Motivational Strategies to Engage Learners in Desirable Difficulties

Learning strategies that create “desirable difficulties” by slowing or hindering improvement during learning often produce superior long-term retention and transfer ( Bjork, 1994 , Bjork, 1999 ). Despite the desirability of difficulties for learning, many learners choose not to use the learning strategies and/or disengage when they are implemented by a teacher. Knowledge of these learning strategies is necessary but insufficient for behavior change—learners must be motivated to embrace or, at minimum cope, with difficulties. To identify ways to help students engage with learning strategies that produce desirable difficulties, the present article briefly reviews five areas of psychological research on motivation that provide strategies for increasing engagement and persistence: finding value, reducing cost, reframing appraisals and attributions, creating appropriate challenges, and providing choice. Looking forward, there is a clear need for empirical work to investigate and theoretical frameworks to explain the interplay between motivation and learning strategies that create desirable difficulties.