The Motivational Breakthrough Summary

The book The Motivational Breakthrough written by Richard Lavoie, shares experiences that he has in regards to motivation of students in and outside of the classroom. He describes 6 different techniques and strategies about how to motivate all different types of children. Each of these techniques further helps the student succeed and achieve their goals. Another aspect of the book is in relation to parents and ways in which they could inspire and motivate their children. He emphasizes throughout the book how students with learning disabilities have a harder time finding motivation, and he gives specific advice to about how to help those students. The many methods that Lavoie describes helps future educators achieve at inspiring and motivating …show more content…
I agree with Lavoie argument that all human behavior is motivated because everyone is motivated to do something no matter what that may be. Another myth of motivation is how students’ motivations changes every day. For example, one day a student may not seem as motivated to do his in-class reading as he was the previous day. This could be related to a student’s frustration when they have a difficult time learning something and could have nothing to do with motivation. Another myth of student motivation is by giving students rewards as a type of motivation. This type of motivation has an impact on a student’s behavior temporary, but does not give the student motivation in the long run. Students should want to learn new things and should not expect to be rewarded for learning new things. There are two different types of motivation in this category, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation consists of systems or policies that encourage the child to earn rewards by behaving in a manner that promotes learning. This means that students will behave because they know they will …show more content…
For instance, teachers should provide students with constant support and reinsurance so they have confidence in themselves and will no longer feel helpless. Lavoie states, “We must provide the child with concrete, observable, measurable evidence that contradicts and refutes his negative thoughts.” He believes that by doing this students’ will feel better about themselves and it could help break the pattern of hopelessness. Lavoie then goes on to describe that when a student realizes his negative thoughts are harming his academic progress, it is good to give the student