Phrases to motivate pupils and teach them how to do it

A timely push to encourage students in the final stretch of the term or before an important exam and/or test will make all the difference to keep rowing, striving and trying to extract the motivation that all students, of whatever age, need to find the strength to continue.

Let's start at the beginning. What exactly is motivation? It is the learner's interest in his or her own learning or in the activities that lead to it. Interest can be acquired, maintained or increased by intrinsic and extrinsic elements. It must be distinguished from what has traditionally been called motivation in the classroom, which is nothing more than what the teacher does to motivate students.

There are many theories such as Maslow's or the incentive theory that have marked traditional teaching. However, today it is well known that the motivational role of the teacher is key! Without motivation, there is no learning

From this point of view, the teacher must have a triple objective in his or her motivational action. On the one hand, they must arouse interest, guide and encourage effort and achieve the learning objective.

If in the traditional school we only called initial motivation, here we see that motivation must be maintained until the end, and be the starting point, if the learning process is successful, of new motivations for new processes.

10 quotes to motivate learners

1.  "The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply". Denis Waitley
2. "Never regard study as an obligation, but as an opportunity to enter the beautiful and wonderful world of knowledge". Albert Einstein
3. "Success is not the key to happiness; happiness is the key to success." Herman Cain
4. "Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you." Oprah Winfrey
5. "The only way to do great work is to love what you do." Steve Jobs
6. "What you work hard to acquire, you love the more". Aristotle
7. "Live as if you were going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you will always live". Mahatma Gandhi
8. "Opportunities don't happen, you create them". Chris Grosser
9. "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them". Walt Disney
10. "80% of success is based simply on persistence. Woody Allen

You can write down any of these motivational quotes on a post-it note and keep them on your desk, write your favourites in your diary to improve your self-esteem every morning or even stick them on the fridge. If you need extra resources to motivate you, it is advisable to turn to books, films, TED talks or relaxing music.

At O Castro British International School we know that every student is motivated for different reasons. Motivation is a process that comes from the individual, "limiting" the role of the teacher to being an external agent that tries to unleash the inner forces of the pupil. This leads to a consequence: incentives have a limited motivational value. The same incentive activity produces different responses in different individuals, or even in the same learner at different times.