As parents and educators, we often strive to instill a love for learning in our children. But what do we do when our methods aren’t as effective as we’d like? According to an article in The New York Times: 74% of students enjoy going to school in 3rd grade, but by 10th grade, that number drops to just 26%. This startling statistic indicates that many teens lose their intrinsic motivation for learning during crucial developmental years. For many students, there is simply too much stress and structure to thrive in a traditional classroom setting. So what can we do?
In light of these trends, it becomes imperative for parents and college counselors to take proactive steps to foster intrinsic motivation in teenagers. In this article, we’ll explore the top 5 effective strategies to encourage and inspire teens, helping them rediscover their passion for learning in the process.
1. Demonstrate Your Own Passion and Curiosity
As parents and college counselors, we want the teenagers in our lives to be passionate, follow their curiosity, and challenge themselves. But what do you do if your teen doesn’t seem to care about, well, anything? While you certainly can’t force passion, you can help inspire it. By demonstrating your own passion and curiosity, teenagers will be able to witness first-hand how following your passion brings more peace and satisfaction to your life.
If teenagers only see you work, do chores, and/or perform your various roles as a parent, they may not see the value in pursuing their passions. If you give yourself permission, however, to make time for a hobby or interest of your own, and share some of that experience with your teenager, they’ll be much more likely to find value in following their own passion.
This brings us to an important question: What are you passionate about? Maybe you already have a hobby, great! If that’s the case, find ways to involve your teenager. While you don’t want to force your interests on them, you do want to share something meaningful with them. This can look a lot of different ways.
For example, if you’re an artist, invite your teenager with you to a gallery opening or museum. Talk to them about some of your favorite pieces and ask about their own preferences. If you love cooking, ask your teen for a recipe suggestion. What’s something they’ve heard of but have never eaten? If you’re interested in sports, join a local rec league and invite your teen to one of your games.
While your teenager may be resistant to your efforts to include them, don’t worry! The goal isn’t necessarily to have bonding experiences with them (although that would be nice); the goal is to show your teen what it looks like to care about something outside of work and family. Even if you can’t directly involve your teen in your hobbies, taking art classes, reading novels, gardening, studying the stock market, and playing soccer are all great ways to show your teen that hobbies and extracurricular activities actually do matter and that it’s important to make time for them.
2. Connect Academic Subjects to Real-World Scenarios
Learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. At least, not effective learning. Teenagers — well, people in general, actually — can have a really hard time caring about an academic subject if they don’t know how it can be applied to real-world scenarios.
While some people love math for math’s sake, other people may need more convincing. Let’s take geometry for example. Does your teen like to play pool or golf? This is a great opportunity to talk about how geometry and a knowledge of angles, speed, and distance can improve their game. Is your teen more artsy? Sign them up for a quilting class. Or a carpentry class. If teenagers are able to think of geometry as a gateway to building tiny houses, sewing quilts, and playing golf, chances are they’ll be much more invested in geometry class.
Let’s take a look at another example: human anatomy. How can you encourage your teenager to enjoy learning (or at least care about learning) anatomy if they aren’t naturally interested in science? Well, are they interested in dance? Or Gymnastics? What about other sports? Express to them that knowledge of human anatomy can actually bring more precision and skill to these endeavors.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that, regardless of the subject, there is almost always a way to engage your teen more fully. Whether you’re appealing to their sense of justice, creativity, or athleticism, there are lots of ways to make learning feel more worthwhile than it may feel within a traditional classroom. The key is to connect academic subjects to real-world scenarios.
3. Help Your Teenagers Set Realistic Goals
There’s no other way to put it: Facing challenges is challenging. Whether your teen is learning a new language, trying to master a backflip, or writing a history report, there’ll be moments when they’re going to feel frustrated. There’ll be moments when they’ll want to give up.
When you’re naturally good at something, staying motivated can feel easy. After all, praise and recognition feel good! Especially when you’re a teenager. So if your teen is hitting home runs, getting A’s on their English reports, or being elected as class president, most likely, they’re going to have an okay time staying motivated.
But what if they spend the game on the bench, get a C on their English paper, or run for class president, only to have someone else elected? Chances are, it’s going to be a lot harder for them to stay motivated. So, what can we do to help?
One way we can help is by showing teenagers how to set realistic goals for themselves. For example, learning a new language is a lofty goal — it’s a great goal to have, but chances are, there'll be times when it feels frustrating and overwhelming. So, how can we help them break this goal into smaller, more manageable goals?
Maybe it means spending 15 minutes on Duolingo every day and watching foreign language films on the weekend. Maybe it means learning a new vocabulary term every week. In short, “learning a new language” may feel overwhelming, but “learning a new vocabulary term every week” feels manageable.
Regardless of your teenager’s larger goals, helping them break their goals down into smaller, more manageable tasks is a great way to help them maintain their optimism and overall sense of motivation.
4. Ask Questions Rather Than Provide Answers
Rather than providing teenagers with direct answers, try posing open-ended questions. Not only will this challenge them to think critically and creatively, but it will also give them a greater sense of purpose and agency.
Memorizing facts is boring. It’s also likely to cause resentment, especially amongst teens. (After all, who wants to be told what to think?) But if you approach learning opportunities as discussions, rather than lectures, chances are, your teenager will feel much more engaged.
For example, if you want to teach your teen about politics, rather than tell them about your personal values and opinions, ask them thought-provoking questions, such as: Are governments necessary? Why or why not? Is there an ideal form of government? Do social problems affect everyone, regardless of their economic status? What do you think is the most pressing issue in our country today?
While we might not always agree with our teenager’s opinions, it’s important to give them the time and space to form and vocalize them. Encouraging critical thinking skills is one of the most important experiences we can give teenagers. Again, we don’t necessarily need to like what they have to say, or agree with them (playing devil’s advocate is always a great tactic!), but we should give them space to explore their own ideas and values without pressure from us to form certain conclusions.
5. Allow Your Teenager to Set Their Own Goals and Pursue Their Own Interests
We all want the best for the teenagers in our lives. But the truth is that our ideas of what’s best for them may look very different from their idea of what’s best.
This doesn’t mean that suddenly we should allow teenagers to eat exactly what they want, go to bed as late as they want, and to spend endless hours looking at a screen. Teenagers need boundaries and structure. But they also need freedom. Freedom to make mistakes and change their minds. Freedom to explore niche hobbies and choose their own extracurricular activities.
While we may dream of having a teen who has all the same interests as us, more likely than not, this won’t be the case. You may be a concert pianist and want to teach your teenager how to play the piano. Or a lawyer who wants your teen to join the debate club or Model Congress. But unless your teenager genuinely wants to do these things, they won’t feel motivated. It may feel difficult, but do your best to allow your teenager to follow their own passions and make some of their own choices.
How Can Polygence Help Build Intrinsic Motivation in Teens?
The top 5 ways to build intrinsic motivation in teens are all incredible goals to have for yourself and for your teen. But asking for help is always a good idea. So how can Polygence help?
Here at Polygence, we pride ourselves on connecting students with their ideal research mentor, based on shared interests, learning styles, personalities, and more. Not only are our research mentors experts in their respective fields, but they are also passionate educators, eager to share their knowledge with students. Whether your teen is interested in astrophysics, the stock market, fashion design, or anything in between, we’ve got a mentor who can help!
Pursuing a Polygence passion project is a great way to allow your teenager to follow their passions while providing a structured and challenging environment. What’s more, Polygence alums go on to have spectacular college careers; check out our college admissions results to see for yourself!