Teaching across the divide: balancing motivation in diverse classrooms

In our major 2 courses (Gamification of experiences and transformations, and Experience management and imagineering), diversity is a strength, but also a pedagogical challenge. Currently, we have about 45 students in both courses, coming from varied cultural and educational backgrounds. Some students arrive highly motivated, eager to explore beyond the curriculum. Others struggle with engagement, confidence, and foundational skills.

We saw this divide clearly during a lecture assignment. Some students conducted thorough research, drawing from multiple sources and building structured arguments. Others relied solely on personal opinions with minimal investigation. The contrast showed who invested effort in learning and who simply tagged along to meet the requirement.

This creates tension, and we cannot help but ask: How do we stretch motivated learners without leaving others behind? And how do we support less-prepared students in meeting minimum learning outcomes without slowing down the entire class?

Mixed-ability classrooms are not unique to hospitality education, but the gap feels particularly wide when cultural expectations, prior learning experiences, and language proficiency intersect (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski 2021; Anyichie & Butler 2023).

Understanding the motivational divide

While planning the courses and seeing the participants enrolled, we had to turn to academia to gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Research highlights several factors:

• Cultural learning norms: Students from collectivist cultures may expect teacher-led instruction and hesitate to engage in active learning (Craig & Roehrig 2020). We witnessed this challenge in the previous courses taught to similar groups of students.
• Language barriers: Limited English proficiency can reduce confidence and participation (Kyriakidis et al. 2024). We do have some students who struggle with English, however, this is not the main challenge we face in our classroom. While AI tools now offer solutions for language barriers, class participation still requires constant encouragement from us as teachers.
• Motivational differences: Self-determination theory suggests autonomy and competence drive motivation, but these needs manifest differently across cultures (Ryan & Deci 2000).

Without intentional strategies, these gaps lead to disengagement, frustration, and uneven outcomes.

Solutions that work

Balancing engagement in diverse classrooms requires adaptive teaching: not lowering standards (as we previously thought) but differentiating pathways to success. And after struggling with this for some time, we found the following evidence-based strategies that could help us all facing a similar challenge.

Starting with pre-assessment and tiered tasks

Identifying students’ readiness and interests early is the key. By using short diagnostic quizzes or reflective prompts to gauge prior knowledge, we can get a lot of information about knowledge levels and engagement. After that, we can design tiered assignments and divide them into two categories: core tasks for all students that meet curriculum requirements, and extension challenges for advanced learners (e.g., deeper analysis, more creative projects) for those who simply want more.

This approach rooted in ‘differentiated instruction’, ensures equity without sacrificing rigor (Tomlinson 2017; Ziernwald et al. 2022).

Building cultural responsiveness into teaching

Culturally responsive pedagogy should foster belonging and motivation. Some practical steps could include:

• integrating examples from students’ cultural contexts into case studies, as they tend to respond to challenges from their own counties better
• encouraging peer teaching: motivated students can mentor others, however, this is rather challenging, as motivated students want to learn more, not only teach others
• valuing multiple perspectives in discussions

According to academia these practices enhance engagement and reduce cultural barriers (Gay 2018; Hammond 2015).

Using collaborative learning with structured roles

Group work can bridge ability gap, if structured well. We tested assigning different roles within the group work (e.g., researcher, presenter, analyst) so that student contributes meaningfully. And on top of we rotated roles to build confidence and skills across the board. Research shows cooperative learning boosts motivation and achievement in diverse groups (Craig & Roehrig 2020).

Offering choice and visible progress

Motivation thrives on autonomy and feedback. We provide a choice in assessment formats, i.e. written reports, presentations, or digital projects, and a progress dashboard to make achievements visible. These gamified elements increase engagement for both high- and low-performing students (Puig et al. 2023).

Designing experiences to both stretch and support learning

Diverse classrooms demand intentional design. By combining differentiation, cultural responsiveness, and motivational strategies, lecturers can create learning environments where every student, whether highly motivated or hesitant, finds a path to success.

At Haaga-Helia, hospitality students face industry realities such as managing diverse teams, serving guests from diverse cultures, and maintaining service standards across varying skill levels. To prepare them, industry professionals are integrated into courses that present real-world challenges beyond theory. Seeing how experts handle such complexities highlights that adaptability is essential both in the classroom and the workplace.

As educators, our role is not to choose between stretching the best or supporting the rest. It is to design experiences that do both and in the future we aim to concentrate on these things more, while planning and executing the courses.

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