ABSTRACT
Motivation is vital. Pupils are bound to be asked to do things in school that they are not quite or not yet able to do, or not very keen on doing. If they will not risk having a go, they may not take on new understanding and skills. This chapter looks at pre-conditions for pupils' being motivated to succeed and learn. It explores how lesson activities can be made motivating and the roles that self-esteem, praise, peer influence, negotiation and shared problem-solving can play. For Sugata Mitra, children's motivation came from their curiosity about what an unfamiliar machine could be made to do and their shared pleasure in exploring and creating. Labov suggested we pay attention to what pupils say, as well as to how they say it. That is also a principle in teaching pupils whose first language is different from the school's, one example being English as an additional language (EAL).
