Skills Vs. Performance Deficits

    If you have a student or multiple students who aren't participating in class there are a couple things you can do to motivate them.  One thing you can do is offer some kind of reward for increased participation, this could potentially get unmotivated students to participate more in class.  Another strategy is to reach out to the student and ask if there's anything they're not understanding in the class, this can help you determine if the student is struggling due to a lack of skills or due to a lack of motivation.  One more thing you could do to increase student participation is encourage class discussion even if it's just to share ideas between students.

    If students are demonstrating a skills deficit, then you can give them extra work to help them practice their skills.  Have the student, or students, complete assignments similar to tasks they've already done and see if they're able to improve on their own.  If the students can't improve on their own they'll need extra help.  You could also give the students further explanations about the tasks they're doing so that they might understand why they're doing these assignments.

    If students are demonstrating a performance deficit, then you need to entice them to do the work.  Offering a reward for completing assignments can be a helpful way to increase students' motivation.  Another way you could increase a student's motivation is by giving the student a specialized role in the class such as, discussion leader.  Another way you could motivate students is by offering some kind of shortened assessment or allowing the students to skip an assessment and get an automatic A.