Why does a student become demotivated? How can they be (re)motivated? So what is motivation, and what is its role in academic learning?
The article aims to examine in detail the causes of school motivation and demotivation and its consequences on the pedagogical relationship.
What do students fundamentally need to be motivated and succeed in school? If you’re not the type of teacher who treats failure by exclusion, this question will interest you. It’s a simple question, yet the answers are often complex and far from unanimous. There are, in fact, various approaches that do not share the same understanding of how to inspire a desire to learn and involve young people in their academic success.
How do we bring out the desire to learn?
Talking about academic motivation first requires thinking about how a teacher can stimulate and transform their students’ curiosity into engagement in academic learning.
Competing representations of the art and manner of teaching
With the French pedagogue Philippe Meirieu, we can distinguish at least four competing pedagogical approaches to teaching to arouse the desire to learn.
There are those who believe in “negative education,” that is, in a form of spontaneous development, of spontaneity; students are supposed to naturally desire to learn; we should simply let this desire emerge in them, without pressing or constraining them. This pedagogical naturalism” tends to reject any form of authority in the teacher-student relationship.
There are those, less Rousseauist, who prefer to promote a pedagogy centered on the student’s interests. We will focus on what interests the student to make them want to learn what is in their interest. Knowledge will thus be transmitted based on what interests the student most directly, based on their hobbies, their leisure activities. The process is quite effective, although it requires some cunning.
Still others believe that it is by assigning a utility, an application, a concrete functionality to knowledge, outside of school, that students will want to learn. They also believe that knowledge must be able to be transformed into skills for future employment. In this sense, academic knowledge finds its practical, possibly economic, purpose outside of school.
Finally, some believe that the desire to learn is primarily linked to the way knowledge is presented and explored from within to generate a pure pleasure of understanding. Good heavens, but of course! Eureka! The pleasure of learning is associated with the pleasure of accessing the rationality and symbolic value of knowledge. The usefulness of what is learned is secondary. The student finds a purpose in knowledge in itself, without necessarily feeling the need to dedicate uses to it.
These educational concepts are based on different representations of education, school, students, knowledge, and the student’s relationship to knowledge. However, it is the nature of this relationship to academic knowledge that will be decisive in the student’s motivation to learn.
Highly motivated students are actively and willingly engaged in activities; they do not need to anticipate a reward to get to work and participate in the learning environment. Conversely, students who lack motivation are more likely to accept work in exchange for a reward: they do not study “for themselves” because they find it interesting, but because they expect gratification. This low level of motivation can have negative repercussions on academic achievement and well-being at school.
We will describe more precisely these two forms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, identified by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (2025) in self-determination theory.
From extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation occurs when an activity is performed for its own sake, that is, for the sense of satisfaction it provides, without the anticipation of external rewards. Curiosity and enjoyment are associated with the learning situation. A good level of challenge, combined with an achievable task (which requires skills that the student has or is in the process of mastering) that triggers feelings of interest in the student, are key factors of intrinsic motivation.
Students driven by intrinsic motivation do not expect rewards and seek out learning situations to experience the pleasure of learning more about a subject.
According to the same theory of self-determination, we can distinguish several aspects of extrinsic motivation (by external regulation, introjected, identified, and integrated). We refer the reader interested in this theory to the website of the Educational Success Information Network ( ESIN )
Motivation can be encouraged extrinsically at the beginning of a learning process, especially when it comes to tedious exercises, but the ultimate goal is to develop intrinsic motivation. While extrinsic motivation can trigger a high level of willingness and commitment at the beginning of learning, external rewards ultimately erode students’ enjoyment of learning and engaging in educational activities.
Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are involved in the learning process. The former, which involves encouragement, generates initial energy for learning; the latter, which operates more in the long term, can lead to higher levels of self-motivation and thereforere autonomy in learning (Ti and Lynch, 2025).
However, a teacher can only remotivate a student by thoroughly understanding the reasons why they have become demotivated. Otherwise, kind words of encouragement risk remaining completely in vain if the teacher fails to perceive the deeper reasons for the demotivation.
Why does a student become demotivated?
Lack of student motivation is a common problem teachers face. It’s a complex issue because the relationship with knowledge is established based on the relationship with others, the ones who will transmit the knowledge and give meaning to the learning.
The lack of motivation of students can thus mirror the lack of motivation of teachers who are then forced to question, through discussion, their teaching methods.
Students are,t incomparably more engaged in their work when teachers are themselves involved, accessible, and encouraging and when they use differentiated teaching methods and varied learning materials (videos, readings, slideshows, etc.). It’s the teacher effect! However, it has become a little easy to blame teachers without understanding that this is often a problem relatively independent of their goodwill and their skills.
In this perspective, we would like to propose some interpretations to try to better understand how academic demotivation and the loss of meaning in learning manifest themselves.
The feeling of personal ineffectiveness
Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura has shown, in his research on the impact of self-efficacy, that self-confidence, and more specifically the feeling of self-efficacy and belief in one’s potential success, is a central marker of motivation.
This sense of self-efficacy is a contextual confidence that applies to very different situations such as school learning, sports, employment, etc. Young people with a high sense of self-efficacy tend to persevere, set ambitious goals, self-regulate their learning better, and demonstrate metacognitive skills.
Conversely, a lack of self-efficacy creates feelings of anxiety when attempting a new task, and ultimately, avoidance of situations that are perceived as anxiety-provoking, as they can lead to failure and a sense of shame. An environment that expresses belief in the young person’s abilities helps motivate them to make an effort. Performance expectations must be realistic, otherwise, they risk leading to failure, which reinforces the lack of self-efficacy.
Boredom and the need for new challenges
All learners need to find meaning in what they study. A student may consider a course useless because they don’t immediately see its relevance or the connection to their daily lives. And if they can’t find meaning in their learning, they inevitably end up feeling bored and unimportant about the subject.
A student may also feel bored if a teacher spends too much time on a concept they have already mastered. These students need novelty and rewarding challenges to stimulate their abilities. Often, these are young people who are self-confident and therefore seek high standards.
At the same time, students with learning disabilities, as well as those who lack confidence and self-esteem, may lose attention when the teaching material is not adapted to their abilities and/or they do not believe in their ability to succeed.
Affective disorders, aggression, and attention seeking.g
An emotional disturbance can negatively impact concentration: anxiety, fear, depression, or feelings of distress can interfere with academic motivation. The student’s heart isn’t in it. Other issues are preoccupying the student, and they no longer have the time needed to remain attentive in class.
A teacher who is sensitive and tactful enough to discuss this with their student can succeed in bringing about a very positive change in the educational relationship. This dialogue is all the more important because it can allow the student ty reinvest the knowledge taught at school positively.
Other young people may refuse to work and thus sabotage their schooling to express anger toward their parents. Aggression is then not expressed directly, head-on, but in a roundabout way, to the detriment of academic learning. This may be the case when a student suffers from intense pressure to succeed and attempts to regain control by refusing to work.
Under these conditions, the more the parent tries to control the young person and their success at school, the more the results decline. A teacher who becomes aware of this can certainly talk to their colleagues and possibly ask to meet with the student’s parents to help them communicate their aggression in a different way than by falling into counterproductive attitudes.
Some young people may also neglect their schoolwork to get the attention of parents or teachers. These behaviors may mask self-confidence issues, a general lack of recognition or listening, or a feeling of abandonment. The attention given to each student is a powerful motivator. So don’t hesitate to value their efforts and listen to their struggles without necessarily seeking to offer advice!
Learning disabilities
The student position requires humility. It’s about allowing yourself to be taught and therefore being aware of what you don’t (yet) know and accepting that you don’t know everything. Students who struggle to recognize their limitations and lack self-confidence struggle to accept this position.
Young people with LD may also find learning difficult, frustrating, or meaningless. Memory problems, difficulty following instructions, impaired visual or auditory perception of information, and an inability to perform paper-and-pencil tasks (i.e., writing essays, taking notes, completing written assignments, taking tests), among other things, can make learning a truly demotivating chore.
The school environment
The school environment refers to various norms and regulations that determine the overall school climate. A positive school environment makes students feel safe, meets their basic needs, and provides an optimal environment for building healthy social relationships. Young people should feel free to ask questions, express their curiosity, and so on.
Conversely, overly harsh environments inhibit motivation and the meaning of learning. The teacher’s knowledge must not be transformed into unduly repressive power over the student. The desire to learn and perseverance are not acquired in an environment marked by fear and the threat of punishment or the stifling of curiosity.
A student should feel free and secure enough to experience the joy of learning. Adding fun elements to lessons can help improve the school atmosphere, motivation, and results. Allowing enough time for play and rest can also have a positive effect.
A student’s demotivation can be explained by various internal and external factors. Similarly, motivation can come from the student himself (intrinsic motivation: the desire to learn for the pleasure of learning, by his needs and desires) or from outside (extrinsic motivation: learning to gain parental approval, grades, or rewards).
While scientific research convincingly demonstrates that young people who find motivation within themselves can achieve greater success and empowerment, teachers and parents often feel that children seek external reinforcers.
Motivation often varies depending on the environment, the people involved, the task, and the situation. The weight of previous experiences, emotions, and the school and family environment should not be overlooked. How can teachers, despite everything, try to motivate or remotivate their students to ultimately prevent them from dropping out of school?
