Better Practice Blog- Motivating Music Students Part 3: The Music Student That Could
Motivating Music Students Part 3: The Music Student That Could
"I think I can, I think I can," these are the words from the 1930's children's book The Little Train That Could, and they are also the thoughts of your achievement-oriented music students. In this post, Part 3 of the Motivating Music Students multi-part series, we will explore achievement motivation a little further.
Who responds to achievements
Unlike being motivated by rewards or incentives, achievement-motivated students are driven by success itself. These students are often the “overachievers”, or the ones who get motivated when they are given a challenge - and they love conquering challenges! For young children, you'll see them get excited when they have completed something and ask for "More" or "Again". In older students or adults, it may not be so obvious. Some may show their excitement, while others may revel in their achievements, quietly and internally. So watching their response to questions like "Do you want to try something harder?" will help give you clues.
Creating motivating challenges
While achievement-motivated students seem like they are your easy students, you still have to make sure that they will want to work toward the goal in the first place. This is where we can apply some psychology. According to expectancy-value theory, the amount of effort people will put into a given task is determined by two things:
- Can I do this? - How confident am I that I can achieve the task? (Self-efficacy)
- Do I want to do this? - How much value do I place on the task? (Task value)
A related study by Eccles and Wigfield in 2000 found that for a child to fully engage in a task, he/she must be able to answer “yes” to the above two questions. More importantly, if he/she cannot answer “yes” to the first question, it is very unlikely that he/she will answer “yes” to the second.
So what does this mean for music teachers?
The challenges should be reachable. Now we know that the first thing to do is to let them know they can do it. Tell them something like: “It’s a challenge, but I know you can pick it up.” Give them the confidence to be turned on to the idea, and let them know you believe in their ability - after all, you are the teacher and you know best!
Sometimes, you may find that the challenge is a little too hard and beyond what the student can do alone. It's critical to not let this crush your students. Step in to help and achieve it together. It's the achievement and going through the process of achievement that is important. You'll see that achievement-oriented students will want to see if they can do it all by themselves the next time.
If they’re looking confident, you can address the second question: Do they want to do this? How much value does this challenge hold for them? Here, it will depend on what the challenge is. If you've taken the time to develop goals with your student, you can point out where this fits into the larger goal. Goals help not only provide meaning, but also structure and direction to the student's learning activities. We highly recommend that you take time to develop goals together.
According to expectancy-value theory, there are 4 ways to give a task value:
- Self-image (attainment value) - say you have a student who wants to be a professional musician and is applying to music schools. Give the task attainment value by telling them, “This is something all musicians should know how to do.” This aligns with their perceived identity - it helps them become more of a musician.
- Enjoyment (intrinsic value) - take something that appeals to them, like a piece you know they like. Then develop a challenging exercise with it. For example, make a performance piece a transcription challenge, let them transcribe their favorite song. They’ll enjoy the process so much, they won’t even know they’re practicing!
- Utility - A task with utility value is one that contributes to any short-term or long-term goal. Give them an etude or exercise that works on skills needed for an upcoming piece. Tell them that this will help them play that cool piece they’ve always wanted to play - and once they finally get to the piece, they will find that it was easier than they expected because of the previous task!
- Cost - Don’t make it so doing this task is very costly - whether it’s in terms of time, money, or effort. Make sure it’s not a make-it-or-break-it type of deal, or something they could lose a lot of time working for and have it amount to nothing of value to them.
When to use challenges
The risk with achievement-motivated students is keeping them challenged, while not giving them challenge fatigue. Sometimes achievement-motivated students are overlooked, especially while teaching in groups, and they begin to lose interest or seek challenges elsewhere. On the flip side, it can be tiring if it's all challenges, all the time. One way to strike the right balance is to make challenges extra credit projects. Let the student choose for themselves when and how much they are ready to take on.
Now, this may look like a lot of information to think about, but it’s really not! And this doesn’t have to apply to just achievement-motivated students, either. When you’re giving an assignment to anyone, just make sure to think about the two questions: 1. Can they do this? and 2. Do they want to do this? The feeling of achievement can boost anyone’s confidence and motivate them to work harder.