Teachers' Strategies Motivate Students To Improve Learning Outcomes (Case Study At Smp Negeri 2 Maba, East Halmahera)

Abstract

This study analyses teachers' strategies in enhancing students' learning motivation at SMP Negeri 2 Maba, East Halmahera, the multidimensional barriers they face, and the operational solutions applied to overcome them. Using a qualitative case-study approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews, field observation, and documentation, and analysed using the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña interactive model supported by wordfrequency analysis. The findings show that teachers combine a humanistic socio-emotional approach—through a safe classroom climate, ice-breaking activities, and humorous communication—with student-centred pedagogical innovation such as Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Project-Based Learning (PBL). However, the effectiveness of these strategies is constrained by systemic, multidimensional barriers: external environmental disruption (negative peer influence and weak parental control), infrastructural limitations (digital-facility deficits and hot classrooms), and students' internal barriers (low selfconfidence and apathy). In response, teachers demonstrate high pedagogical resilience by engineering the surrounding natural environment and recycled materials as alternative media, integrating students' personal smartphones, and launching home-visit programmes and educative-spiritual sanctions. Theoretically, the findings affirm Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT): in a developing archipelagic region, the affective fulfilment of basic psychological needs (safety, autonomy, relatedness) plays a far more dominant role in sustaining intrinsic motivation than purely academic methodological renewal.