Explain The Importance Of Setting Approaches To Motivation

The key to supporting children’s and young people’s learning is motivation, even if this is one to one with a pupil, in a small group or as a whole class, whether you are supporting the teacher or taking the class. Approaches to motivation include behavioural, cognitive, physiological and social. Therefore, when setting goals for pupils to achieve it is a crucial element. A pupil’s behaviour and the persistence and strength of their behaviour is all affected by motivation.

Lesson plans often incorporate activities which are fun and interesting but linked to the learning objective, therefore hooking the children’s imagination so they become motivated to take part. Ultimately we are trying to motivate children so they remain engaged, focused and on task so they complete activities and achieve the desired learning outcome.

Young people and children are

As well as our own body language we need to be aware and observant of pupils’ body language. We categorise body language into: gestures and body movement e.g. to emphasise height or width as an aid to expression. Hand gestures to convey meaning e.g. sign language, communicating without words. Facial expressions and eye contact are used to accompany dialogue for example smiles, pouts and raised eyebrow bearing in mind that some children can feel threatened by direct eye contact. Spatial proximity and touch: interacting with children often means working in close proximity to them but can vary depending on the activity and the needs of the child or young person. However, as a professional working with children you need to be aware that although touch can be seen as a sign of encouragement and praise it can also be seen as inappropriate and in line with child abuse so we need to take care with physical