Motivating the reluctant student.

While musicians acknowledge that motivation is a key element for musical success, most teachers struggle with the question of how to motivate the reluctant learner. Indeed, working with an "unmotivated" student can be one of the greatest frustrations that teachers face. Certainly, motivation is an important topic for educators and psychologists, a topic that has spurred a vast amount of research spanning 25 years.

Why do some children seek the challenges of learning and persist in the face of difficulty, while others, with seemingly equal ability and potential, avoid challenges and withdraw when faced with obstacles or difficulties? (1)

Teachers can use knowledge gleaned from years of psychology research to gain insight into their students' thinking. Better understanding of the psychology of student motivation can provide teachers with ideas for developing practical and proactive teaching strategies, enabling teachers to deal with the problem of the unmotivated student at the cognitive level.

Motivation Theories

Expectancy-Value Theory

How do students develop interest in studying a musical instrument?

Expectancy-value theory is one of the key strands of motivation research. (2) This research investigates why individuals care about an activity in relation to their perceptions of how useful it will be in the future. There are four aspects related to a student's perceptions of an activity.