(McComb, 1989) Helping students connect to a vision of their future provides them with the motivation to set and achieve goals. In the process of personal development, students not …Student Success: Motivating Middle School Students through Personal Development Student Success: Motivating Students Through Personal Development Student Success: Motivating Middle School Students through Personal Development By Linda L. Tarr”How do I motivate my students to learn?” is the question most asked by middle school teachers. The …

Personal growth and development requires students to become self-aware through self-reflection. Students learn the skills associated with personal growth and development in the context of learning subject matter, making the subject matter more interesting. For example, in assigned reading material the teacher might ask students to identify characteristics they share with the heroine in the story. Every learning opportunity becomes an opportunity for personal growth. What is personal development? Personal development is the process of becoming who we aspire to be in life. In the process of personal development we learn the skills, knowledge, and aptitudes necessary to live a fulfilling, satisfying, and happy life. We give ourselves the opportunity to realize our full potential. Focusing on personal development is a focus on student success. Schools traditionally focus on deficits; what isn’t working, who isn’t achieving, and who is to blame. The approach to personal growth is a positive one; it takes students beyond strategies for survival and places them squarely on the road to thriving. The process of personal development and growth is the process of seeking authenticity – the full expression of self. “What is most needed are interventions that focus on positive self-development and a sense of agency or personal responsibility for actively participating in that self-development….Students must be able to see the self-possibilities from learning experiences – possibilities for growth and development of their unique capabilities and skills…..Students need to understand that the art of being human is to create and discover positive possibilities for their overall growth in intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual realms….Finally, they must understand that commitment to positive and responsible self-goals is a basic key to positive self-development.” (McComb, 1989) Self-Awareness Personal growth and development requires students to become self-aware. It is a critical dimension of self-regulation and the ability of students to relate to others (Zimmerman, 1989). Through self-awareness, students discover and appreciate their strengths and uniqueness. They learn what is important to them and what they value most. They identify their beliefs and how those beliefs help or hinder their personal growth and success. They become aware of the authentic self and learn to harness the power of the mind. The self-awareness process is a realistic self-appraisal and involves the discovery and acceptance of all aspects of oneself (Reeve, 1996). Middle school students are acutely aware of their differences. They mature at different rates both physically and intellectually with dramatic variations. This is the ideal age for students to begin to explore and appreciate how they think, feel, and act in a variety of situations. As students’ cognitive abilities move from concrete to abstract thinking, adolescence becomes the ideal age to explore deeply how students see themselves and their place in the world. A major tenet of intrinsic motivation is a student’s perceived locus of control. Locus of control refers to a student’s beliefs in his ability to control outcomes affecting him. Students living in poverty have a belief system rooted in fate and destiny; choice is seldom considered (Payne, 2001). Students believing that nothing they do makes a difference in their ability to be successful have what is termed learned helplessness. …

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