Motivation plays a significant role in the school experience of students, regardless of their age or grade. Teachers may lament the apparent absence of motivation to learn in students who fail to do their schoolwork or do it poorly. It's not unusual for such a student to be characterized as "unmotivated." But is he?

We surmise a student, or anyone for that matter, is motivated when we observe or sense that their behavior is directed toward achieving a goal. But given that admittedly loose definition of motivation, it follows then that even when we, as adults decide to "veg-out" on a Friday night after a week of teaching, we are in fact setting a goal and acting with motivation. Our behavior is goal-directed, even though the goal is one of relaxation and "flat-line brain activity." So too, students may be perfectly motivated or goal-directed in school, but just not in accordance with the curriculum pacing and learning task at hand. The moral is "all behavior is goal-directed and persons are inherently motivated to achieve those goals." So the question becomes how can students be directed toward appropriate learning goals? Once they accept the goal (an internal state of mind), they will be motivated to achieve it.

Martin Ford (1992) grouped goals into six categories. They are:

1. Affective goals: those associated with entertainment, bodily sensations, and physical well-being.
2. Cognitive goals: those associated with learning, curiosity, understanding, and comprehension.
3. Subjective, organizational goals: those associated with religions and spiritual experiences, being in harmony with others and with nature.
4. Self-assertive, social relationship goals: those associated with a sense of individuality, self-determination, superiority, or gaining support from others.
5. Integrative, social relationship goals: those associated with a sense of community, belongingness, equity, or giving support to others
6. Task goals: those associated with creativity, management, material gain and safety.

In the classroom, teachers can be sure that students are responding to one or more of these goals depending upon how they perceive the task. The value of being aware of these goal categories is to enable teachers to utilize them in order to tap into the goal orientation that motivates a student to learn. While the process of education primarily focuses on cognitive goals, many students can learn to adopt that goal orientation through the use of one or more of the other goal categories, especially affective and social relationship goals.

In these times of NCLB and increased accountability, if we can leave no child left unmotivated, then learning, retention, and higher test scores will result.

Dr. William Zielke is a retired school principal who currently works as an educational consultant and trainer for the Professional Development Alliance in Joliet, IL.

Martin Ford (1992). Motivating humans: Goals, emotions, and personal agency beliefs. Newbury Park, CA. Sage.