One of the primary goals of music education is to make students life-long learners motivated by internal drives to know, do, and accomplish in music and in other areas of school and life. The motivation techniques implemented in music classes greatly influence the ability of teachers to teach the Music TEKS. The use of intrinsic motivators (i.e., motivation techniques that cultivate belief in the integral value of learning) is central to foster a student's self-direction in music. Extrinsic motivators (e.g., grades and motivating strategies) that do not directly communicate how and why the music is valuable, are useful teaching aids; however, they can be over-used and draw students' attention away from the lasting benefits of learning music. The following instructional strategies are intended to help music teachers cultivate intrinsic motivation techniques in music classrooms.

Make music instruction personally relevant

• Find ways to incorporate students' personal experiences, social concerns, and cultures into lessons. Conversely, relate content identified in the Music TEKS to life beyond the classroom.
• Discuss the reasons for activities with the class, explaining how specific tasks fit into the structure of the discipline as a whole. In addition, make connections to previous learning experiences in music.
• Provide opportunities for collaboration among students to promote their understanding of how participation in group activities relates to their interpersonal communication skills and to the learning of their peers.
• Share experiences with students that show how and why music is personally meaningful to you—their teachers, administrators and community members—by demonstrating rewarding involvement in the arts.

Foster creative thinking and learning

• Ask questions and propose problems that encourage diverse approaches to musical problem solving and that stimulate creative thinking.
• Introduce new and challenging materials in class and encourage experimentation.
• Engage students' curiosities by designing activities that have unpredictable outcomes.

Teach independence, responsibility, and self-direction

• Give students choices, within the structure of the Music TEKS, of what and how they learn. Involve students in the process of planning lessons by asking them questions such as: What activities did they like best in the past week? Why? What skills/concepts did they learn in the activity? How could similar activities be used to teach other content, skills, and/or techniques?
• Teach students to take responsibility for their own music learning. Corresponding to this, create music environments that support multiple learning styles and academic risk-taking.
• Structure knowledge and skills, as demonstrated in the Music TEKS, to build students' confidence, enabling them to face increasingly difficult learning experiences in the arts. Set challenging, achievable goals to encourage success and increase the challenges as students’ confidence and trust grow.

Practice constructive assessment

• Help students recognize quality work in music by using evaluation criteria developed over time and by modeling their application to a variety of performances.
• Give specific evaluative feedback that considers students' learning over a period of time and helps students recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. Encourage students to self-reflect and search for ways to improve their own performances.
• Look for connections between demonstrated student achievement and the instructional sequence, teaching practices, and course content.

Recognize and document student achievement

• Document growth of students' knowledge and skills by encouraging them to keep journals or portfolios of their ideas, performances, and achievements.
• Organize student performances in the classroom, school and community.