. In this lesson, we will look at how.
Q2: Which signs of demotivation do you see in your classroom? (Tick all that apply)
- If students say “I am not clever,” this is rarely about their actual ability. It is something they have been told, or have come to believe through failing tests they were never set up to pass
- Learned helplessness is the technical term: when a student stops trying because they have learned that effort does not change outcomes. It is real, and it has been linked to depression and anxiety. It is also reversible
- The hardest students to motivate are usually those who have been failing for years. The first job is not to push them harder — it is to give them a real, small win that they can feel
- If you sometimes feel demotivated yourself, that is honest. Teaching demotivated students is exhausting. It is why caring for your own wellbeing is part of this work (see the Teacher Wellbeing lesson)
- Small things change motivation: what you notice, how you measure progress, the words you use. None of these need money or new resources. They need attention
Demotivation is not random. It usually comes from one of four real causes.
When students give up, it is almost always because of one of these: they cannot see they are making progress, they do not see the point, lessons feel boring or pointless, or they have no examples of people like them succeeding. Each of these has a clear response. Below is what each looks like in real classrooms — and what you can do.
Naming the cause is the first step. The right response is different for each one.
- The most common cause across challenging circumstances is Challenge 1: no sense of progress. Students who have failed for years often need to feel they are growing in something — and that something is rarely the test score
- If a student is bright but quiet, they may have given up because they fear standing out. The challenge here is similar to no role models — they may not know it is okay for someone like them to succeed
- If you cannot pick just one challenge, you are not wrong. Most demotivated students are dealing with two or three at once. Start with the easiest one to address
- One student at a time. If you can move one demotivated student in one term, that is real teaching. The shift is contagious to others — bit by bit
- Some demotivation has causes outside school: hunger, family stress, no electricity to study at home. You cannot solve all of these, but knowing about them changes how you respond
Drag each comment to a box, or tap a comment then tap a box. Some sound positive but quietly demotivate. Some sound small but build real motivation.
Comments that quietly demotivate are often well-meant but vague (“Good job!” with no reason), or comparative (“Why aren’t you like your sister?”), or use fear (“Your parents will be disappointed”). Vague praise gives nothing to build on. Comparison and fear damage trust.
The shift: from general “well done” to specific “your past tense is correct.” From outcomes (“you got 7/10”) to growth (“you got two more right than last week”). From comparison to noticing what is real about this student.
Concrete plans are far more useful than general intentions. Think about your real classroom.
| Strategy | Your specific idea |
|---|---|
| Track non-exam progress (attendance, attitude, soft skills) | |
| Give specific, evidence-based feedback | |
| Talk openly about why English matters | |
| Bring variety into lessons | |
| Bring in a role model (real or in story) |
| Strategy | How it can work |
|---|---|
| Track non-exam progress | Make a simple chart on the wall: each student has a row, and you add a sticker (or colour a box) for full attendance, for helping a classmate, for trying a new activity. Visible progress, every week, in things students can control. |
| Give specific, evidence-based feedback | Replace “good job” with one specific thing: “Your sentence has the right verb form.” “Your story had a clear beginning.” “You used three new words from last week.” Specific praise is praise students can build on. |
| Talk openly about why English matters | Once a term, take 10 minutes: “Where could English take you? Travel? University? A job? Talking to people across the world?” Make their answers visible — on the board, on the wall. Refer back when motivation is low. |
| Bring variety into lessons | Plan a typical lesson with three activity types: e.g. 5 minutes of warm-up speaking, 15 minutes of textbook work with pair tasks, 5 minutes of personal writing or a short game. Variety keeps attention alive without needing new resources. |
| Bring in a role model | Find a former student who went on to do something interesting. Tell their story to your class: “Six years ago, Maria sat exactly where you are. Now she works as…” Or invite a community member — a nurse, a carpenter, a shopkeeper — to share their story. |
Q6. Watch the video below. Think about which change is easiest for you to try first.
Host: We have just looked at the four reasons students lose motivation, and what to do about each one. Now listen to three teachers. They share their problems first, then the changes they made.
Teacher 1: I had a student called Joseph. He failed every test for two years. He stopped trying. When I gave the class work, he just stared at the desk. I thought he did not care. I told him he was lazy. Looking back, I am ashamed of that.
Teacher 2: My class was bored. I knew it. I would teach the textbook page by page. Students would copy from the board. They would do gap-fills. They would sit. I felt I had no time for anything else. The exam was coming. So we just kept going. Nobody was happy — not them, not me.
Teacher 3: My students could not see why they were learning English. We are in a small village. Most of them will never travel. Most of their parents do not speak English. So when I tried to motivate them, my words felt empty. “English is important!” They would just look at me.
Teacher 1: I changed how I gave feedback to Joseph. I stopped saying “try harder.” I started noticing one specific thing each lesson: “You wrote three sentences today. Last week you wrote one.” “You sat next to Ahmed today and helped him.” Within a month, he was raising his hand. The change was small but everything in him shifted.
Teacher 2: I started bringing variety into my lessons. Just three different activities per lesson. A bit of speaking. A bit of textbook work. A short game or story. Same content, same target language. But suddenly the room had energy. The students were not tired anymore. I was not tired anymore.
Teacher 3: I had a former student who went to university and now works in the city. I invited her back. She came for 20 minutes. She told my class: “Six years ago, I sat where you are sitting. English helped me get the job I have now.” My students were silent. They watched her with a focus I had not seen before. After that, motivation in my class changed. They had seen the future, and it looked like them.
Host: None of these teachers had different students. None had more time or more money. They changed what they noticed, how they framed lessons, and who they brought into the room. Small things — but for students who had given up, these were everything.
Q7. For each strategy, choose the option that best describes where you are now.
Just one student. Just one thing. Small and specific. The shift starts with one moment, one student, one week.
- Demotivation is rarely laziness. It is usually learned helplessness — the belief that nothing they do will change anything. It is reversible, but slowly
- Demotivation has four common causes: no sense of progress, no sense of point, boredom, and no role models. Each has a different response — name the cause first
- Redefine progress beyond exam scores. Notice attendance, attitude, soft skills. Track them visibly. Students who never get a high mark can still feel they are growing
- Specific, evidence-based feedback (“your past tense is right”) builds motivation. Vague praise (“good job”) and comparison (“why aren’t you like your sister?”) quietly damage it
- Small things change everything. One specific comment, one moment of being seen, one role model who looks like them — these matter more than any grand technique. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
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