How to Motivate Students by Thinking Smaller

What if the key to unlocking student motivation in learning isn’t setting bigger goals, but running smaller experiments?

If you’ve ever tried to motivate a learner by assigning a five-paragraph essay due Friday or telling them to raise their reading level by next semester, you’ve likely seen the glazed-over look that follows. It’s not that students don’t care, it’s that the gap between where they are and where they’re “supposed” to be can feel impossibly wide. Tiny experiments can help bridge that gap.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs and author of Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World, suggests replacing traditional goal-setting with small, low-risk actions. For young people especially, long-term goals can feel abstract and overwhelming. But a concrete aim for a single day or a week? That’s manageable.

How to transform learning into a discovery process

Our brains are wired to respond to small wins. Even tiny steps forward can spark what Harvard researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer call the “progress principle”—a boost in motivation, persistence, and creativity.

That’s why tiny experiments work. They shift the focus from performance to discovery. Instead of asking students if they mastered the vocab list, a learning environment fueled by a tiny-experiments mindset invites students to reflect on the question, What did you try this week? Suddenly, learning becomes less about proof and more about exploration. The result is that learning is no longer a performance, it’s a process of discovery. Le Cunff’s PACT model outlines four key elements of a tiny experiment:

Purposeful: Connected to something that matters

Actionable: Small enough to try today

Continuous: Repeated to see patterns

Trackable: Observable in some way

When implementing this idea with students, I add a fifth element: Self-determined, meaning chosen by the learner. This framework combines the scientific method and student agency, and it works.

Questions to inspire tiny experiments

Here are a few examples of tiny experiments created by high school students that show PACTS in practice. I’ve used and adapted these questions with students across grade levels and subject areas, and even with adults.

Purposeful: What matters to me right now?

• “I want to feel more confident when I speak up in class.”
• “I want to understand this unit well enough to teach it.”
• “I want to follow through on my group project responsibilities.”

Actionable: What will I actually do?

• “Before class, I’ll research a current event that’s related to our learning and prepare something thoughtful to share.”
• “I’ll summarize a lesson to a classmate at lunch.”
• “I’ll create a digital to-do list and share it with my group members.”

Continuous: How will I practice this skill or continue to engage in this new learning?

• “Once a day for the next four days I will participate in a class discussion.”
• “In every class this week I will take notes.”
• “I will reserve time on Monday and Wednesday evenings to check in with my group members.”

Trackable: How will I notice the impact of this tiny experiment?

• “I’ll rate my confidence each day.”
• “I’ll jot down one reaction I noticed when summarizing a lesson to others.”
• “I’ll reflect on our collaboration with my group members at the end of our project.”

Self-determined: What are my stakes in this experiment?

• “This experiment connects to my nonfiction reading goals.”
• “Even if it doesn’t work, I want to try.”
• “No one told me to do this. I came up with this experiment.”

Some of my students have even given their experiments titles, like “Operation: Ask Anyway,” “Me vs. Monday Mumbles,” and “Project: No Dumb Questions.” These titles and small trials help students see learning as playful and personalized.

How to Bring Tiny Experiments to Your Classroom

Once learners get the hang of it, they start designing their own experiments, and you can, too. You don’t need new curricula or more time, just a new lens. Try this:

Frame learning as an experiment. Start by asking students, “What if all learning were like science—trying ideas, noticing results, and adjusting?” Emphasize that failure is data, not defeat.

Use a tiny experiment template. Keep it simple, and capture student responses with paper, sticky notes, Google Forms, or a tool like Padlet. The following sentence stems can help students frame their aims:

• My intention is…
• My tiny action will be…
• I’ll do it [how often]...
• I’ll track it by…
• I chose this experiment because…

Build in weekly check-ins. Each Friday, ask: What worked? What didn’t? What did you learn? Learners can journal, reflect with a partner, or share out with the class.

Celebrate process over product. Praise the effort, not just the result. By sharing specific observations and asking open-ended questions that encourage reflection, students learn the importance of the process. For example:

• “I love that you tried this with your grandma!”
• “How did you decide on that approach?”
• “What surprised you about your experiment?”
• “What would you do differently next time?”

Offer experiment menus. For learners needing a nudge, the following prompts are great for sparking ideas for tiny experiments that help solidify new concepts or skills.

• Try your emerging skill in a new setting.
• Teach a lesson to a friend.
• Turn the unit themes into art.
• Turn a concept from class into a meme.
• Explain the historical context in one sentence.
• Use key terms in a conversation.

Model curiosity with a tiny teacher experiment. Show students that you’re still learning too. In a recent intergenerational workshop I facilitated, I ended each session with an open-ended question. That small shift sparked deeper reflection and reminded everyone of the power of lifelong curiosity. When creating your own tiny classroom experiment, try sharing your process with students. For example: “This week, I’m starting class with music to see how it affects our energy.” Your curiosity gives learners permission to explore.

Tiny Tools, Lasting Impact

So this is an invitation to think smaller, and maybe a little braver. Tiny experiments won’t replace rigorous standards, but they can bring those standards to life. They create space for curiosity, autonomy, and reflection, whether in the classroom, during after-school activities, or even around the family dinner table. In your next class, workshop, or school assembly, try asking your students, “What’s one small thing you could try this week to learn differently?” Then step back and watch what unfolds.