Recommendation 8 Include motivational strategies in Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions.

1. Institute of Education Sciences Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools Recommendation 8Include motivational strategies in Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions. Level of Evidence: Low

2. Tier 2 and Tier interventions should include components that promote: • student effort • persistence • achievement

3. Research to Support the Recommendation In the opinion of the panel, studies which included motivational strategies in the interventions did not show that a motivational component is essential, but do suggest that it may be useful for improving mathematics achievement.

4. Research to Support the Recommendation Graphing student progress and setting goals suggests positive effects • One experimental study used student graphing and goal setting as independent variables and found substantively important positive effects. • In other studies graphing and setting goals were part of multidimensional intervention studies that showed positive effects.

5. How to Carry Out the Recommendations

6. Reinforce or praise students for their effort and for attending to and being engaged in the lesson (engagement-contingent rewards). • Reinforcement should be immediate and specific to highlight student effort and engagement. • It is ineffective to give empty praise such as “good job” or “keep up the good work” that is not related to actual effort. • Praise is most effective when it points to specific progress that students are making and actual effort.

7. Consider rewarding student accomplishments. • Consider using rewards to acknowledge completion of math tasks (completion-contingent rewards) and accurate work (performance contingent rewards). • Praise should be specific rather than generic. • Consider notifying the student’s parents to inform them of their child’s successes in math.

8. Allow students to chart their progress and to set goals for improvement. • Goal setting help students develop self-regulated learning.

10. Concerns & Considerations • Some are concerned rewards can reduce genuine interest in mathematics by directing student attention to gathering rewards rather than learning math. • Research in other content areas has demonstrated that rewards and praise increase the likelihood of students’ academic success without diminishing their interest in learning. • As students learn and succeed, interventionists can gradually fade the use of rewards because student success will become an intrinsic reward.

11. Concerns & Considerations • Some teachers may be concerned that providing feedback and rewarding achievement detracts from classroom instructional time. • Verbally praising students for their effort individually and engagement in small group lessons requires very little time. • Awarding points or token for correct responses can be done when the teacher grades the student’s work.