Here you will find motivation-related strategies and best practices from UvA colleagues. This list will grow over the coming years. If you have a best practice that you would like to share with the rest of us, please contact the TCL team.

Gamification

Adding game elements to your classes, such as leader boards, points, badges or other awards, and avatars.

Appeals to extrinsic motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Tends to work well and is often enjoyable for students		Information itself not retained in long-term memory
Competition and rules give clear structure		Focus away from content in favour of game elements
Can be combined with more intrinsically motivating strategies

Would you like to learn more about Gamification?

TLC organises an inspirational workshop in which you will experience the possibilities
of gamification in education
Read more about gamification grading or how two professors in the Master’s programme in Labour Law applied an escape room

Use of rewards and "punishments"

Already inherent in traditional system of pass and fail grading, but can be added on to by setting up barriers or fast-tracking options within your course, for instance.

Appeals to extrinsic motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Provides clarity through clear rules and regulations		Information itself often not retained in long-term memory
Helps (insecure) students to compare their work and progress		Focus on reward (such as pass or high grade) rather than on course content

Relatedness and Transparency about teaching decisions

Explain the thinking behind/reasons for assignments, course components and the curriculum. Be concrete about why and how decisions are made, and which practical considerations play a role.

Appeals to intrinsic motivation, internalised motivation, and Expectancy Values

Do’s		Dont’s
Will make students feel they are taken seriously (treated as adults)		It can lead to endless discussions about the course or its assignments
Understanding aims of an assignment or activity gives a sense of autonomy in achieving these (internalising aims)
It may help students to better understand what is expected of them in assignments, and thus give added value to assignments

TIP: Student feedback of your course will be a lot more helpful!

Use of humour

Self-explanatory best practice : use of metaphor, visual humour in presentations, anecdotes or absurdism in relation to the course content.

Appeals to internalised motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Transferral of teacher’s own enthusiasm, relatedness, building rapport		Requires sensitivity to cultural and individual differences
Helps students to understand transferability of knowledge to different contexts (and the limitations thereof)		Not every subject is equally suitable for humour
Also suitable for lecturing and larger groups (where it is difficult to bond with individual students)

TIP: one specific hands-on example is to give students an assignment in which they deliberately have to do everything wrong that could possibly go wrong.

Use of cliffhangers

By ending a lecture or class with “If you want to know how/what… then read/come to …” or any other form of open ending, you can invoke curiosity about the content of the next session, or get students to read the literature (if the answer is in there). Borrowed from media psychology (e.g. binge watching)

Appeals to curiosity and internalised motivation

Do’s

Plays with people’s natural curiosity
Transfers teacher’s enthusiasm unto students

Autonomy Support

Choices

Already inherent in traditional system of pass and fail grading, but can be added on to by setting up barriers or fast-tracking options within your course, for instance.

Appeals to extrinsic motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Emphasises students’ own interests		Less suitable for (some) first-year students
Makes differentiation between individual students possible (for teacher)		Can sometimes bring more prepping and/or correction work for teachers
Making your own choices stimulates feeling responsible for the result
Promotes feeling of being trusted to make choices (need for competence)

Voluntariness

Having activities or course components that are entirely free of consequences if students decide not to be there/do them. Full responsibility for students’ own progress lies with the students themselves.

Appeals to intrinsic motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Emphasises students’ own responsibility (as adults)		Only advisable in non-formative testing/situations
Feeling of being trusted to make the right decision (need for competence)		Not suitable for first-year students
Trains decision-making skills and self-motivation (important in workplace)		Can be risky – not all students are ready for it – teachers need to actively appeal to importance of making informed decisions

TIP: Don’t be afraid to let this go wrong, initially. After this, students will tend to pick up on their responsibilities (Also see Teacher Story Annemarie Zand Scholten)

Putting students in charge of processes

Designing student assignments in terms of the usefulness/quality criteria of the end result, leaving room for differences between end products. The process by which/form in which the end result is created or achieved is entirely up to the students.

Appeals to intrinsic motivation and internalised motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Emphasises students’ own responsibility (as adults)		More difficult to assess work in a way that allows comparison between students
Feeling of being trusted to make choices (need for competence)		Mostly suitable for stand-alone assignments (not as part of cumulative work)
Trains decision-making skills, self-learning, creativity and transferring knowledge to different situations (important in workplace)		Not suitable for first-year students

TIP: Don’t be afraid to let students panic, initially. Be clear about the underlying skills (mentioned above) that you want to train, but do build in a safety net through letting them report on their plans.

Relatedness to student context

1) Leave room in assignments for students to bring in own interests (e.g. if a student likes football, allow them to learn statistics through comparing football data).
2) Where possible, give examples or relate course content to current affairs, student life, the students’ age group, etc.

Appeals to intrinsic motivation and internalised motivation

Do’s		Dont’s
Satisfies need for relatedness		Not all topics are inherently equally relatable
Helps students to see implications for them (personal relevance increases interest)		May take away from theory comprehension and abstract thinking skills
Helps students to discuss and act on implications for them (autonomous thought & own initiative)

Toni Pape (FMG): When students are asked to formulate constructive feedback themselves, they dive much deeper

Annemarie Zand Scholten (FEB): Flipped classroom only works if you can get students to actually watch the videos and make your lectures truly interactive

Motivation: good practices

Gamification

Use of rewards and "punishments"

Relatedness and Transparency about teaching decisions

Use of humour

Use of cliffhangers

Autonomy Support

Choices

Voluntariness

Putting students in charge of processes

Relatedness to student context

Toni Pape (FMG): When students are asked to formulate constructive feedback themselves, they dive much deeper

Annemarie Zand Scholten (FEB): Flipped classroom only works if you can get students to actually watch the videos and make your lectures truly interactive

Sanjay Bisseur (FEB): From rote learning to insight through visual feedback

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