Explain how teachers can influence and encourage students’

motivation to learn.

We began our examination of motivation in the previous chapter when we explored students’ beliefs about their capabilities—their self-efficacy. We broaden our examination of motivation in this chapter given the influential and important role motivation plays in students’ social interactions and academic achievement in your classroom. Students with the same abilities and prior knowledge may perform quite differently, based on their motivation (Wentzel & Miele, 2016). So how does that work? Let’s start with a basic question: What is motivation?