Introduction
General Resources

Understanding methods for motivating students can greatly enhance students' response to a course and performance in it. This section contains links to research findings on student motivation and techniques for motivating students.

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"Student Goal Orientation, Motivation, and Learning," Marilla D. Svinicki, University of Texas-Austin. (IDEA Paper #41, February 2005). PDF/Adobe Acrobat
This paper discusses current theory and research into student motivation and describes instructional methods that either facilitate or impede learning. Offers suggestions for improving student motivation.
http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_41.pdf

"Capturing and Directing the Motivation to Learn," from Speaking of Teaching, the Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 1, Fall 1998. PDF/Adobe Acrobat.
Research into student motivation and strategies for "incorporating methods of motivation into courses."
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Newsletter/motivation_to_learn.pdf

Motivating Students' Best Work (University of California, Berkeley).
Ways to identify the knowledge and skills students bring to class and methods for helping them succeed.
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/sectionlists/sect20.html

Motivating Your Students (Princeton University, The McGraw Center for Enhancing Teaching and Learning).
Part One: Methods for motivating students because they value what they are learning.
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/mcgraw/Scholar_as_Teacher_Motivating_Students_Part_1_19.html
Part Two: Methods for motivating students because they believe they can learn new material and succeed in the course.
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/mcgraw/Scholar_as_Teacher_Motivating_Students_Part_2_20.html

"Motivating Students," Barbara Gross Davis (University of California, Berkeley). From Tools for Teaching, Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Strategies to enhance students' self-motivation plus instructional behaviors and course structures that motivate students to become engaged learners.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm

"Getting Students to Read: Fourteen Tips," Eric H. Hobson, Georgia Southern University (IDEA Paper #40, July 2004). PDF/Adobe Acrobat.
Ways to motivate students to do the course reading and methods to assist them in learning from it.
http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_40.pdf

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