What Motivates Underachieving Middle School Students? A Model for Meaningful, Engaged Learning - What are the four key components to engage students in meaningful learning and what are some educational programs which incorporate those components? How People Learn - a short article What Motivates Underachieving Students to Learn? - An article summarizing what underachieving students themselves believe motivate them to learn. What Gets in the Way for Underachievers? From the 2000/2001 issue of Mainely Middle What Motivates Underachieving Students to Learn? - A Dissertation Study (HTML version) (PDF - 640 KB) A Pilot Study - What do the students think? Characteristics of Good Learning Experiences: Shining Moments Scenarios for Active Learning Learning Theory Web Sites back to top   Motivating Instruction A Model for Meaningful, Engaged Learning Virtual Field Trips - Can't take the students out of Dixfield? Then expand their world over the Internet. MUSÉE - An interactive directory to museums' collections including art, science, history, zoos, archaeology and aquariums, etc. providing links to their educational, entertainment, archive and shopping features. Placing learning into context can help students make connections. The US DOE's Contextual Teaching and Learning gives teachers resources and ideas. http://www.contextual.org/ Active Learning: A Few Possibilities... - a resource to get educators discussing what's possible in motivating instruction and learning activities. Motivating Students to Learn - classroom strategies to engage your students. Some Ideas for Motivating Students - more great tips for reaching your students. Using Technology to Enhance Engaged Learning for At-Risk Students back to top   Student Motivation and Learning Theory Student Motivation to Learn - an ERIC Digest and a good overview of motivation. Motivation, Motivation, Motivation - This article begins, "The educational equivalent to 'location, location, location,' is 'motivation,motivation, motivation,' for motivation is probably the most significant factor educators can target in order to improve learning." Motivating Learning: The Underachieving Learner's Perspective - The summary paper of a pilot study exploring underachieving students' view of what motivates them to learn. Hard Work and High Expectations: Motivating Students to Learn - More information about motivating students. Enhancing Student Motivation - Topics include intrinsic & extrinsic motivation, the learning cycle and Moslov's Theory and motivation. Funderstanding: About Learning - explores how learning potential is enhanced Engines for Education - Engines for Education is an on-line book about how students learn, how to reform the education system with learning theory in mind, and especially, about the role of educational technology in that reform. Engines for Education has a very interesting interface where you can follow your own questions through the book! Learning and Student Motivation - a short bibliography of research studies. Selected ERIC Abstracts on Student Motivation School Leadership and Student Motivation - an overview of how school leaders can impact the motivation of their students. back to top   Aspiration Sites The National GEAR-UP home page - tons of resources for GEAR-UP schools The National Center for Student Aspirations - Housed at our own University of Maine, NCSA is one of the sponsors of the Maine Aspirations Benchmarking Initiative. Come read about the eight conditions effecting student aspirations or the early results of the Aspirations Benchmarking Initiative. The Gear-Up Support Network - the same folks who did the training for the initial Gear-Up grants. The Alaska Regional Assistance Center - This site may be for Alaska, but it has hundreds of sites that can be useful to any concerned educator. Quotes to inspire students - from the Youth Motivation Institute. A Collection of Motivating and Inspiring Thoughts and Techniques back to top   Dirigo Middle School GEAR-UP Program Web Resources back to top

What Motivates Underachieving Middle School Students? Motivating Instruction Student Motivation and Learning Theory Aspiration Sites Dirigo Middle School GEAR-UP   Created by Mike Muir Last updated: August 30, 2004   The Maine Association for Middle Level Education is a Partner in this project.   Inservice Available