I found teaching math to be a challenging task for many high school teachers. With so much material to learn and memorize, it is easy for our students to get discouraged and lose motivation in the classroom. As teachers, we must find creative ways to motivate our students so they can stay engaged and interested in the material.
I personally believe that with the right motivation and teaching techniques, we can make teaching and learning high school math an engaging and rewarding experience for students and teachers.
Read on to explore some of the best strategies for motivating high school math students. If you wonder why math is taught poorly in schools, I wrote an article that I encourage you to read.
Creative Ways to Motivate High School Math Students
Here are some tips on how to motivate your students in the classroom.
1- Incentives and Rewards
I discovered that one of the most effective ways to motivate high school math students is through incentives and rewards. I believe that offering incentives like extra credit or small rewards such as gift cards or candy can help encourage students to stay focused on their studies and strive to excel in math.
A study from Harvard suggested using financial rewards, but I suggest you start small and use only incentives and rewards relevant to your students’ interests.
I think incentives should be tailored to each student’s individual strengths, interests, and goals. I suggest you get to know each of your students, what they like and what motivates them. For example, if your student enjoys sports, offering tickets to a local game could be an excellent reward for doing well on a test or assignment.
Studies suggest using incentives and rewards sparingly and with a specific purpose and gradually decreasing them as student motivation and learning increase.
2- Provide Opportunities for Collaboration
Group work is another great way to keep math students motivated and engaged in the classroom. When you allow your students to work together, it will allow them to apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios while also providing opportunities for collaboration with their peers.
Collaborative learning helps develop students’ higher-level thinking skills and boost their confidence and self-esteem. Additionally, group projects have been shown to maximize students’ educational experience and help improve social and interpersonal skills (Source: National Education Association)
Opportunities for collaboration could include assigning group projects where each member has an important role in completing the task or hosting friendly competitions between groups of students.
I believe that providing your students with opportunities to collaborate will make your math classes fun and interesting. Still, it also helps foster positive relationships amongst your class members, creating a more cooperative learning environment overall.
3- Integrate Technology into Your Lessons
If you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest using technology in the classroom, as it is an excellent way to engage your high school math students.
I suggest you incorporate interactive tools such as apps, artificial intelligence (AI), videos, online simulations, or even virtual reality into your lessons to help make complex concepts easier for your students to understand while sparking their curiosity and creativity when tackling new topics or problems.
I also believe that using digital tools allows you to tailor each lesson specifically toward your student’s needs so they can get the most out of their education.
Ideas for Incorporating Technology in Your Classroom:
- Gamified Learning: Gamification offers tremendous benefits, including positively impacting students’ learning and engagement by building a sense of achievement.
- Virtual Field Trips: Field trips and tours offer a wonderful learning experience while increasing student engagement.
- Use Social Media: When it comes to using social media, I suggest being careful. Remember, the purpose of using social media is to give your students a place where they can go to interact with one another.
I suggest you watch the below to discover the power of gamification in education.
4- Set Clear Goals and Objectives
Setting clear goals is essential when it comes to motivating students in math. I believe it is important to establish achievable objectives at the beginning of the semester or unit so that they know what they need to work towards.
I generally start each semester by asking my students to answer; this technique helps me to get to know each student individually and what motivates them.
Here is a sample of my quick introductory questionnaire:
- What is your name:
- When is your birthday?
- What do you do in your spare time?
- What kind of music do you like? Do you have any favorite artists or bands?
- What is your greatest accomplishment?
- Describe yourself in 3 words.
- What can I do (as your teacher) to help you be successful in Mathematics?
- What can I do (as your teacher) to help you here at Weiming School, in general?
- What do you think is the most important quality that a teacher can have?
- Which university do you want to attend?
- What do you hope to learn in this class?
- What grade are you striving to earn in this class?
Goal setting increases students’ goal-setting skills and improves their self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation to further their learning. In other words, with goal setting, students direct their actions, assess their progress, and drive their education in the long run (Source: Education Resources Information Center)
When setting clear goals and objectives for your students, I encourage you to ensure you make these goals concrete, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to help keep your students motivated by giving them a sense of purpose and direction.
5- Incorporate Different Teaching Styles
Another way to keep your students motivated is to use different teaching styles in the classroom. I believe that not every student learns in the same way; some may respond better to visual aids, while others prefer hands-on activities or discussion-based learning.
Here Are The Most Effective Teaching Styles:
- Teacher-Centered Approach
- Student-Centered Approach
- Lecturer or Authoritative Style
- Demonstrator or Coach Style
- Facilitator or Activity Style
- Delegator or Group Style
- Hybrid or Blended Style
I suggest you mix things up so that all your students remain engaged throughout the lesson. In addition, I recommend you use different teaching styles to help you better understand students’ strengths and weaknesses which can inform future instruction plans.
6- Make Math Relevant
We all know that math often feels like an abstract concept for many students, making it difficult for them to stay motivated when studying it.
I suggest engaging your students by making math more relevant to their daily lives by connecting it with real-world applications or situations they might encounter in their future careers or life skills such as budgeting or understanding basic financial principles like investments.
Making math relevant will help bring the subject matter alive for your learners and show them why math matters beyond just passing tests.
Here are excellent ways to make math more relevant:
- Use collaborative math For The Win! (FTW): Most students learn well through collaborative discussions about math concepts. Because talking through a math problem with a partner allows students to express ideas in a small group format (Source: Innovative Education in VT)
- Use current events charts, data, maps, and tables to explore issues.
- Use hands-on math, known as a project-based learning approach. Students who accomplish hands-on math projects are more engaged and motivated.
- Get your students up and moving: The idea is to get your students to perform math-related activities.
I encourage you to watch to the video below to learn more about project-based math.
7- Challenge your Students
Generally, I found that they react enthusiastically when I challenge my students. However, you carefully select what to use to challenge your students.
I suggest you choose a math problem within your student’s abilities and ensure that it doesn’t distract from your lesson’s learning objectives but leads to them.
You can also ask your students to justify or demonstrate a mathematical theory. For example, when the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 9, the original number is also divisible by 9.
Remember to ensure that your students are familiar and comfortable with mathematical problems proving; otherwise, you will destroy their confidence and demotivate them.
Also, keep in mind that some of your students will require your guidance and support more than others. Most students might need help at every step, which is also entirely okay.
BE PRESENT FOR YOUR STUDENTS: You can help by being there for your students in several ways. You can walk around in class while they are working on their assignments.
8- Share Inspiration Story From Famous mathematicians
Sharing stories about famous mathematicians and their contributions is an excellent way to captivate your students’ attention and increase their interest in math.
For example, you can share how Carl Friedrich Gauss added the numbers from 1 to 100 within one minute when he was only a 10-year-old in 1787).
If you are interested in famous mathematicians and their contributions, I wrote a whole article that I encourage you to read.
Suppose you decide to share a story with students. In that case, I suggest you take your time and don’t rush while telling the story because hurried storytelling might minimize the potential motivation of the strategy.
9- Make Your Students Accountable For Their Success
Holding students accountable for their success is one of the most crucial ways to keep them motivated and engaged. I also use positive feedback, recognition, and compliments to encourage all my students to become accountable for their success.
I always tell my students that they must contribute to their own rescue. In other words, nobody can help them without them doing the work.
As a teacher, I am here to provide guidance, but ultimately it is their job and responsibility to work hard, be serious and responsible, and be committed to learning.
10- Encourage Friendly Competition Among Your Students
Combined with challenging your students, this strategy can work well to help motivate your students. I constantly use this strategy in one of my classes. Informal competitions inside the classroom will help you keep your students’ motivated students in math.
When I created competition in a class, I realized that students usually compete with one another and find themselves outperforming each other.
Healthy competition makes everyone grow and improve, particularly in high school math class, as they tend to achieve higher grades.
11- Having Regular One On One Meetings With Your Students
Another excellent way to keep your students motivated is to start having regular one-to-one meetings with your students. A study observed that a teacher-student relationship is essential in building students’ interest and liking a subject.
Having one-to-one sessions with my students is one of my favorite ways to increase student engagement. And I discovered that when I started having one-on-one meetings with my students, they began to work harder, pay more attention in class, and become more disciplined.
Remember, as teachers; we play a very influential role in the lives of our students. I suggest you maintain a cheerful attitude and serve your students with care.
What to read next:
- Top 9 Teaching Strategies In Mathematics For Improved Students Engagement.
- 8 Fun And Exciting Math Activities For Middle School.
- Top 9 Creative Ways to Teach Mathematics to High School Students.
Wrapping Up
Motivating high school math class can be challenging, but with a few simple strategies, I believe you can create an engaging environment where learning becomes fun instead of a chore.
I suggest you set clear objectives, incorporate different teaching styles, and make math relevant to everyday life; I promise you will be well on your way toward unlocking your student’s potential. I recommend giving the strategies shared in this article a try.
The truth is motivating high school math students requires creativity and dedication from both teachers and students. The strategies outlined above are just a few ideas you can use as starting points when looking for ways to spark engagement in your classroom.
Ultimately though, I want you to remember that every student learns differently; I suggest you take some time getting to know your class so you can come up with innovative solutions that work best for them.