Classroom Focus: The Motivated School

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Alan McLean (2003), identified three internal drivers that motivate all learners and that a greater understanding of these drivers by schools and teachers can help to increase levels of self-motivation.


  • Affiliation: feelings of belonging and connectedness with others.

  • Agency: the degree of self-belief or self-confidence. It is the belief that one has the capacity and ability to learn and achieve.

  • Autonomy: the capacity to be self-determining and to exercise control


The implications for teachers and schools


Mclean identifies strategies that will help schools to develop a climate where both teachers and students can become more self-motivated. He calls them the 'external drivers' of motivation. They are:


  • Engagement - taking a genuine interest in individuals: valuing, respecting and affirming them as people and having high expectations of what they might achieve.

  • Structure - providing people with a secure environment in which they know where they stand and are clear what is expected of them and what needs to be done.

  • Stimulation - providing interesting, challenging and enjoyable learning activities that arouse their curiosity and make them want to learn.

  • Feedback - talking regularly with people about what they have achieved and making using praise and positive comments where appropriate, but also ensuring that feedback is honest, accurate, and realistic and, where appropriate, critical.

McLean believes that these four drivers operate across two dimensions: relationships and power. Young people become empowered through stimulation and structure and find affirmation in engagement and feedback.



The main messages


  • Motivation comes from the self: it is locked from the inside out.

  • Although children are all born with intrinsic motivation to learn, levels of self-motivation decline as they progress through the education system.

  • Children begin to form beliefs about their ability at an early age and these attitudes can affect motivation and achievement.

  • Children’s natural motivation to learn needs to be nurtured and stimulated rather than controlled.

  • Children’s thoughts, positive or negative, have a big influence on their motivation, especially their ideas about progress and ability.

  • Intrinsic motivation is more effective than systems based on extrinsic rewards and sanctions.

  • Emotions play a major role in both motivation and learning.


For more information see: The Journey to Excellence: Research Summary - building self-motivation

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