M-PLANS Toolkit

M-PLANS Toolkit

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have introduced multiple new demands on science teachers, centered on the idea of involving students in rigorous and authentic scientific problem solving and sense-making. The Motivation - Planning Lessons to Activate eNgagement in Science (M-PLANS) project aims to help science teachers support students’ motivation and engagement in NGSS-based instruction to foster robust and meaningful science learning. As students develop positive motivational beliefs about science, they may be more likely to develop a sense of identification and belonging with science, leading to long-term interest and empowerment in science learning and careers.
Motivated Student
We define motivation as a set of beliefs that students hold in response to the questions Can I do this? and Why do I want to do this?
Motivation initiates and sustains students’ academic behavior (e.g., effort on assignments, study habits, persistence, collaboration), and influences the quality of that behavior.
Student Engagement
Engagement is the manifestation of students’ motivational beliefs into academic behaviors.
It includes the quality of student participation, attention, and conduct; the quality of learning strategies and mental effort; the level of interest and enthusiasm; and the quality of social interactions with others in the classroom (including the teacher).
Motivation is also situational and malleable: students are not either “motivated” or “not motivated,” but rather react and respond to the characteristics of the task and the learning environment. To promote student motivation and engagement, M-PLANS identifies five motivation design principles (MDPs), drawn from a synthesis of common themes across motivational theory and research, 1 that can help teachers incorporate motivational supports more intentionally in their planning and instruction. The five MDPs are:
Belonging
Support feelings of relatedness and belonging among students and with teachers
Confidence
Support students’ confidence through instruction that includes clear expectations; challenging work that is calibrated to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of students; and informational and encouraging feedback
Learning Orientation
Emphasize learning and understanding and de-emphasize grades, competition, and social comparison
Autonomy
Support students’ autonomy through opportunities for student decision making and direction
Relevance
Select activities that are personally relevant and interesting to students, and that provide opportunities for culturally relevant identification and participation in science
Taken together, the MDPs promote students’ engagement in science learning by helping them to feel competent in their own ability to engage in authentic scientific practice; to exercise curiosity, interest, and value for science content; to view themselves as part of a larger community of science learners; to take a more active and autonomous role in their learning; to seek understanding rather than mere activity completion; to work collaboratively; to believe that greater effort leads to greater understanding; to embrace challenges; and to deal constructively with challenges, setbacks, and failure. These academic behaviors are critical for engaging in the three-dimensional science learning called for by the NGSS.
Motivationally Supportive Context
Motivation Design Principles (MDPs)
Motivated Student
I can do science.
I want to do science.
Student Engagement
3D Learning Sense-making Problem Solving

It is important to note that the five MDPs are synergistic: in a motivationally supportive classroom, teachers are drawing on all five MDPs and the MDPs are mutually reinforcing.

For example, a teacher cannot truly or fully support students’ autonomy without also building trusting relationships within the classroom that support students’ sense of belonging and create an overall climate of caring and respect. Supporting students’ autonomy to guide their own learning is also critical to developing their learning orientation.

All five MDPs are implicated in promoting the kind of student engagement in science learning called for by the NGSS.

Therefore, although we have organized the first half of this toolkit by MDP in order to provide an in-depth look into each design principle, some strategies recur in multiple places. Throughout the MDP sections, we have sought to identify the clearest/strongest MDP alignment for each strategy. In cases where a strategy aligns strongly with multiple MDPs beyond the one it is listed in, we denote this with color-coded circles:
 
Belonging
 
Confidence
 
Learning Orientation
 
Autonomy
 
Relevance
However, because of the synergy of the MDPs, strategies that are listed in only one MDP section may still be compatible with other MDPs. We encourage teachers to think about how strategies may support multiple dimensions of student motivation.
This toolkit contains two additional framing sections following this introduction that lay important groundwork to help teachers successfully enact the MDPs in support of student motivation and engagement in science. First, we discuss the reciprocal relationship between motivationally supportive teaching and equitable science instruction. Then, we provide guidance on general classroom organization, routines, policies, and climate considerations that provide a vital foundation for supporting student motivation.
The next five sections are devoted to the five MDPs. Each MDP section includes the following resources:
  • Overview - A summary of the MDP with relevant definitions and guiding principles
  • Look-Fors - Descriptions of classrooms that are more and less aligned with the MDP, to help teachers visualize what the MDP looks like in practice
  • Planning Tool - A set of metacognitive/self-reflective questions that teachers can pose to themselves to help them consider specific strategies for enacting the MDP in an upcoming lesson
  • Activities - Instructional strategies and activities that align with the MDP
  • Talk Moves - Sample sentence/question stems and discourse moves that teachers might say to students when enacting this MDP
The final section describes connections between enacting the MDPs and delivering instruction based on the NGSS. Specifically, we outline the reciprocal relationship between supporting student motivation and implementing phenomenon-centered science instruction, integrating crosscutting concepts, and promoting the eight science and engineering practices from the NGSS.
This toolkit is intentionally organized as a reference manual, rather than something to be read sequentially from cover to cover. We encourage readers to hopscotch throughout the document, using the Table of Contents and the section links provided in footers to navigate to sections that are most relevant to them and particular lessons or motivational challenges they may be tackling.
As a suggested starting point, we have provided an MDP Planning Tool at the end of the document that lists two key reflective questions for each of the five MDPs. Consider these questions in light of an upcoming lesson and skim the toolkit as needed to review the MDPs and resources on NGSS and equity to gather ideas for motivationally supportive strategies to incorporate into the lesson.
Finally, we encourage readers to use this guide as a starting point and a source for ideas, not as a mandate or prescription. We provide multiple examples, options, and/or variations to try to be as comprehensive and specific as possible. However, this does not mean that all of the provided strategies are necessary to enact the MDPs, nor that the provided strategies are the only way to do so. We encourage teachers to use their professional discretion to select what will work best for them and their classrooms, and to modify and innovate on these strategies. Toward that end, we have incorporated blank space for notes, reflections, and new ideas throughout the sections. We hope that this active reflection and innovation will help teachers develop their own “toolkit” of motivationally supportive teaching strategies.
  • 1Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Patall, E., & Pekrun, R. (2016). Adaptive Motivation and Emotion in Education: Research and Principles for Instructional Design. Policy Insights From The Behavioral And Brain Sciences, 3, 228-236. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732216644450