With other academics and students I created a web site on motivational teaching methods — see http://www.une.edu.au/bcss/psychology/john-malouff/motivational-teaching.php. I intended the site to benefit teachers in educational settings, but the same principles apply when teaching your child to hit a baseball or a client to control his angry outbursts. For instance, it is valuable to make the content taught relevant to the values and goals of the learner. It is much easier to teachi something to a person who wants to learn that specific skill. Picture a police officer who wants to become a SWAT member or a hostage negotiator. There is a highly motivated learner! Sometimes the teacher needs to raise the motivation of the learner, as in the case of a teen who needs to learn anger control but does not have any goals in that direction. In that case, an effective teacher will explain how increasing anger control will benefit the teen in ways that are important to him, e.g., feeling superior to others, staying out of trouble, feeling in control (like a martial arts expert), laying the groundwork for joining the army or getting some other job, keeping a girlfrient. The specifics may vary from one teen to another. The more motivated the teen is to achieve the goal, the more effort he will exert in that direction.

The web site describes many other motivational methods for a teacher to use, such as ways of establishing rapport and setting a good model. Once you have a motivated student, you can get down to the business of teaching. See my prior posting on how to learn something new: https://blog.une.edu.au/usingpsychology/2012/10/20/learning-how-to-do-something/.

Have you taught someone a new skill lately? What did you do to motivate the person to try hard?

John Malouff, PhD, JD
Assoc Prof of Psychology