Student Motivation & Engagement Flashcards
6 cards from real GED practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Student Motivation & Engagement flashcards as text
A teacher praises a student by saying 'You must have worked really hard on this' rather than 'You're so smart.' This reflects research suggesting that:
Answer: Praising effort promotes a growth mindset and sustained motivation
Dweck's research shows that praising effort (rather than ability) promotes a growth mindset — students are more likely to persist, take on challenges, and view setbacks as opportunities to learn.
Which engagement strategy involves students teaching or explaining content to their peers?
Answer: Peer teaching (reciprocal teaching)
Peer teaching or reciprocal teaching has students explain, summarize, and teach content to each other — research shows that explaining content deepens the teacher's understanding while also benefiting the learner.
Project-based learning (PBL) primarily motivates students because it:
Answer: Connects learning to authentic, real-world problems and student interests
PBL engages students by anchoring learning in authentic problems, real-world contexts, and student voice — creating purpose and relevance that sustain motivation through complex, extended tasks.
When a student avoids a challenging task to protect their self-image from potential failure, this behavior is consistent with:
Answer: Self-handicapping linked to a fixed mindset
Self-handicapping involves creating obstacles or excuses in advance to protect one's ego — if you fail, you can blame the obstacle rather than your ability, preserving a fixed-mindset view of intelligence.
A teacher gives students a choice between three different ways to demonstrate understanding of a unit. According to SDT, this primarily supports which psychological need?
Answer: Autonomy
Offering choices directly supports the need for autonomy — students experience a sense of self-determination and control over their learning, which is a core driver of intrinsic motivation.
Which of the following best describes the concept of 'academic press'?
Answer: High teacher expectations combined with instructional support to help students meet those expectations
Academic press refers to the combination of high expectations from teachers/school and the instructional support necessary to help students achieve them — both are needed to drive achievement.