Teaching children to set goals helps them to stay focused and motivated. It not only gives them something to strive for, but showing them how to break down goals into steps will also show them the reasons for staying motivated. According to educational philosopher John Dewey in his book "Interest and Effort in Education," children learn better and retain more through interest than by effort. Goal setting reinforces this theory. For example, a child who wants to be a classical ballet dancer someday needs to take ballet lessons as one of the steps of reaching that goal.
When learning something new, children can get frustrated, which chips away at their motivation to learn. This is an ideal moment to teach them that no matter how difficult a task may be, effort, patience and practice will pay off. Encourage the child to discuss what he's frustrated by and resist the urge to "rescue" the child. Give him the opportunity to figure out how to remove obstacles that get in his way. Give him a little boost when needed, but don't push too hard. It's also important for children to be reminded of their past successes.
Creativity can help children express their feelings and also give teachers insight into those feelings and the thoughts a child may be dealing with. Creativity also helps a child develop problem-solving skills and the opportunity to try out new ideas. The more diverse experiences children have, the larger the pool of ideas for them to pull from. Allowing a child to make his own creative choices also helps foster a child's independence and feelings of control. This is especially true of children with disabilities. Allowing a child this freedom helps motivate him to do well.
When children appear to be disinterested in school, the assumption many times is that the class work is too hard for the student and he may be overwhelmed. However, it might be just the opposite. The class work may be too easy for the student and may be leaving him understimulated and bored. If left unmotivated, he may quickly turn into an underachiever, his grades may drop and his academic career may be greatly affected. Children who fall into this category should be tested and placed in advanced or gifted children's classes.