UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS - GOAL 4 (QUALITY EDUCATION) TARGET AREA: PROMOTING LITERACY AND NUMERACY SERIES Perspectives from Educational, Instructional, and School Psychology (IAAP Division 5)

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UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
– GOAL 4 (QUALITY EDUCATION) TARGET AREA:
PROMOTING LITERACY AND NUMERACY
Division 5 Editors:
Andrew J. Martin, University of New South Wales, Australia
Frédéric Guay, Laval University, Canada
Kit-Tai Hau, Chinese University of Hong Kong
www.iaapsy.org
SERIES
Perspectives from Educational, Instructional, and School Psychology (IAAP Division 5)

2
CONTENTS
Preamble 3
Motivation and Engagement 6
Perceived Competence and Valuing 6
A Sense of Control 7
Responding to Diculty and Failure 8
Goals and Goal Setting 8
Self Regulation 9
An Integrative Motivation and Engagement
Framework for Literacy and Numeracy
10
Boosting Motivation and Engagement in Literacy and Numeracy 11
The Education Ecology Supporting Motivation and Engagement 12
Education in Developing Contexts 13
Addressing Motivation and Engagement in Dierent (National) Contexts 14
Conclusion 15
References 16
Reccomendations and Strategies to Promote Motivation and Engagement
in Literacy and Numeracy
20
Some Ideas to Boost Motivation and Engagement in Literacy and Numeracy 20
Boosting Positive Motivation and Engagement in Literacy and Numeracy 20
Reducing Negative Motivation and Engagement in Literacy and Numeracy 22
APPENDIX

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
PREAMBLE
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Agenda
2030 for Sustainable Development with 17 Sustain-
able Development Goals and specic target areas
within them (http://www.un.org/sustainabledevel-
opment/).
This White Paper series addresses Sustainable Devel-
opment Goal 4 (SDG 4; Quality Education) and one
of its target areas (literacy and numeracy): “By 2030,
ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of
adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and
numeracy.”
Herein, literacy is dened as the ability to read and
write (including, reading comprehension, reading
uency, spelling, punctuation, and written expres-
sion skills). Numeracy is dened as the ability to un-
derstand and work with numbers (including, numer-
ical, spatial, graphical, measurement, statistical and
algebraic skills).
Literacy and numeracy are critical for an individual’s
success in many walks of life, including school, work,
health and well-being, and the many situations and
circumstances where individuals will need to inter-
pret and make sense of the world. Literacy and nu-
meracy are also important for the social and eco-
nomic prosperity of communities. To the extent that
children do not develop adequate literacy and nu-
meracy skills to help them function in the world, their
educational, health, social, and economic outcomes
will be hampered. By implication, development and
outcomes in
their commu-
nities will also
be impeded.
Progress
has been made towards addressing SDG 4 and
improving fundamental literacy and numeracy
skills, but there is need for further work. For exam-
ple, the UN estimates around 103 million youth
worldwide lack basic literacy skills and this poses
a signicant barrier to improving their lives
(OECD, 2017).
Indeed, literacy and numeracy are recognized as a
means to enhance personal, academic, workplace,
and community wellbeing and thus attending to
them extends beyond SDG 4 (Quality Education) to
impact other Sustainable Development Goals, such
as SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 5 (Gen-
der Equality), and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic
Growth).
As relevant to Division 5 of the International Asso-
ciation of Applied Psychology (Educational, Instruc-
tional, and School Psychology), this series of White
Papers explores some of the factors and processes
that have been identied as particularly important
in SDG 4 with particular focus on one of its targets:
promoting literacy and numeracy.

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
Four White Papers comprise the series:
• White Paper 1 explores the motivation and
engagement factors and processes underpin-
ning children’s literacy and numeracy.
• White Paper 2 explores eective instructional ap-
proaches to enhance literacy and numeracy.
• White Paper 3 examines these as relevant to
students with special needs.
• White Paper 4 addresses literacy and numeracy
for immigrant, refugee, and Indigenous children.
Taken together, and consistent with IAAP Division 5’s
disciplinary strengths, this White Paper Series aims
to scope the psycho-educational factors important
to consider in eorts to enhance children’s literacy
and numeracy.
Division 5 Editors:
Andrew J. Martin, University of New South Wales, Australia
Frédéric Guay, Laval University, Canada
Kit-Tai Hau, Chinese University of Hong Kong
www.iaapsy.org

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
INTRODUCTION
This White Paper (#1) is focused on the roles of mo-
tivation and engagement in promoting literacy and
numeracy. Promoting literacy and numeracy is a
key Target under United Nations Sustainable De-
velopment Goal 4 (Quality Education). The Paper
rst identies specic motivation and engagement
factors critical for children’s literacy and numeracy.
Following this, an integrative framework is present-
ed aimed at assisting practitioners to better identify
and target motivation and engagement factors they
deem important for children’s literacy and numera-
cy development. Then, some indicative strategies to
promote each motivation and factor are described.
The discussion concludes with recognition that lit-
eracy and numeracy are located in a broader educa-
tional ecology. Accordingly, the discussion summa-
rizes some of the home, school, and neighborhood
factors that are important in supporting motivation
and engagement in literacy and numeracy—as well
as some key implementation considerations rele-
vant to developing nations and regions.
THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION AND
ENGAGEMENT IN PROMOTING
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
Andrew J. Martin, University of New South Wales, Australia
Frédéric Guay, Laval University, Canada
Kit-Tai Hau, Chinese University of Hong Kong
IAAP Division 5 (Educational, Instructional, and School Psychology)
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals White Paper 1

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT
For the purposes of this White Paper, motivation is
dened as the inclination, energy, direction, emotion,
and drive relevant to learning and achievement;
engagement is dened as the behaviors that reect
this inclination, energy, emotion, and drive (Martin,
2007, 2009). Thus, motivation and engagement as
relevant to literacy and numeracy refers to children’s
inclination, direction, energy, emotion, drive, and
behaviors aimed at: (a) reading and writing and (b)
understanding and working with numbers.
Motivation and engagement are associated
with students’ participation in class, educational
aspirations, and academic achievement (Martin,
2007, 2009; Guay, Ratelle, Roy, & Litalien, 2010;
Hau & Ho, 2010; Hau & Salili, 1996; Pintrich 2003;
Schunk & Mullen, 2012). They are also relevant
for children’s literacy and numeracy (e.g.,
Froiland & Oros, 2014; Martin & Lazendic, 2017).
Motivation and engagement are made of dierent,
but complementary psychological states. When
seeking to promote children’s skill development,
it is important to target the specic motivation
and engagement psychological states that underpin
these skills (e.g., O’Mara, Marsh, Craven, & Debus,
2006). Thus, a rst step in improving literacy and
numeracy is to identify the specic states inherent
to children’s motivation and engagement in
these domains.
Major theories of educational and instructional
psychology have been highly informative in this
regard and have emphasized the following key
psychological factors: perceived competence and
control, valuing, responses to diculty and failure,
goals, and self-regulation (e.g., see Pintrich, 2003).
Each of these is briey described.
PERCEIVED COMPETENCE & VALUING
In most motivation and engagement theorizing,
self-appraisals of one’s competence are prevalent.
These take the forms of self-concept, perceived
competence, expectancies, and self-ecacy. Major
theories such as social-cognitive theory (Bandura,
2001), self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2012),
and achievement goal theory (Mascret, Elliot, & Cury,
2017) centrally position perceived competence as

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
vital for skill development. For the purposes of this
White Paper, we will focus on self-ecacy as a case
in point (but see Guay, Marsh, & Boivin, 2003 for self-
concept; Wigeld & Eccles, 2000 for expectancies;
and Harter, 2015 for other competence perceptions).
Self-ecacy refers to the appraisals students make
about their task-related academic capacity—
including their condence with regard to literacy
and numeracy. Students high in self-ecacy tend
to function well academically (usually by way of
enhanced eort and persistence) and respond
eectively to academic challenge, including in
literacy and numeracy. Self-ecacy is thus a
subjective judgment where some students might
over- or under-estimate their skills. Usually, a
subjective judgement that is a little more positive
than the current skill set is expected to produce the
most desirable outcomes.
Psychologists have identied other factors that
operate alongside self-ecacy to enhance academic
skills. For example, expectancy-value theory
(Wigeld & Eccles, 2000) holds that alongside one’s
perceived competence, a child’s valuing of the
relevant skill is critical. Accordingly, students who
value literacy and numeracy are more motivated
to behave in ways that improve their literacy
and numeracy (Martin, 2007, 2009; Wigeld &
Eccles, 2000).
Thus, boosting children’s self-ecacy in and valuing
of literacy and numeracy is recommended.
A SENSE OF CONTROL
A sense of control in literacy and numeracy refers to a
child’s belief that they have signicant determination
and inuence in learning to read, write, and work with
numbers. Whereas self-ecacy is the belief “that” one
can read, write, and work with numbers (i.e., “I know
that I can read”), a sense of control refers to knowing
“how” to read, write, and work with numbers (i.e., “I
know how to read”).
There are numerous reasons why a sense of control
is important for skill development. According to
attribution theory (Weiner, 2010), for example, a
sense of control connotes an internal locus that is
important for skill development.
Thus, enhancing children’s sense of control with
regard to their literacy and numeracy development
is recommended.

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
How children respond to diculty and failure as they
develop literacy and numeracy skills will also shape
their progress in these domains. Two theories—
need for achievement and self-worth motivation
theories—have characterized students in terms of
how they perceive and respond to success and failure
(Covington, 2000). Researchers have harnessed
these theories to identify major student proles. Two
proles are particularly pertinent to diculties with
literacy and numeracy: failure-avoidant and failure-
accepting proles (Martin & Marsh, 2003).
Children who are failure avoiders tend to be
anxious, fearful of failure, and engage in unhelpful
learning approaches such as self-handicapping (e.g.,
procrastination or insucient eort in developing
literacy and numeracy) (Covington, 2000; Martin &
Marsh, 2003). Children who are failure accepters have
abandoned persistence and become disengaged
(Covington, 2000) in eorts to read, write, and work
with numbers.
Thus, the recommendation is to increase children’s
persistence and reduce their anxiety, fear of failure,
and disengagement as they develop their literacy and
numeracy skills, particularly when they experience
diculties in reading, writing, and working with
numbers.
RESPONDING TO
DIFFICULTY & FAILURE
GOALS & GOAL SETTING
Goals and goal-setting have also been identied
as helpful in working towards and developing skill.
Broadly, there are two dimensions to goals. The rst
relates to goals that reect the reasons why students
strive to learn and achieve (goal orientation). The
second relates to the actual goals that students set
and the means by which they strive to meet them
(goal setting).
With regard to goal orientation, goal theory posits
that students have mastery or performance reasons
that underlie their achievement strivings (Elliot,
2005). A mastery orientation is aimed at developing
skill and learning. As relevant to this discussion, a
mastery orientation would be directed at developing
one’s skill in reading, writing, and working with
numbers. A performance orientation is aimed at
outperforming others. As relevant to this discussion,

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
a performance orientation would be directed at
being better than others in reading, writing, and
working with numbers.
Theory and research have further suggested an
extension on this perspective that incorporates
avoidance dimensions (Anderman & Patrick,
2012; Elliot, 2005). Thus, mastery avoidance is
focused on a desire to avoid a loss of skill in
literacy and numeracy; performance avoidance
is focused on avoiding appearing incompetent
or being outperformed by others in literacy and
numeracy tasks.
In the main, mastery orientation has been most
consistently associated with academic skill
development. Encouraging a focus on developing
task mastery (rather than outperforming others) is
therefore recommended for the promotion of literacy
and numeracy. More recently it has been suggested
that if it is dicult to implement a mastery orientation
over a performance orientation, the important thing
is that the approach dimension (not the avoidance
dimension) of performance is emphasized (Van
Yperen, Blaga, & Postmes, 2014).
Goal striving and goal type are also critical for skill
development. Goal setting theory (Locke & Latham,
2013) is informative here. This theorizing holds
that eective goals are specic, challenging, and
dicult. Goals meeting these criteria are frequently
associated with positive academic outcomes (for
review, see Locke & Latham, 2013). Personal best
(PB) goal setting is a case in point (Martin & Liem,
2010). PB goals are specic, challenging, and
competitively self-referenced goals towards which
one strives and is linked with positive achievement
outcomes (Martin & Elliot, 2016a, 2016b). A PB
goal setting approach would recommend a child
strives to outperform his/her previous best level of
(or eort towards) literacy or numeracy.
SELF REGULATION
As children strive to improve their literacy and
numeracy, their capacity to direct their own learning
and skill development will have a bearing on the
success of their eorts. Self-regulated learning refers
to the strategies by which children organize and
direct their own learning and skill development
(Zimmerman, 2002).
Thus, for example, self-regulated learners monitor
and evaluate their learning approaches in order to
improve upon them (Zimmerman, 2002). As self-
regulated learners monitor and evaluate how they
are proceeding, they also adjust their approaches as
task demands change.

10
In terms of reading, writing and working with numbers,
self-regulated learners would monitor and evaluate
their progress in a given literacy and numeracy task
and make the appropriate adjustments as needed.
For example, they would have a plan for what they are
to do in a given task, monitor their progress against
this plan, and adjust the time or strategy needed to
accomplish the task.
Thus, the recommendation is to enhance children’s
planning, monitoring, and task management
capacities as relevant to their literacy and
numeracy development.
AN INTEGRATIVE MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT
FRAMEWORK FOR LITERACY & NUMERACY
It is evident there are numerous theories and
constructs relevant to children’s motivation and
engagement and that these have direct relevance
to the development of their reading, writing,
and understanding
and working with numbers. To assist practitioners
in their eorts to boost students’ motivation and
engagement in literacy and numeracy, it is important
to synthesize and organize the critical constructs into
a manageable framework.
POSITIVE
MOTIVATION
POSITIVE
ENGAGEMENT
NEGATIVE
ENGAGEMENT
NEGATIVE
MOTIVATION
valuing
mastery orientation
self-efficacy
persistence
planning & monitoring
task management
disengagement
self—handicapping
anxiety
fear of failure
uncertain control
Figure 1.
Motivation and Engagement
Wheel (reproduced with per-
mission from Andrew J. Martin;
download Wheel from www.
lifelongachievement.com; see
Appendix for practical strategies
targeting the Wheel in literacy
and numeracy).

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
One recent approach has been to organize the
numerous factors in terms of positive motivation
(self-ecacy, valuing, mastery orientation), positive
engagement (planning and monitoring behavior,
task management, persistence), negative motivation
(anxiety, fear of failure, uncertain/low control),
and negative engagement (self-handicapping,
disengagement). The Motivation and Engagement
Wheel (Martin, 2007; Figure 1) is the integrative
framework representing this synthesis. Research
has demonstrated the utility of the Motivation and
Engagement Wheel in both literacy (Collie, Martin, &
Scott-Curwood, 2015) and numeracy (Green, Martin,
& Marsh, 2007; Martin, Anderson, Bobis, Way, & Vellar,
2012).
BOOSTING MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT
IN LITERACY & NUMERACY
Educational research and practice has identied
many strategies to boost students’ motivation and
engagement. Indeed, demarcating motivation
and engagement into positive and negative
multidimensional factors (the Wheel; Figure 1)
enables targeted educational support aimed at
promoting motivation and engagement as relevant
to literacy and numeracy.
These intervention eorts are aimed at promoting
positive motivation and engagement factors
(e.g., self-ecacy, persistence, etc.), while reducing
the negative motivation and engagement factors
(e.g., anxiety, self-handicapping, etc.).
In the Appendix, we detail specic strategies that
educators may implement to address individual
motivation and engagement factors in their eorts
to promote literacy and numeracy (more detailed
and extensive advice can be found in Martin, 2003;
Marzano, 2000; McInerney, 2000; Petty, 2009).

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
THE EDUCATIONAL ECOLOGY
SUPPORTING MOTIVATION
& ENGAGEMENT
It is also important to recognize that the child’s
motivation and engagement function in and are
supported (or hampered) by an educational and
cultural ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 2001; Guay &
Vallerand, 1996; Hau & Ho, 2010; Samero, 2009;
Shonko & Phillips, 2000). Alongside the child, this
ecology comprises the home, the school, and the
neighborhood—and the child’s interactions with
all these. More recently, this ecological systems
framework has been extended to more appropriately
account for the diverse populations (including diverse
ethnic and cultural groups) that typically reside in a
given educational ecology (Spencer, 2008).
Particularly relevant to motivation and engagement
are the child’s personal characteristics such as age
or stage of schooling (Roeser, Eccles, & Samero,
2000), gender (Martin, 2004), ability (Hattie, 2009),
ethnicity and migration status (OECD, 2006), and
disability status particularly as relevant to literacy
and numeracy (Swanson & Harris, 2013).
Home factors comprise socio-economic status,
parents’/carers’ education, household resources, and
parent/carer involvement and availability (Mansour
& Martin, 2009; Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack,
2007; Wang & Eccles, 2012).
At school there are instructional factors that support
motivation and engagement, as well as school
resources, school-level advantage, and intake
characteristics relevant to its students (Hattie, 2009;
Martin, 2016; Perry & McConney, 2010).
Neighborhood factors such as housing quality and
availability, children’s programs, safety, and proximity
to school are also relevant to academic motivation,
engagement, and skill development (Alston & Kent,
2003; Shonko & Phillips, 2000).
Furthermore, alongside the direct inuence of these
factors on students’ motivation and engagement in
literacy and numeracy, the child’s transactions with
these factors represent another source of inuence.
For example, interpersonal relationships the child
has at home, at school, and in his/her neighborhood
signicantly impact his/her motivation and
engagement (Martin & Dowson, 2009).
Thus, although beyond the scope of this discussion,
the child’s educational and cultural ecology will also
factor into eorts to promote their reading, writing,
and work with numbers.

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
EDUCATION IN
DEVELOPING CONTEXTS
It is also the case that the nature of many home,
school, and neighborhood factors is qualitatively
dierent in developing contexts when compared
with developed (particularly “Western”) contexts.
Whereas most motivation and engagement guidance
is based on research among students and schools
in developed nations (typically “Western” nations),
there are unique challenges inherent in developing
contexts that must be considered in eorts to
enhance motivation and engagement in literacy and
numeracy. For example, the availability of schools,
high poverty rates, discrimination against girls, the
absence of adequately prepared teachers, a dearth
of support services for children in schools, availability
of special needs resources, children’s ability to
attend school (rather than, for example, work), are all
issues relevant to promoting educational outcomes
(including literacy and numeracy) in developing
nations (United Nations Educational, Scientic and
Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2016).
Although strategies to address these contextual
and personal “headwinds” are beyond the scope
of this document, we emphasize that academic
motivation and engagement (including in literacy
and numeracy) require appropriate contextual and
personal supports. Educators seeking to enhance
children’s motivation and engagement in literacy and
numeracy are likely to be more eective when there
are successful inroads made into these challenging
contextual and personal factors—factors prevalent
in many developing nations.
We refer readers to relevant UNESCO Global
Education Monitoring Reports that address, inter
alia, educational access, teaching, and learning
(UNESCO, 2014), girls in education (UNESCO, 2006),
issues implicated in poverty (UNESCO, 2010),
teacher preparation, (UNESCO, 2014), and similar
such challenges relevant to educational pathways
in developing nations.

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
The factors identied in the Motivation and
Engagement Wheel are considered pan-human.
Thus, researchers have demonstrated the validity
and relevance of these factors in developed and
developing contexts (as well as among highly
marginalized ethnic groups such as Aborigines)
in Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe, United
Kingdom, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean
(e.g., Bodkin‐Andrews, Denson, & Bansel, 2013; Liem
& Martin, 2012; Martin, Martin, & Evans, 2016).
Inevitably, however, the precise ways in which these
motivation and engagement factors are addressed
will vary from nation to nation (and educational
jurisdictions within them). Additionally, in developing
contexts, practical eorts to address motivation and
engagement in literacy and numeracy will need
to accommodate major challenges such as the
availability of schools, poverty, sex discrimination,
availability of qualied teachers, etc.—and these also
vary from nation to nation (UNESCO, 2016).
That noted, there will also be some common
considerations when seeking to address
motivation and engagement in literacy and
numeracy (e.g., implementing recommendations
and strategies identied in the Appendix).
Being common considerations, they are
likely to generalize across most contexts.
These considerations include, but are not limited
to, whether these recommendations and strategies
are operationalized as:
• recommendations for policy at the educational
jurisdiction or system level
• a whole-school initiative
• a classroom or group initiative
• a focus for teacher/practitioner professional
development and attention
• a joint home-school initiative
• an individualized intervention for a child
For any one of these, other common considerations
will involve the precise nature of implementation
and action. For example, some typical approaches to
enhancing motivation and engagement include:
• awareness-raising among practitioners,
parents/carers, and children (e.g., identifying
and describing the key parts of motivation
and engagement as relevant to literacy and
numeracy)
• self-reection among practitioners, parents/
carers, and children (e.g., identifying and
describing the key parts of motivation and
engagement and asking stakeholders to
reect on how each factor may operate in their
literacy and numeracy)
• formal assessment with results provided to
children (e.g., motivation and engagement
ADDRESSING MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT
IN DIFFERENT (NATIONAL) CONTEXTS

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IAAP White Paper - September 2019
researchers have developed measurement
tools that can be a basis for feedback to
students; see, for example, Martin, 2010)
• formal assessment (as above) with results
aggregated to understand classrooms/groups,
schools, or jurisdictions/systems—and inform
policy makers accordingly
• formal assessment (as above) that is used for
ongoing monitoring of progress (including of
any intervention that might take place)
• informal intervention (e.g., based on results
from assessment, disseminate practical advice
to practitioner, parents/carers, and children
with ideas on how to promote motivation and
engagement—see Appendix).
• formal intervention (e.g., based on results from
assessment, develop dierentiated activities
and tasks that target key parts of motivation
and engagement in literacy and numeracy; e.g.,
see Martin, 2008).
Taken together, given dierences in educational
ecologies from nation to nation, it is not realistic
to be prescriptive about how exactly motivation
and engagement in literacy and numeracy should
be promoted in a specic context. To be relevant
and appropriately targeted, educational practice
is best shaped locally. Notwithstanding contextual
variation, however, we suggest there are some
common implementation considerations (see bullet
lists above) and specic recommendations and
strategies (see Appendix) that can assist policy and
practice initiatives.
CONCLUSION
In promoting SDG 4’s target area of literacy and
numeracy, it is important to recognize that every
child has the capacity to think more positively about
themselves, learn more eectively, constructively
respond to setback and diculty, and strive to
achieve to potential. To the extent that this is the
case, children can be motivated and engaged as they
develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Moreover,
there are many straightforward strategies that can
be implemented to enhance their motivation and
engagement in literacy and numeracy. These eorts
are vital to assist children in their development
through school—and beyond.

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APPENDIX: RECOMMENDATIONS & STRATEGIES TO
PROMOTE MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT IN LITERACY &
NUMERACY
SOME IDEAS TO BOOST MOTIVATION & ENGAGEMENT
IN LITERACY & NUMERACY
Educational research and practice has identied many strategies to boost students’ motivation and
engagement. Following are some that can be applied for each motivation and engagement factor in eorts to
promote literacy and numeracy (more detailed and extensive advice can be found in Martin, 2003; Marzano,
2000; McInerney, 2000; Petty, 2009). Moreover, in developing nations/regions, implementing these strategies
may well also require addressing prevalent educational challenges such as the (un)availability of schools, high
poverty rates, discrimination against girls, the absence of adequately prepared teachers, a dearth of support
services for children in schools, availability of special needs resources, children’s ability to attend school (rather
than, for example, work), etc. (UNESCO, 2016).
BOOSTING POSITIVE MOTIVATION
& ENGAGEMENT IN LITERACY & NUMERACY
Strategies to enhance children’s self-ecacy in literacy and numeracy:
• Challenge the child’s negative thinking about his/her literacy and numeracy aptitude with some
positive alternative thinking. For example, encourage the child to think that with appropriate quantity
and quality eort, he/she can improve literacy and numeracy.
• Expand how children view success (that is a basis of self-ecacy). For example, seeing literacy
and numeracy success in terms of eort and personal improvement (not just in terms of achievement
compared to others) gives all children access to success and this is a basis for enhancing their
self-ecacy.

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• Encourage the child to recognize the many (small) ways he/she can succeed in literacy and numeracy.
For example, setting small and proximal goals for spelling or arithmetic can build more opportunities
for success and a sense of ecacy into the task.
Strategies to enhance children’s valuing of literacy and numeracy:
• Identify ways that literacy and numeracy are relevant to success at school and life beyond school.
• Encourage parents/caretakers to look for opportunities to show the child that they value literacy
and numeracy.
• Look for opportunities to make reading, writing, and working with numbers fun. For example,
using games and technology can be helpful ways to help children enjoy learning.
• Reduce the reliance on rewards and remove the use of punishments to motivate students.
Strategies to enhance children’s mastery orientation in literacy and numeracy:
• Encourage children to focus on the process of developing literacy and numeracy (e.g., eort, learning,
skill development) more than achievement and performance (e.g., marks, ranks).
• Increase the emphasis on personal best (PB) goals and reduce the focus on comparisons with others.
Strategies to enhance children’s planning and monitoring behavior in literacy and numeracy:
• Encourage the child to get it clear in his/her mind what the literacy or numeracy task is asking, dedicate
some time thinking out how to do it, and outline the plan to do it.
• While doing the task, monitor progress against the plan.
• Make appropriate adjustments in time or strategy that may be required to successfully perform
or complete a literacy or numeracy task.
Strategies to enhance children’s task management in literacy and numeracy:
• Teach the child how to work on literacy and numeracy tasks under helpful conditions. For example,
ask them to turn o their mobile technology if it is a distraction, remove other distractions, ensure
sucient light and space, and have appropriate materials to complete the task.
• Show the child how to use their time more eectively as they learn to read, write, and work with numbers.
For example, talk about prioritizing important or large tasks, having a weekly and daily homework/
activity timetable, and not leaving things to the last minute.

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Strategies to enhance children’s persistence in literacy and numeracy:
• Encourage the child to set clear and achievable goals and to monitor progress towards them—these
help sustain motivation and engagement, particularly when children experience diculty.
• Encourage help seeking. For example, when the child experiences diculty, encourage them to ask for
help. This help could be provided by peers, teachers, or parents.
• Prompt the child to think about times when they persisted in a previous dicult task or activity; ask the
child to identify what they were thinking and doing to help them through that diculty—and to see if
they can apply that to their literacy and numeracy learning.
REDUCING NEGATIVE MOTIVATION &
ENGAGEMENT IN LITERACY & NUMERACY
Strategies to reduce children’s anxiety in literacy and numeracy:
• Challenge the child’s negative thinking habits that underlie anxiety. For example, challenge the child if
they over-estimate the negative consequences of literacy and numeracy diculties or exaggerate the
probability of future poor performance in literacy and numeracy. This helps the child do the same.
• Identify an eective relaxation technique that works for the child. For example, exercise, meditation,
yoga, or Tai Chi can be eective for children. This develops the child’s ability to relax him/herself.
• Because much anxiety revolves around test anxiety, give the child some good tips to help prepare for
tests that involve reading, writing, and working with numbers.
Strategies to reduce children’s uncertain (low) control in literacy and numeracy:
• Encourage the child to reduce their focus on aspects of their literacy and numeracy that are beyond
their control. For example, good/bad luck and easy/tough grading are beyond their control. If the child
focuses on these factors, they are unlikely to have a sense of control in their literacy and numeracy
development.
• At the same time, encourage the child to focus on the three things that are in their control: eort (how
hard they work in literacy and numeracy tasks), strategy (the way they do that work), and attitude (what
they think about the literacy and numeracy task and themselves as learners).

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Strategies to reduce children’s fear of failure in literacy and numeracy:
• Reduce the child’s fear of failure by having them see that “failure” and “mistakes” in their literacy and
numeracy development provide information about how to improve. “Failure” and “mistakes” are not a
reection on them as a person or their worth; they are opportunities to learn and grow.
• Make it clear to the child that if they do not succeed after trying hard, it does not mean they are
“dumb”. Rather, it is often the case that they need to develop more eective learning strategies—
thus, it is likely quality rather than quantity that needs attention.
Strategies to reduce children’s self-handicapping in literacy and numeracy:
• Self-handicapping behaviors such as procrastination, time-wasting, and withdrawal of eort must
be targeted for intervention.
• Some children self-handicap because they believe they look “dumb” if they fail after trying hard.
Encourage the child to see that eort is a key to improvement and not something to be feared
or avoided.
• Other children self-handicap to protect their self-worth. Reducing the link between the child’s worth
and his or her literacy and numeracy is important. Thus, for example, poor literacy or numeracy does
not mean he/she is a bad or worthless person.
Strategies to reduce children’s disengagement in literacy and numeracy:
• Disengagement is often the culmination of protracted motivation and engagement problems (e.g.,
with anxiety, failure avoidance, etc.) that have not been addressed—thus, many of the above strategies
will be helpful to address factors underlying disengagement.
• Where possible, develop home-school connections and strategies to implement a comprehensive
approach to literacy and numeracy development.
• Identify any skill-related factors that need attention – for example, literacy and numeracy diculties
may be underpinned or exacerbated by ne-motor diculties, hand-writing diculties, etc.
• Identify any health and wellbeing factors that need attention. For example, literacy and numeracy
diculties may be underpinned or exacerbated by executive function disorders (e.g., ADHD),
sensory issues (e.g., poor eye-sight), and even mental health (e.g., disengagement emanating
from anxiety or depression).
• Connect with relevant professionals and practitioners as necessary (e.g., psychologists, pediatricians,
occupational therapists, speech therapists, etc.).