9.3 You've done it before

A lack of motivation can be due to an individual's perception that the project is beyond their ability. This can be true even if the student has successful prior experience of project work.

---ooOoo---

This bundle aims to use the student's previous experience as a means of showing them that they can survive and thrive in project work, building on their satisfaction in previous performance to affect their expectation of future success.

How it works is if you judge that an individual's motivation problems stem from a feeling that they just cannot do it, use a supervision meeting to talk about the student's prior experience of project work.

In one-to-one conversation get them to identify other projects they have undertaken either in a group or individually. Ask them to think about what went well and what was less successful, ask about the problems encountered and how they were overcome. Get the student to make connections between prior experience and the current project.

The idea is to leave the student feeling that their previous experience is relevant to what they're doing in the current project and that they can do the current work.

It works better if the previous project was reasonably successful and it helps for the relevant member of staff to have detailed information about the student's previous project work.

It doesn't work if the student has no such prior experience. Also, if the previous experience of project work was completely disastrous it may not be motivating to revisit it.

Variation: substitute aspects of other types of work, e.g. coursework, practical work, etc. in which the student may have successful experience and which can be seen as analogous to specific aspects of project work.

---ooOoo---

So: try to change the student's perception of their ability by getting them to reflect on previous successful experience.