Chapter 10: Teaching with Visible Motivation Principles: Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, and Meaning (ABC+M)

In our extended experience working with teachers, we find that they are often very interested in issues of motivation. Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear teachers recount how they hope to motivate their class or lament about students who they perceive to be “unmotivated.” Teachers report that motivation is critical, yet elusive, in their teaching. This problem occurs because theory and research on motivation is rarely presented in a way that is accessible to practitioners or leads to sustained instructional change (Anderman & Patrick, 2012; Turner & Patrick, 2008). For example, most studies of motivation are framed according to a singular theory of motivation that may not address the specific needs of students or individual differences perceived by teachers. As Turner and Patrick (2008) explain, “Much motivation research analyzes relationships among variables. Variables neither map easily onto teachers’ terrain, which is that of students participating in activities, nor provide the particulars necessary to understand and foster motivation in classrooms” (p. 129). The instructional principles that emerge from studies are often vague in terms of how variables came to be in a specific state, such as how students came to have low levels of confidence or feelings of belonging.